Demo Planned at Main and North Streets

One rehab, one parking lot. One rehab, one parking lot Is it possible for anyone in Buffalo to build a multi-story parking lot for several buildings with ground floor retail instead of 1 parking lot per building? Density would be a real good thing for Midtown. There are more than enough surface paking lots in that area.

Should not be approved unless they present a plan for a higher and better use for that site.

I would normally agree... but this building seems more like a hindrance than an opportunity at this point. It is too far removed from the street to be noticed and therefore frequented by customers. You can't see it from 270 degrees which because of it's setup, so even while it has plenty of parking... the lack of street presence means it will probably just sit empty.

Take it down, it doesn't add to the neighborhood and hope that someone will then see the larger site as an opportunity for a bigger development.

Demolish! The existing building detracts from its neighbors. A parking lot would actually look better here than a former gas station, I say. Eyes will be drawn to 1010 Main and the spectacular church building on North.

I would like to see all parking lots in the city greened up at the edges.

What happend to SUBWAY moving into this space as promised on this site a few years ago?

Could make for a great new location for a Starbucks! It is set back like the one on Delaware Ave.

The point is that Carl owns both buildings and will own both parking lots on 4 adjacent pieces of property. If Carl built a multiple story parking garage on one of the parking lots, he could use the other parking lot for the development of another building. So much of Buffalo looks like gap teeth with its random and lack-of-planning parking lots. I know that WNY is car struck but I do think it's possible for people to walk a sixth of a block from a parking garage to their destination.

probably impossible to write this into statute, but as a rule, we should not permit demos of commercial buildings & factories unless we are guaranteed something "higher and better" in their place. a parking lot is not something better.

This is exactly why I want to see the same building codes recently enforced in the Elmwood Village used for the rest of this city. Then we would'nt have to see more buildings torn down for parking and have the developer tell us it's "progress". Instead, Carl would have to either tear this down and replace it with a newer building, built to the curb with a parking lot or mini ramp or underground parking. OR build a ramp on this lot with first floor commercial space. That's what I would call 'Progress'.

What's sad is that this is located right across the street from the Anchor Bar. A place where many out of towners go to get the REAL Buffalo Wings. And when they see this neighborhod ripped apart and no action, it just sends a bad message and image to our city. With so much potential in this end of Main St. it's sad that we are still hearing of more demo's for parking lots.

What was on that corner before the gas station?

I love how some of you just toss out underground parking and parking structures as alternatives without even caring (or is it knowing) how expensive both of those options can be. Let's face it, land in Buffalo isn't that valuable to warrant structured parking everywhere. When you go from surface parking to structured parking you're easily taking about costs going from 10s of thousands to 100s of thousands and more than likely over a million.

I have no problem with this demo, the building clearly does not fit the neighborhood scale and I'd rather see a vacant parking lot than a rundown generic single story building that becomes a complete eyesore in a few years when no use is found for it. I say demo it since I think that area of the city will see values increase within the next 5 years (based on the expansion of the medical campus) and then there can be a possibility of a new building to anchor that corner.

Can you imagine if anything (wilson farms, starbucks, IKEA) moved into this little kiosk and was successful? The very first posting about it on BRO would be a screed about how it caters to the automobile/isn't built to the curb/should be knocked down and rebuilt as an environmental sounds, mixed use, architectural masterpiece.

Demoing this building makes the building adjacent that much more valuable for immediate reuse, while clearing the land for eventual reuse as the second coming of the larkin administration building.

I'd rather park where a crappy building was than walk past it from my car a block away. No feelings whatsoever about this one.

In many way this, this addition attempted to be built to the curb but failed short. It is almost build to the curb but not quite. In many ways people, decades from now, will reflect on this property as an attempt to build to the curb, therefore, the structure has historic merits and should not be even mention as a demolition project w/o the proper lawsuit being filed.

The sarcastic comments are getting kinda old, guys.

Make your point and move on.

Is there a Parking Lot Restoration Committee that could have a meeting and talk about restoring the parking lot? and vote if having the parking lot built to the curb or not has historical merit? perhaps putting a building in between the curb and the parking lot would lend itself to no particular design. the planting of shrubs along the double yellow line in the middle of the street might harken back to the days of Yesterdays Future Buildings of Today, complete with bike rack on the roof and brass dirigible mooring post by the front door. or something...

I can't shed any tears for this one, too many wonderful old buildings are quietly disappearing from the less visible corners of the city. In the past 30 years I have observed the demolition of countless old structures that once gave definition and a sense of place to our old neighborhoods. We are destroying the one advantage we have and are too impatient to recognize the future potential of this finite asset.

The question here to me is: What do we want our Main St. to look like?

The former Medina Deli/Gas Station is clearly not appropriate for this portion of Main St. Neither is a corner parking lot.

This portion of Main St. is in Allentown. One of the densest residential neighborhoods in the city. I believe that the City plans to extend Allen St. east of Main. If the intent is to expand the relative success of Allen St. onto Main and across it, then development in this area should support that. And, I believe that includes a street full of, built to the sidewalk multi story buildings.

In order to achieve this, the Gas Station needs to come down, and a new larger (at least 2 story building) needs to be built in its place. How can this be achieved? I do not have that answer.

Clearly a ramp is a possibility. Bini states that a ramp is not preferable to customers. I concede that this is true, but what about employees / business people? If these buildings are mostly being renovated for office space, with possible eventual small shops on the first floor, and maybe some residential eventually, is it not reasonable for office workers and renters to park in a ramp? I know I prefer ramp/garage parking at work and at home, especially in winter, because I don't have to clean the snow off my car.

Can the city incentivize ramp construction by eliminating the increase in property tax for a period of years? We all believe that we need more ramps instead of surface parking, what can we do to incentivize the construction of more ramps?

Sorry for the rambling nature of my post.

i harbor no secret affection for current or former gas stations, but i will say that pizzarias love them because of the easy access for their delivery drivers. i'd rather see a thriving pizza shop here than a dead parking lot.

oh, and it is insane to incentivize ramp garages. we have plenty of socialized parking. let's incentivize walking, cycling, and mass transit instead. it is cheaper to give someone 10 single-speed bikes and 10 metro rail passes and 10 bike racks than it is to give them one free parking space in a ramp garage.

I'm all in favor of making mass transit functionally better. I'm a big fan of walking. I have always loved walking and I always will, much more so than most of society. I have no problem walking five or ten miles in an afternoon or evening (well, at least before kids). I strongly favor improving pedestrian and bicyclist access throughout the city. I refuse to take the bus because I refuse to waste a half hour waiting for the damned thing and the schedules are so constricted and I can usually walk to my destination before the bus gets there. BUT: IF giving out passes to the metro were cost competitive with parking, don't you think developers would already be pushing that idea? Tell me: what development projects have you ever been involved with?

I love the comment about a Starbucks, yeah just what we need 4bucks taking more money out of the Buffalo economy by selling overpriced coffee. Obviously 2 business did not make it there. Starbucks has professional analysts that tell them what site will do well, obviously they decided no on this one.I would not like to see a 4bucks on another site in Buffalo. If I am not confused but their are other businesses in the vicinity that could use a parking lot.