Ground Broken on Curtiss Building Restoration

What work does this building need, and when is the expected completion date?

This is a unique building, and it's great news that it's being restored. Keep it going.

It will be open for the national preservation conference in 2011, and I'm sure it will be filled with guests.

They will be nice rooms with those big windows. Prolly means the Livery next door will get some love soon too.

Great to see another long neglected building given its due. Downtown just keeps getting better. As more of these renovations are completed it will drive future developement into the adjoining neighborhoods where other interesting old buildings survive. Area's like Michigan Ave., The First Ward, and The Lower West Side all could benefit greatly as downtown becomes fully developed. Just one more reason to preserve Buffalo's great old building stock.

Once again serving as unpaid copy editor: how about including the address of this building? Once I saw the lower picture, I realized it was the NW corner of Franklin & Huron, but not everyone can be expected to know such a long-vacant building by name and not everyone will recognize the intersection from the picture.

Wonderful...now if only the Court Street Tower could be restored to 10+ stories and actually built.

how much will it cost to park in the continental parking lot?

but glad to see something happening on this block. even if 3/4th's of the burden is on the tax payers of NY state...

and can somebody tag all the 'players' in this photo op since buffalo rising doesn't know
how to post a caption? and wtf are they gleefully shoveling? styrofoam peanuts? ironic symbolism????

anyone got any history on this building? and how come the preservationists aren't up in arms about the continental? hopefully their definition of restoration renders an historically accurate product.

Congratulations to Mark Croce on this cool project! I hope its success spawns many more...right next door!

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/516746.html

"Buffalo's strategy of giving handouts to hotels questioned

Red ink has flowed for decades, yet city is pushing incentives for 3 new downtown sites
By James Heaney December 08, 2008

For nearly 30 years, politicians have poured more than $65 million into downtown Buffalo hotels — an average of more than $50,000 per room. The strategy produced five hotels — and a lot of red ink.

Some of downtown’s largest hotel operators say the last thing they need is more competition, especially subsidized competitors. But that’s exactly the course City Hall is pursuing.

One heavily subsidized hotel is under construction, and development agencies in the last month have approved two others that would involve significant tax breaks. The new projects would increase the inventory of downtown hotel rooms by 22 percent.

“I don’t see where the business is coming from; I just don’t,” said Rudi Rainer, general manager of Adam’s Mark, downtown’s biggest hotel. “The industry as a whole is not doing well, certainly not when everyone is looking for government handouts.”

At play is a disconnect between those in the trenches of the hospitality industry and the politicians dangling the subsidies, along with the developers who would benefit from them. ..."

Read the whole thing at the link above. Lots of details about govt subsidies to, and financial struggles of, the existing hotels.

The better operations run with very low occupency, the crappy ones sit around and wonder where all the business is coming from. My guess is this one will run with little vacancy.

Not many details in this piece by BR, and very limited view of the project.

The players from left to right are some lady ?, Sen Bill Stachowski, Gov. Pattersons WNY Regional Rep Janique Curry, Mayor Byron Brown, Councilman Brian Davis, Marc Croce and Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples.

Another photo opp for the Mayor - yippie! I thought that Brian Davis - our (and soon to be my) excellent Ellicott District councilmen - was not coming to work. If that was the case shouldn't he be fired? Also, a correction to the downtownjunkie comment above - I received some literature from Mrs. Peoples and it had her name printed as Crystal Peoples-Stokes? Does she really think this will help her image?

Anyhow, I'm only focusing in on the negative. Mark, good luck. This corner - really - needs some TLC and you're the right guy to do it!

Other than the fact that this story was soiled by Brian Davis this a great news. This building deserves it!

I'm truly excited to see this happen. I remember walking by that corner at night.. and it was by far one of the creepiest spots downtown. There was always someone lurking in the shadows, hah. Though it's sad to see the Continental go for good, I'll always remember the fun nights there. Looks like it's going to be gorgeous. :)

This is wonderful news!

Of course, it will be sad to lose an important part of Buffalo musical history as represented in the faded Continental, but I do believe Mark will see the enormous potential in the ground-floor spaces for retail and nightlife options accessible from the street, following the model of the Hampton Inn on Chippewa Street.

