Construction Watch: Main Street 700 Block

The 700 block of Main Street serves as a great example of the impact that the restoration of two-way traffic back to Main Street has on the City, albeit the only example. Business owners have been clamoring for the restoration of two-way traffic and working with stakeholders from a cross section of key parties (e.g. NFTA, DOT, City, Buffalo Place, Congressional offices, etc) for some time for this to take place. The 700 block is the initial fruit of the labor with more to come.

Obstructionists please stay out of the way of this one. If you do object to this progress, take a walk down the 700 block and look back at pictures of the progress over the last year (heck the last 4 months), and then nod in approval, and save the knee jerks for something else from your pathetic mouse pads.

karl, most of the development of this block happened before construction and it happened because of the Sidway and collection of intact buildings (aka not shovel ready parking lots) in close proximity to established and stable areas (Allentown, Theatre District, Chippewa, Ellicott and mostly Delaware Ave.) It was the forgotten street surrounded by a changing northern downtown as a whole.

Two way traffic has little to do with it.

The bike lanes and the nicer sidewalks are a huge improvement, i just hope to see the trees survive to the point of the ones they tore down.

It looks beautiful to me! Hopefully opening this section of Main Street to traffic will mean success for these new businesses regardless of when they decided to locate to that block.

I can't wait for the 600 block to be finished.

I think its great. However the longer this block (the easiest conversion because it had no rail, already had a street, ...) takes to get done, the more obvious to me it is that the rest of Main St will take 3x as long per block. Hopefully i'm not too old to drive by the time this whole project is completed.

Looks great!

wow. maybe it's an out of towners reaction; but wow. it seems like there are tremendous happenings taking place in buffalo. i dunno how much this is perception, but it seems like the great majority of these positive things taking place are regular person initiated; not politician/ government. mark goldman says in city on the edge that it is the average citizens of buffalo that fight for it's success

I worked out of the Sidway building until 2001, before it became lofts and I remember all of the old abandonded warehouses before they demolished them. Looking back, the block was scary. If you don't believe me or remember, google map it and you'll see pictures of post-demo but pre- construction. Now, the street looks beautiful; I love the island with the landscaping! I want to echo Karl's request that obstructionists and I'm going to add pessimists (it seems some people commenting on BR can't help themselves from submitting backhanded compliments) to stay away. I think this is great and I can't wait for them to start working on the 600 block and the section at the foot of Main.

looks great!

Tons of potential, especially with the train down there- i wish people would start seeing it as an asset. i live in Brooklyn, and i can't imagine not having fast public transport nearby. Any/all future growth should be planned around the train stops, and people will want to live near them. Not needing a car every day for every activity actually makes life easier, less stressful, and more physically active.

The block looks great and the reason it works is because the 700 block can function like what the rest of Main Street can't. No Hooterville Trolley in the way!! I really have never been able to understand why some people feel that driving in one lane down Main Street is going to be the big fix. Even if they put in a parking lane what does parking a hand full of cars on a block accomplish? I used to shop the stores downtown and I and everyone I know parked on Washington or Pearl to access the stores and then walked down Main to get from one to another. It would seem that you could create a much better pedestrian environment for a lot less than 40 million. That would still leave a lot of money for other much needed downtown improvements. That's a lot of money so people can get dropped off in front of Shea's instead of entering from Pearl.

It's awesome and I do hope the trees make it. Either way, Main St. is finally get some long-needed attention and when it's all done, should surpass Elmwood as the key spine of the new Buffalo.

The trees are a mix of 6-year old cherry and elms. They were carefully selected and they will make it, as they were planted early in the year. When the cherry trees bloom in spring it should look awesome.

To ignore that the return to two way traffic which secured the federal funds to beautify the street is attracting these businesses is just an absurb comment.

Took my bike here this morning, looks so different. They have done a great job. If this is carried on for another block or two in the near future, the theatre district stands a chance of becoming charming during daylight hours in addition to evening.

Too bad the Vernor building didn't make it to see this day. =[

The newly reconstructed stretch of Main Street looks awesome. As a cyclist, I am happy to hear that bike lanes are being added to this segment of Main Street. There should be separate bike lanes on every major thoroughfare in both the city and the surrounding suburbs.

The site is DEFINITELY high profile. One would hope someone builds a mixed-use building there. High density, doesn't necessarily have to be high rise. Mid rise, mixed use would be just fine. The block has really shaped up nicely and is quite possible one of the most attractive blocks downtown. If no one builds on the site, the city should look into building a dog park there. There is a lack of a dog park right downtown....and that would at least provide some activity to the block.