The Chairman of M&T Bank and Empire State Development thinks the former AM&A's store on Main Street is a "disgrace." Robert Wilmer's blast came in an interview with Business First's James Fink:
"Why that building has sat vacant and in that condition for 14 years is something that shouldn't have been allowed to happen."
Some 10 months into his tenure as chairman of ESD, Wilmers has seen the best and worst of economic development opportunities across New York. In the latter category might well be the decaying AM&A's store, which also sits next to M&T's high-rise tower along Main Street.
Wilmers apparently forgot to mention that M&T Bank voiced opposition to a plan by Enterprise Charter School to lease a portion of the building in 2003 when it was owned by Richard Taylor. Enterprise moved their school to 275 Oak Street.
In 2004, M&T Bank was reportedly eyeing the AM&A's property for its office space needs. The company was pushing to demolish the property and have a new office building constructed on the site by Uniland Development. Uniland and the bank ended up at 285 Delaware Avenue when the developer could not obtain public funding to assist in the demolition effort.
New Horizons Acquisitions purchased the former department store and warehouses in September 2006 for $2.05 million. The company's plan to convert the properties into a mix of 180 apartments and ground floor retail has faltered. City officials have been pressing New Horizons in Housing Court to move forward with redevelopment plans for the imposing downtown complex without success. The buildings have been on and off the market since.
Developer Rocco Termini is attempting to purchase and rehab the historic AM&A's warehouses on Washington Street. Preliminary plans call for 48 residential units and 15,000 sq.ft. of commercial space. Termini is working with architecture, engineering, and interior design firm Carmina Wood Morris, P.C. to formulate a feasible reuse plan.
Imagine the day the Statler, AM&A's building, and the Hotel Lafayette are filled with businesses or residents...I don't know if i'd be able to recognize this city
"Imagine the day the Statler, AM&A's building, and the Hotel Lafayette are filled with businesses or residents..."
Don't forget the near-empty 20-story Tishman Bldg near the Lafayette. Last week the Buffalo News said something about the sale of that moving forward.
I don't think "that day" will arrive when all four of those all truly filled up again. Maybe one or two of those four will be filled some day.
It's possible a few floors each of the Statler, Tishman, and Lafayette might be in use long term. That's probably the best-case scenario for those three, realistically.
I've no idea if the AM&A's store will ever be reused. I think Wilmers is exaggerating how big a problem it is for it to be vacant. It hurts some people's egos, but in the big picture of Buffalo's economy, the AM&A's building is a very small deal. If it's converted to residential, that won't help Buffalo's economy at all except for whichever developer's pockets get lined with corporate welfare subsidies to make it happen. It would just be more residential musical chairs.
Whatever,
I know you speak as being "realistic," but at what point does that attitude just embrace the mediocrity that people in Buffalo have ascribed to for so long? Why, wholistically, can an effort involving the restoration of autos to Main Street, tax credits, the development of a downtown housing market and possible tax abatements packages not be a realistic pursuit for downtown?
As far as housing musical chairs, you don't think adding to the downtown housing stock is encouraging certain segments of the population to remain in Buffalo through the encouragement of an "urban" lifestyle?
I'm not trying to get you to see through rose-colored glasses, but your acceptance of how things are does nothing to solve problems or create solutions.
Lots of question marks.
nick>"you speak as being "realistic," but at what point does that attitude just embrace the mediocrity that people in Buffalo have ascribed to for so long?"
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Unrealistic attitudes can unintentionally promote mediocrity too, especially in the long term.
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nick>"Why, wholistically, can an effort involving the restoration of autos to Main Street, tax credits, the development of a downtown housing market and possible tax abatements packages not be a realistic pursuit for downtown?"
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I didn't say unrealistic to add some residential in DT using tax credits and tax abatements. (It's a bad idea, but that's your next q). Obviously some DT residential units have been created using those subsidies. What I said sounds unlikely is filling up in the foreseeable future "with businesses or residents" (to borrow lastcall's wording) all of the now nearly vacant 20-story Tishman and 18-story 3-tower Statler, the totally vacant AM&A's store, and the 300-room Lafayette Hotel such as it is. That seems unlikely because I don't predict anywhere near that much demand in DT Buffalo, even after the national recession ends.
nick> "you don't think adding to the downtown housing stock is encouraging certain segments of the population to remain in Buffalo through the encouragement of an "urban" lifestyle?"
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Nope. I think shifting Buffalo's still-shrinking residential demand into formerly nonresidential buildings - former stores, offices, schools, etc. - does more long term harm in the big picture than it does good.
