AM&As Store Rehab Plan Revealed

amazing. it seems Rocco is single handedly turning around the CBD.

I would be excited but we have been through this before with this building. It is definitely a challenging building but would be so worth it in the end.

is there anything under the international style exterior (like the 3 buildings on Washington)?

I worked for one of the previous owners of this building and it is really really bad inside. Lots of water damage. I really hope Rocco can do what other can't/won't.

Did he mention what hotel would be occcupying this space? Will it be his own or a "chain"? With the other proposed hotel developments (Pitts-waterfront, Croce-Franklin, etc.) at what point does the city limit new hotels to prevent saturation?

Well Amherst just built three new hotels in the past couple years... when should they limit new hotels?

This is GREAT NEWS!!!! I can just picture a hotel facing Main Stree with living spaces along Washington Street and a mix of retail and eateries along the Main Street. A 24/7 active building in the heart of the Financial District. I hope this becomes true.

Awesome. Is he keeping the bridge!?

Apartments at that collonaded level would be amazing

i hope the artvoice billboard will stay.

Hopefully, the plans have more lofts than hotel rooms. Almost like the Mandarin Hotel (on Copley) in Boston. Would be interested to see if there is any underground parking for the building as well.

There have been many stories lately of planned renovations. Are we really in a recession? I can't help but feel like we've heard this all before. I won't take any of the news we have heard in the past little while seriously until the ribbon is cut.

But can you imagine: The new Statler, Genesee Gateway, AM&A's lofts and hotel, Lafayette Hotel, Elmwood/Bryant, Delaware/Virginia, Gates Condo Tower, W. Utica apartments, German Orphanage redevelopment, Main/Utica, Main/Ferry, Canal Side, The Cooperage, Outer Harbor, The Richardson, Forest/Elmwood...etc... Doesn't it seem like a little too much? Yea, it all sounds wonderful, but is all that development truly going to happen? It would feel like a new city if it did.

Ohhhhhhh.myyyyyyyyyyyyy.gawddddddddd.

The Genesee Gateway and the AM&A warehouse Lofts are already under construction. I have my doubts about the Statler. One or two of the other recently announced projects may not make it either but the majority of them will. The new state and Federal historic preservation tax credits have a lot to do with it. Also, Buffalo's batting average for announced projects to completed projects is much better for this century then it was for the last half of the last century.

I think it is very interesting (shocking at an earlier time) but people who work and go to school downtown are finding it with greater and greater preferable to live downtown.

There are a fair number of people who live in the city and commute to their jobs in the suburbs most however live in the suburbs and work in the suburbs.

In other words...the city isnt attracting people who work in the suburbs.

What is the big picture lesson to be taken from? If you want our urban neighborhoods to be stable and revitalized then you must bring jobs back to them. Urban Style office parks contained within 1 city block would have dramatic effects (regardless of who used them: retail, business, educational, etc).

Think pre-1950s when it was possible for your kids to walk to school and walk to a neighborhood job at say an ice cream or grocery store.

Here's some interior pictures of AM&A's that an urban explorer took in 2008:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unwertes_leben/sets/72157603910056127/

A few years back there was serious talk from downtown business people to demolish all of Am&A's. They used the same dubious excuses - "it is blighted", "it's too far gone", "it's too expensive to save, water damage etc".

Who rallied to save AM&A's? Tim Tielman.

Here's a neat look at AM&A's and Main Place Mall in 1974, check it out:

http://dshistory.com/stores/adams_meldrum_anderson_buff/downtown_buffalo.html

This is just too amazing. Rocco is on fire and i'm lovin it. He just proposed to scratch off two enormous projects off downtown buffalo's to do list. This building alive again will do wonders for main st.

It's too bad that the area cannot sustain a large dept. store like the former AM&As. True retail is what the city needs. Yes, the little trinket shops on Elmwood are nice for buying gifts, etc. but we need real, average priced clothing available in the city for people who live in the city. Where do they have to go to buy socks and underwear--out to the 'burbs. Kudos to Termini for taking on this project and have a plan for it but we'll never be a well-rounded city without some major retail--restaurants and apts. can only go so far.

