Advertisement
November 13, 2009 11:45 AM
Comments: 39
The residential conversion projects keep rolling in. Ellicott Development is seeking Planning Board approval next Tuesday to convert the former Baker Shoes building at 456 Main Street into sixteen apartments and ground floor commercial space. The building is one to two stories along Main Street, but is eight stories along Pearl Street.
Carl Paladino's Ellicott Development has owned the 42,000 sq.ft. building since December 2002. He has previously discussed a residential project for the property, but is apparently now moving forward. According to Business First, the apartments will be two and three bedroom units. Ellicott Development also owns the adjacent Courtyard Mall property.
Ellicott Development has a growing portfolio of residential properties in the city. The firm was one of the pioneers of downtown housing with the rehabs of the University Club, now The Bellasara, and the former L.L. Berger Department Store, rechristened The Belesario. The company has also built townhouses on Lakefront Drive, is continuing work at the Waterfront Place development, is moving forward with plans to rehab the Greystone, and recently purchased the Grace Manor Nursing Home on Symphony Circle.
Also on next week's Planning Board agenda is Ellicott Development's residential and commercial project at 960 Busti Avenue.
Leave a comment
Related Blog Entries
Demo Planned at Main and North Streets
Ellicott Development Co. is seeking to demolish a one-story former gas station at the southwest corner of Main and North...
Construction Watch: Waterfront Place
Work has started on another town home unit at Waterfront Place as sales continue in the development's mid-rise tower, The...
Paladino Working on Greystone Plan
Ellicott Development is dusting off renovation plans for the vacant Greystone hotel. Reuse proposals for the Greystone at 24 Johnson...
Sponsor
Sponsor
- For Rent UB area , Main Street Storefront
- New Downtown Restaurant
- A Fiesta for Buffalo ReUse!
- Music Lessons with a Signed Recording Artist
- Dance Film Screening
- Corpus Christi to Hold Lenten Talks
- Lovely Yorkie Puppy For Adoption
- Art Exhibit
- Auxiliary Magazine Launch at Cats Like Us
- ESTATE SALE FEB 5 & 6 9,4 11508 TOMARSUE,
November 13, 2009 12:13 PM
Dude certainly can not be upstaged by Termini...
November 13, 2009 12:13 PM
Nice! This is certainly good news! The City needs to ensure that downtown will be a safe place for pedestrians and residents and I think downtown can really take off! I hope for the best with yet another downtown project! Ellicott Development has been very active as of recent. I realize its not residential but any news on the Court Street Building?
November 13, 2009 2:12 PM
You can have all the cops and cameras you want, but there is no better way to ensure safety than having people live there.
Since when is downtown unsafe anyways? I think its more of a perception of desolation during the evening hours, not actual crime.
November 13, 2009 2:19 PM
i think that's a good point
November 13, 2009 12:22 PM
I think he is trying to compete with Rocco. But all in all, if he CAN get these projects done, it will be great for Downtown!
November 13, 2009 12:29 PM
definitely. it would also be great to see the convention center be replaced by more residential.
November 13, 2009 12:45 PM
Heck, I'd just like to see Genesee Street re-opened. And yes, the land where the Convention was, some new residential high rises or two would be awesome.
November 13, 2009 12:48 PM
I agree that when more gets completed... then he will have a proven track record, but until then it is still a lot of plans and talk. Rocco has more completed projects but it is nice to see someone trying to compete. Lord knows we have enough buildings still in need to repairs.
If this wave of stuff gets completed... the saddest thing is we don't have more buildings left to save.
November 13, 2009 1:48 PM
That would be a good thing. That'll mean we will have to build NEW buildings.
November 13, 2009 12:44 PM
i used to wonder who was letting such a cool building rot, now i know. at least he is doing the right thing. finally.
November 13, 2009 1:16 PM
That building was thoroughly rotten long before Carl bought it. He hasn't done much since he bought it, but it's in no worse shape now than then. Glad to see things moving forward.