Also, I think shifting upper-scale residential to DT would slowly but surely contribute to future worsening of the few non-declining urban residential neighborhoods that Buffalo currently has.
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I'm not saying City Hall should prevent nonresidential bldgs from being converted to residential, and I'm not saying City Hall should prevent DT residential. If developers want to do either or both, let them. My views shouldn't be forced on them. But no tax breaks should be given for it. They should pay their full fair share of taxes. Joe Biden would say they're patriotic for that.
My point is people shouldn't confuse that kind of shifting residential with what's usually meant by "economic development" or "industrial development" (as in "IDA"). It enriches a few developers but realistically it doesn't create long term jobs.
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nick>"your acceptance of how things are does nothing to solve problems or create solutions."
I don't accept "how things are done" any more than you do. I'd have very different approaches and priorities to change how things are done, compared to your preferred approaches and priorities.
"Also, I think shifting upper-scale residential to DT would slowly but surely contribute to future worsening of the few non-declining urban residential neighborhoods that Buffalo currently has."
Property values in "non declining" urban residential neighborhoods have exploded since the start of the downtown residential boom. So much for that idea.
pit,
I think whatever and I are on different wave lengths, but he does his research and has salient points, to that I can't argue.
For me at 26, I see no reason for things to stay the way they are or accept that Buffalo can never again be an urban destination. May that thought be naive, sure, as there seems like action on moving things forward, little creativity in public officials, and little desire of residents to change the status quo. I would wish for nothing more than to have some competent politicians who would enact policies and incentives to re-urbanize the city and provide a place for people of my mindset. Unfortunately, I don't see these things happening, and as a person who loves an urban context, it pains me to say that the lack of desire for this in Buffalo may ever prevent me from returning home again. The question I face often is, why fight it in Buffalo, when I can live in a myriad of other places that have functional transit systems, walkable neighborhoods and other traits which I value? For people like me, and I feel there is a good number, Buffalo most likely will never be an option again.
Nick, I and a lot of other expats that I know share your frustrations. I cynically believe that the answers to Buffalo's problems will eventually be solved by newcomers to the city who view it with fresh eyes and see its potential.
Buffalo can never be the equivalent of a Portland, Oregon (or even a Portland, Maine) until its citizenry actually wants to embrace change and acts as a force to make it happen. A small group of Buffalonians is willing to assemble for the silliness of a manufactured Tea Party protest and yet citizens are not willing to assemble en masse and demand change from their local politicians.
The passion in your comments always comes through loudly, Nick, and you have a better chance of making a difference in this world than the stacks of data in which Whatever surrounds himself.
nick>"re-urbanize the city and provide a place for people of my mindset"
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I can't keep track of the people here who I've heard in the past year say they want to leave this area. Not all follow through. Many do.
Honestly, though, I've never heard anybody say they're leaving Buffalo due to lack of downtown residential. Never even one mentioned it even as a secondary issue. It's always jobs and economic opportunities, sometimes weather mentioned, but always jobs.
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There's urban neighborhoods here. Maybe those aren't for your taste, or maybe you have a narrower defintion of urban than I do.
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I'm curious -
1. what are a few cities of size similar to Buffalo (say 200,000 to 350,000) that you consider urban enough for you to consider living in? Buffalo is half way between 200K and 350K now, so that's why I chose that range.
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2. When you say re-urbanize the city, what time frame are you pointing to in the "re" part of re-urbanize? You advocate downtown residential a lot, but Buffalo never had much of that did it? At least not in the last 100 years, right? Retail was very heavy downtown in most of the 20th century and that contributed a lot of street vibrancy we've all seen in old pictures, but that's changed in all but the very largest cities now.
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3. Do you not consider Elmwood, Hertel, and Allentown to be urban neighborhoods?
Whatever,
1.As far as the similar sized cities that would be urban enough, I can't really say, I don't think its dependent upon size in so much as scale. There are smaller cities such as Harrisburg that have a pretty vibrant commercial core. Generally, cities I think of living in have a larger municipal population than Buffalo, but are more comparable on metro populations like Milwaukee.
2. I guess when I say re-urbanize, I don't so much mean the density, as neighborhoods in Buffalo have the density, but the city lacks a functional center city. You're right in saying buffalo never really had a residential downtown but that's true for most downtowns. That trend has changed, and here in Philly we now have over 90,000 people living in Center City with that number continuing to grow. Former department stores and office buildings with inadequate floor plans have gone residential and have led to the resurgence of cc retail. Again, I know something like this can't be completely matched in Buffalo, I'm not looking for it to be a match of a large city, but there's no reason a smaller center city and shopping district can't be in Buffalo, something to match the scale of the city.