Having stayed in a glorious Kimpton hotel in Chicago recently, I would sure love to see a cocktail lounge and coffee house in these spaces as public amenities that would be available to the general public.

Looks great.. and this is exciting. I've always thought that this is one of the creepiest corners downtown. This will help tremendously. I do hope that they will soften the concrete/curb look and plant some new trees outside, much like they have done w/the Embassy Suites and 250 Delaware. They look so classy light up at night.

Here's also hoping that this will, somehow, lead to development across the street at that UGLY UGLY UGLY SURFACE lot. I think I'd rather still have that parking garage there that they tore down a few years ago. At least it gave some density to that corner. That surface lot there now, in the heart of dowtown, looks like something straight out of the 'burbs. Someone build on it.. please!

And perhaps it's time for another article on the current, rather sad state of Chippewa. What's going on there? It looks so dirty and uninviting. Dead trees or no trees at all, crumbling sidewalks, no uniformity. Someone really needs to take the lead here and clean these few blocks up. Clifton Hill is 10 times as busy but perhaps follow their examples... trees with small protective fences, decorative lighting and fun signs/street banners. All of this would really take Chippewa to the next level in the eyes of visitors.

Christina Orsi on left I think? Last i knew she was with the BNE but i'm not certain about nowadays.

Industry standard is that hotels start making a profit above 50% occupancy.

Please, no dark windows.

Bini, Whatever: Its not a perfect system. I too would much rather see this investment sprout up without a govt handout and the way things are going in the entertainment district I think it could. Is there one sector of the economy though that doesnt get some sort of handout in the form of a tax break, grant or hydro-power for projects of this scale or larger? This isnt just a WNY thing either. In many places more tourist oriented than Buffalo, hotel operators are given tax exempt status for upwards of 10 years to build a hotel! (some jackass is trying to get this deal in the Falls right now.) Handing out money for construction of a Hotel that will likely not compete directly with most of the ones downtown isnt the best case scenario but it could be much worse.

Think of the return we are getting on this investment as well. For the ammount being tossed around (1.3 mil) we get a deralict building on a high profile corner restored, a few new jobs, and another reason for tourists to stay in our downtown when they visit. To me thats a lot of bang for our buck. Think of how much more taxpayer money is spent on other politicaly-driven, marketplace manipulating projects that offer less upside and in some cases are clearly counterproductive. Ill take a 1.3 mil grant for a boutique hotel over Bass Pro, constructing-improving a road system that encourages settlement of farmland in a shrinking metro area, IDA pirating of business from one town to another, or ongoing handouts to the Bills.

pitbull>"Bini, Whatever: Its not a perfect system."

Every new handout like this makes it more imperfect. Yes $1.3M is small compared to the Bass Pro subsidy and very small compared to govt budget sizes, but it's over 10 times the $110K given to One Sunset.

pitbull>"Is there one sector of the economy though that doesnt get some sort of handout in the form of a tax break, grant or hydro-power for projects of this scale or larger?"

Very few of the 1000's of businesses in Buffalo receive a taxpayer outright gift of $1.3M. And that's not all he's receiving. The Buffalo News says he'll have tax breaks too, as will his customers:
"...The project is located in an Empire Zone, so Croce will get sales tax credits on the materials for construction, as well as property tax, wage tax and sales tax breaks going forward - including for guests of the hotel. ..."
http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/807030.html

So while most businesses and people pay full amounts of property, wage, and sales taxes, this guy won't.

pitbull>"I'll take a 1.3 mil grant for a boutique hotel over Bass Pro, constructing-improving a road system that encourages settlement of farmland in a shrinking metro area, IDA pirating of business from one town to another, or ongoing handouts to the Bills"

I've never understood agruments like 'Well, money is spent on A, so it's ok to spend on B since B isn't quite as bad as A.' Each should be judged on its merits. Gasoline taxes should fund road work and mostly they do. State income taxes on the Bills $130M payroll exceed their subsidy at this point. (That wouldn't be so for a new stadium.)

As with CP's waterfront condos, I don't see why Croce wouldn't do this project without corp welfare if really sees market demand. But if not, so what? The free market can determine how many hotels, spas, and lounges are here and how 'ultra' they are. At the very least, the money should be a secured loan to be repaid with interest from his profits and gains. (I wouldn't even like to see a loan for this, but it'd be better than a gift.)