One thing that nobody seemed to of noticed is that Rocco plans on putting a food court inside this building. Does this mean the current food court across the street at Main Place Mall will re-locate here? or will it offer better choices? And I HOPE that retail is aimed for the first floor along Main Street and NOT offices. That would be a shame. Or at least get a cafe/restuarant on the first level to bring alittle life back to the street life. First floor office's do nothing for the urban street scape but create more blank walls.

More Hotel rooms, great. Just keep them coming and keep making them better. The more rooms the more competition and the better the product. We might finally be able to host bigger conventions and events.
I hope there is a hotel planned for Lafayette as well, it would be a shame to not have atleast a small part of that building come back as a hotel.
I'd love to put my colleagues and customers up at the Embassy, Hampton or Mansion more often, but vacancies are rare. We need more quality choices downtown. Hurry up Croce!

I think or hope, that Food Court actually means something like a green market or Wegmans style market that has fresh foods prepared to order.

I don't suppose that Rocco will do us the favor of getting Steve Christie's mug off of the south side of the building?

A downtown KMart, Target, Walmart or Kohls in the first floor of a multi-story downtown building would be huge.

But Ive talked with many retailers about opening downtown and inner city stores. They hate them and many will not carry certain products in them. Why? The logistics associated with bringing product downtown in todays Just-in-Time delivery system means trucks may arrive every day and multiple times a day. Second the numbers prove that downtown and inner city stores have higher shoplifting and higher crime and higher damaged product in the store and in returns.

Its a tough sell to get a big discount retailer but I think that a successful BassPro (which is a major retailer) could be the very means to provide the marketing metrics that a downtown store will not have the problems that other retailers fear.

If downtown is going to get a downtown Tops (might), Wegmans (will never come), Walmart (might), Target (might) and Kohls (doubtful). If BassPro can prove with verifiable metrics a profit with product losses or security issues then Buffalo might get one of them.

Would love to compare the demographics between the BassPro anchored Canalside adjacent to high value residential neighborhood and gentrifying westvillage VERSUS Main Street (Light Rail Corridor).

Interesting because the Main Street route would include everything from SouthCampus to Canalside ridership as well as the residential neighborhoods along it. People underestimate how many 0-car and 1-car people/families there are and how a major discount department store within walking distance of Light Rail route may actually be more convenient than the one in their own neighborhood that requires a car.

So for marketing and demographics lovers...this would be very interesting to sort through...and no doubt very beneficial and worthwhile for downtown Buffalo.

In a car culture city like Buffalo, YES, parking may be a big issue for retailers looking at Downtown. BUT, overall, most will look at demographics, the number of people living and working in the area, annual incomes, what draws people to this area and how will our business benifit by being in this location? That is mostly what any business will look at before locating to any area.

Forget the big Box, aint gonna happen, and there already is a Tops downtown and a Wegmans 8 min drive from CBD, thats a quicker wegmans commute than a lot of burbs. Please stop with the grocery store downtown bit, it's old and most successful downtowns have small-mid size markets, not full size super markets.

We already have the Washington Market (on Ellicott St.)and Downtown Food Mart (open 7 days a week till 9pm on MAIN STREET). It's true, go to any major city and you'll find only the small local grocery stores like the ones we already have or alittle bigger like a Whole Foods or C-Town, but none are as huge as we see in the burbs. But, as far as retail I can totally see the Canal Side (IF it attracted major retailers because of Bass Pro and/or due to great marketing of the area) bringing interest to the rest of downtown from major and local retailers and food establishments and so on. It only takes a test market to see results before more jump in. ...Just like the downtown housing trend. Took a few developers to see a vision, take a risk and now we see the demand. NEXT is retail...hopefully.