Mix of Uses Key to AM&A's Plan

Luv the details. Let's make this happen.

Any plans for retail?

Build it up, break it down. The building blocks of use are being broken down and adapted, as they should be in a healthy city.

This is great. I am nervous about the hotel part though. Seems like every new building in the CBD is part hotel. It is nice, but is there really enough demand? Are we going to end up with an empty Hyatt building when it goes out of business?

Why isn't the skybridge shown on the plan?

When I had people coming into town for a family reunion they could not find a room in the city. That was at the end of June. How can the city compete with other cities if they don't have accomodations for the people that want to come for a visit.

Why continue building suburban hotels when the city could use more? I know when I travel to other cities, I WANT to be in the city, withen walking distance to everything. I don't want to be in the suburbs, how boring.

Sally>"If the old hotels cannot compete with the new hotels they will go under. Competition is good."

Hahaha funny! Go under. Right, sure. In the city they'll just get more direct public handouts.

When Hyatt struggled to "compete", instead of "going uder" it just got a grant/gift of over $5 million from taxpayers.

Money from working family taxpayers is used to subsidize well-connected millionaires like Paul Snyder and Rocco Termini.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/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.
...While downtown hotel operators are reluctant to discuss their bottom lines, most are struggling, said Hart, the largest hotel operator in Erie County. “The large business-and convention-oriented hotels that have been subsidized are significant failures,” he said. “They’re all money losers.”

... The Hyatt, located in what had been the historic Genesee Building, has never made money since opening in 1984.

It defaulted on $11.6 million in loans and has been paying reduced property taxes since opening. This year, its payment in lieu of taxes is $187,000 on what otherwise would have been an $800,000 bill.

Taxpayers continue to sink money into the hotel.

Earlier this year, the state gave the hotel a $5.1 million grant to help pay for $13.5 million in renovations.

...Earlier this year, it also recived approval for $1.1 million in tax breaks from the ECIDA.

The News calculated that public assistance for the Hyatt over the years comes to about $70,000 a room. ..."

Again, performance levels should be reviewed before additional incentives are provided. That, and we need a larger convention center in a different location.

The Hyatt had a purpose. Yes we lost the Victor Furniture Store which was a real gem for downtown but in 1984 the Hyatt had a real purpose in keeping downtown alive.

The problem is very simply, as downtown developed, the aid the the Hyatt should have ended...probably after 5 years (1989) and certainly after ten years (1994). After 5-10 years, the Hyatt fulfilled its purpose for downtown momentum building and this would have forced the business plan to be changed.

Even today, when the Hyatt got their $5million...the business plan for the Hyatt is completely wrong. The $5million in aid should have demanded the Hyatt follow the Dulki Business plan and convert a fraction of its hotel rooms to residences and a fraction of its hotel rooms to offices and of course demolish the Atrium so as to re-open Genessee Street as one of the few east side cross streets that connect to downtown and the waterfront. However, instead they just got their aid for a failed status quo.

Right again...MRogers!

Is it not feasible to convert the Main Place Mall footpint into a massive convention hall on the second level if you floored it in? Seems the footprint is much larger than the existing convention center and you would have immediate access to the light rail line, a few major corporate offices and Lafayette Square. Seems Lafayette Square and nearby buildings including the AM&A's conversion project would benefit from something like that. Move the office tenants in the former mall up into the Main Place tower and reduce any vacancy there. While they're at it, figure a way to pop a hole through the first floor of the lengthy mall section between Main Place Tower and Liberty Bldg in order to reconnect Eagle Street. Heck, for Convention Center purposes add a covered pick-up, drop off at the ground level with the convention floor running the entire length of the existing footprint above on the second level. This would also allow for some covered first floor retail/ restaurant establishments.

For me I think its better to maintain a critical mass of intense uses within the core rather than to sprawl out downtown at this point into vacant lots on the downtown fringe. I cant see downtown as yet being dense and intense enough to justify expanding it. Downtown needs to infill first.

I would do the pool and the bar at the seventh level terrace, but that's just me. The atrium is a great way to break up the floorplates and take some of the boxiness out of the AM&A's. I also think that penthouses at the 8th floor up with a gardened terrace would be great. Good luck Rocco!

Since it is utilizing NY State funds shouldn't we all have a say in how it is developed. I mean we the people should have our voice heard in everything, from carpet design to blinds to where the bar is placed. For example, I think the building should be extended to the tracks, since there isn't a curb. I also think they should add on 6-7 more stories and build in an aquarium somewhere between the 4-6 floors.