I'm not in favor of sweetheart deals and political favors and it's argued that Paladino has been the beneficiary of same. I didn't like the Berger's deal. But he has done many projects downtown which are good for us as well as him. His record downtown is pretty strong.
November 14, 2009 1:03 AM
"That building was thoroughly rotten long before Carl bought it. He hasn't done much since he bought it, but it's in no worse shape now than then."
No worse shape except for the giant gaping hole in the roof?
November 14, 2009 1:09 AM
nevermind.... i thought I was in the greystone thread! :)
November 13, 2009 12:47 PM
I think Canal Side has stirred all kinds of great things :)
November 13, 2009 1:15 PM
Anyone else notice just how many former places of employment are being converted to places to live? A warehouse here, a department store there, a factory the next street over....
Don't get me wrong...this development is great! But it would be really exciting to see the construction of a new office tower to be filled with a company from outside of the region.
November 13, 2009 1:51 PM
Totally agree. I don't see how we can support so much living space downtown without new employment. Why not use some of the many large surface lots and plan out some large office towers? Market them before building to national and international corporations and see what happens.
November 14, 2009 3:30 PM
That a good thing, sort of.
ie:A wharehouse/office building/factory gets built downtown many years ago. Eventually the building becomes obsolete and the tennant moves into a newer one in an industrial park or wherever. Building then gets recycled into residential, small scale industrial use that makes better use of the buildings layout.
Now all we need is some more modern office-industrial space downtown. Until then it is okay to convert as many former businesses to apartments as possible. It beats tearing them down.
November 13, 2009 1:55 PM
I am glad that we are seeing more and more projects with grade level commercial. We need to see more mixed use projects and with the number of residential conversions, the demand for retail will follow.
November 13, 2009 2:00 PM
Funny how no one ever says "I don't know how we will support all these suburban subdivisions without new jobs and companies in the area"
November 13, 2009 2:30 PM
Was not trying to say Downtown housing is not needed. Everything points to people moving to urban cores around the US.
Was just saying it would be nice to hear about a company adding jobs from outside of the area to the Buffalo DT core.
My hope is that First Niagara is this company. They are expanding and hope that as they grow, they move jobs from banks they acquire to Buffalo. One First Niagara Plaza has a nice ring to it.
November 13, 2009 2:47 PM
I think thats right, people are moving to urban cores around the nation. Buffalo is a little bit behind but the momentum is certainly building. 20 or 30 years ago there was little hope of such developement.
November 13, 2009 5:59 PM
amen, steel.
November 13, 2009 7:57 PM
They do say that, especially in massive planned communities that increasingly have "urban" and employment centers. The economics of suburbs are very dependent on luring jobs because people are increasingly less willing to drive long distances to work. Home builders know that there is a steady absorbtion of new product but not enough to sustain larger developments. The difference between the suburbs and the city is that the suburbs still fight for tax base and jobs while the city applies for another program or grant to acquire employers lest they sacrifice their high taxes and byzantine regulations.
November 14, 2009 10:54 AM
Those big rich suburbs always get what they want! WHAH! WHAH! WHAH!! Why don't they like us as much as the suburbs? Why don't they want to live with us? Why, Why, Why, Whah, Whah, Whah!!!
November 14, 2009 1:11 PM
amen, steel. x 2
November 13, 2009 2:37 PM
Perception is just as bad as reality and thats the way it is. A badly perceived space will keep many away. Some of it is the ghost town effect but it would be nice if people perceived public safety rather than the opposite. All i'm saying is it would be nice to see more police walking the streets down there. I've seen all out domestics near Lafayette Square on Main Street in the past. Loud screaming curse laden domestic disputes around 5-6pm down there while I worked down there on the Square. Probably could have heard that crap going on for a few blocks because it was so loud and totally oblivious to everyone else around down there. these kind of incidents get in the way of peacefulness and quality of life. Its a joy to get hustled for money down there as well. Yeah yeah thats every city I know but still its a quality of life issue.