3. Do I consider Hertel, Elmwood and Allen to be urban, yes. If I were to move back I would live in one of those areas most likely. Could I be happy living in one of them yes, would I be satisfied not being able to go to a shopping district, or a vibrant downtown, probably not. Again, it gets back to my worry that I may never be able to resolve my personal split personality love for both Buffalo, my hometown, and big city urban life which I very much love. Some may consider that a cop out, and think I have no right to say anything about Buffalo anymore, but it's a point often brought up amongst friends here who are expats.
Thanks for reply. Harrisburg doesn't work for me as a good example for Buffalo because it's only 50,000 people and it's a state capital which naturally draws a lot of jobs and people in ways Buffalo can't. (For same reason, Albany is doing the best among upstate NY cities the past bunch of years - to the point where some people say it shold no longer be considered "upstate"). Milwaukee is more than double Buffalo's population. No big deal, but I was just wondering if there's any realistic role models for Buffalo in your opinion - a city of similar size as our 270K but centralized enough for your taste.
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I don't think there's any reason to worry about having moved from here or never moving back if you don't. It sounds like you really want big city urban life, so why give that up if it's such a personal preference? Not to mention that you'd also be worsening your career options.
I'd never say expats have "no right" to say anything about Buffalo. I think your ideas for it maybe aren't taking into account its current situation the same way it might if you lived here, often saw conditions of different parts of it, and had daily reminder of how weak its private sector jobs growth has been and will be. Or maybe not.
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Much of Buffalo has had a really rough bunch of years. To people out of town who get most of their Buffalo info from BR, I'd imagine it's easy to not realize that. Couple of vacancy growth maps here:
http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/2008/09/undeliverable-new-numbers.html
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And the economy and jobs market... let's just say growth isn't on the horizon. That's not hating on Buffalo, and that's not saying Buffalo can't be a good place to live in some ways. It's just saying the size trends don't show signs of changing any time soon.
Regarding your 90K living in downtown Philly....
(people who hate numbers or think they always represent bitterness... this is a good time to go look out the window or something....)
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A similar number in Buffalo would be 17K. Those are each around 6% of the city populations. I don't know how many live in DT Buffalo now. Depends on one's defintion of DT. Let's say 1,000. So it'd need 16K more residents to be as centralized as Philly at 6%.
Suppose a fourth, 4,000, moved from burbs to DT. I doubt seriously that many from burbs would move into the city (in net terms, 4000 more moving from burbs to city than move from city to burbs). But suppose that happened, a net 4000 people moving from burbs to city.
That'd sill need 12K to move to DT from other parts of the city. That's average of 1,500 each moving out of Elmwood Village, Allentown, S. Buffalo, Parkside, N. Buffalo, University Heights, the E. Side, the W. Side.
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I think anything even close to that would hurt many neighborhoods in terms of additional vacancy (residential and commercial), blight, lowering average income, etc.
And still - even after all that, I'd bet you and your big city urban life loving friends (not that there's anything wrong with that) would _still_ not consider Buffalo's mere 17,000 people downtown to be a "real downtown". It'd still be nothing like Philly's DT, even after so many of its neighborhoods were subtracted from.
Whatever, I was looking out the window but that didn't work. I think your numbers are logical, but you presuppose that folks would just move from one area of western New York to another. You may be right to a degree, but I think that opening up downtown would attract folks from outside the area who are looking for a new living experience. The entire 'lifestyle center' phenomenon -- outdoor malls that combine retail and residential that has taken place throughout much of the country -- bypassed western New York. (The new center at the old Shooting Club property in Amherst will be the first in the area.) People want a pedestrian-friendly environment and authentic walkable Buffalo can benefit.
Of course, that's contingent upon an important point: if Buffalo and western New York would only stop shooting itself in the foot with its woeful political ways, I'd have a better outlook on the possibilities for downtown to resurrect itself.
"I know you speak as being "realistic," but at what point does that attitude just embrace the mediocrity that people in Buffalo have ascribed to for so long?"
Nick, Well said. Some people seem to think bitter=reality. Keep your chin up an let the crybabys cry. Only the most bitter defeatist could brush off the downtown housing boom as "musical chairs" . Some people dont want to hear it though unless you put a bitter spin on what you are saying.