Construction Watch: 448 Elmwood Avenue

Cant wait to see this finished.

It's so great to see the structure being built - when compared to the KFC shack, this is going to make a HUGE impact on that stretch of Elmwood. Can we build another one where Blight Aid is located across the street? Then can we see another one go up at the Children's Hospital corner?

It is great to see this being built. We need about 80 more of these.

Who gets the eight parking spaces?

awesome, awesome, awesome!

Looks great. But please put clear glass in the storefronts.

Is there an alley between the building?

I have to agree that there are many sites along Elmwood that are ripe for this kind of 3-5 story mixed use retail, office residential mix.

It also makes the much bigger case that Womens and Childrens Hospital needs to leave Elmwood Avenue and relocate to the Life Sciences Corridor with the rest of the medical professionals. Sorry but Womens and Childrens is a detriment to the community in this location because it requires to much land and as it grows it wants more land that the community cannot spare. Second the services and the specialists are in the Life Sciences Corridor and there is no room for them to co-locate at Womens and Childrens on Bryant..and why should they...when many of the services and specialists have the majority of their patients in the Life Sciences Corridor.

Wilson Farms: Goodbye
Globe Market: Goodbye
Rite Aid: Goodbye
Womens and Childrens Hospital: Goodbye

Incircles: the apartments or hotel or whatever at Forest and Elmwood is great. Add it to the list. There is no reason the businesses like Wilson Farms, Globe or Rite Aid have to close business. Its the building that people say does not belong in the community.

biniszkiewicz: look like it or not the Hospital wanted to move to the Life Sciences Corridor and is still considering moving to the Life Sciences Corridor because it reallizes LONG TERM that it is landlocked and the community is opposed to demolishing any more homes for the hospital to expand. IF CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IS GETTING OPPOSITION TO EXPAND ITS FOOTPRINT NOW ITS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE 10 YEARS FROM NOW AFTER MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT. THEIR NOT STUPID! Add in the fact that the special services and specialists needed to support reproduction, pregnancy and children are resident in the Life Sciences Corridor.

Mr. Bini, you can live with your head in the ground but these are facts that are blatantly obvious to the consortium of doctors that run the hospital. As far as losing the hospital patrons, again open your eyes because Elmwood is outgrowing the Buffalo State college students and its outgrowing childrens hospital. Elmwood is an older, more dense urban version of Hertel filled with more demand for residential, more demand for office space and more demand for street level retail.

You may agree or disagree but please dont call me christine or shirley or mary or barbra or debbie.

Buffalonian4Life, keep up the nice work with the photos.

Now I know why they don't build to the curb. This thing is a sightline albatross.

aw, that's so sweet. i think you have a crush on me.

I hope the other 1600 sq feet of retail space available could be a KFC. We need some good food like that on this corner.

Can someone explain how this works financially?

It is a $3.5million project. So the partners put up $300,000…. that leaves a $3.2 million loan.

The payment on 3.2 million at 7% is $28,762 per month or $345,144/year.

There are 12 living units with 950-1250 sq feet each. Lets say each rent for $1200/month.

Total apartment income is $14,400/month or $172,800 per year.

There is 4,300 square feet retail. Lets say $20 per sq foot, that is $86,000/ year.

So we have income of $258,800 per year (with no vacancies).

Other expenses include water, sewer, insurance, maintenance and property taxes.

Say the building has a tax assessment of $750,000…. that is 25% of building cost equals taxes of about $35,000/ year.

Now:
The building is running at a negative cash flow of at least $10-12,000 per month.

So how does this project work financially? Who and how is it being funded?

Furthermore…. take say $150,000 away for building the retail space. That means 12 apartments cost $3.5 million minus $150k or $279,000 each. Entire houses sell (and can be built for) for much less than that.

So I challenge someone to tell me how money can be made on this project, who is making it and how it makes sense economically.

I am glad to see it happening, but the numbers do not add up.

Either some invester is getting Madoved or there is some kind of ponzi scheme going on.