November 13, 2009 2:54 PM
Actually, I agree with you. I have always felt safer in NYC than in Downtown Buffalo most given days, especially on school days when the kids take over Main Street and Chippewa St, the metro rail and buses. It's not pleasent most of the time. I enjoy crowds and vibrant streets, but not when it's rowdy, people looking to fight and harrass just for the fun of it and crazy people seem to be the majority from the sane ones.
November 13, 2009 2:57 PM
I hear very little about crime on this area of main street. I know it exists but for being so desolate I'd expect to hear more. There seems to be a decent presence of Police both NFTA and B district cops. I feel safe there anyway.
November 13, 2009 3:31 PM
I'm really excited about this. The Lafayette, the AM&A's warehouses, the Greystone. That puts us close to another 200 units downtown within a year or so. Not to mention one under utilized and two long time boarded up buildings with some life back into them. Some big wins for downtown
November 13, 2009 6:42 PM
Too bad the census isn't next year! :)
November 13, 2009 6:58 PM
It IS next year, or did you mean something else by that?
November 13, 2009 8:05 PM
Yes, the Census is in 2010. Does that make a difference?
November 13, 2009 3:46 PM
Maybe things have changed in the past 3 years. New York City, well, Manhattan at least benefits from many eyes on the street and many residents. I also saw plenty of policing presence. I agree that eyes on the street help and that certainly is the case from say 8-5pm or if there is a special event going on. My experience in an office that closed at 5:30pm when most of downtown went empty was one where the eyes on the street had gone away and I just didnt see the police presence during those hours. The police were out during the busy hours down there but I just didnt see it after hours. The stretch between the Hyatt and Main Place mall was always an awkward place to be but that was just my experience. I just think of it like a retail operation. Downtown would benefit most from positive perception and positive word of mouth. Units would fill up and people would not eventually regret their decision to move there. For me I loved working downtown but there were times I just wasnt comfortable down there. One person with a negative experience is going to tell a whole heck of a lot more people of their negative experience than those who are content. This results in reduced demand and downtown doesnt need that. I would like to think of this downtown revitalization as a long term thing not just a pioneering effort that will fail because all the necessary parts arent there to ensure it doesn't fail. Its discouraging for me when I hear of policing resources being ridiculously exagerated to monitor a few college parties near Canisius when people get to hear all out domestic disputes going on in the middle of Main Street near a metro rail station, people get shot, mugged, robbed, raped, graffiti-ed, broken into, hustled, offered to buy drugs on the corner of Franklin and Chippewa, etc. And no not all these issues are downtown issues but some of them are and frankly there are neighborhoods not all that far out of downtown where many of these issues are pretty common. Sorry, like it or not but these issues are not as prevalent in the burbs and right now I think the City would benefit most from a population influx from the suburban areas because right now I dont think people are flocking in from out of state. Certainly this city and region isnt growing right now as has been the case for many years now. The burbs need the city to succeed and the city needs the burbs like it or not.
November 13, 2009 6:30 PM
As 14201 and 14213 empty out, the former residents don't seem to be moving Downtown. I do wonder where they've been going.
November 13, 2009 8:02 PM
I'd guess mostly the people who leave 01 and 13 have been moving to other residential neighborhoods in Buffalo - the ripple effect of replacing others who moved either downtown or out of the city or to another state.
November 13, 2009 9:19 PM
Many have been moving here to 14207 (Black Rock and Riverside)
November 13, 2009 9:26 PM
Many have been moving here to 14207 (Black Rock and Riverside)
November 13, 2009 8:00 PM
looks like their knocking out the bricked in windows...well thats a good first step.
I cant place the bland building next to it but it would be nice to do something to its facade so that it doesnt bring down the whole block with unattractive dead space
November 14, 2009 2:16 PM
Bland building = backside of the former "Courtyard Mall" (the former Neisner's )