Community Task Force Seeks Developer STAT!

Honestly, this parcel's day has gone. This plaza probably had a lot to do with the demise of the surrounding neighborhood, not the other way around. It would be more beneficial to the neighborhood if it were raised and grass and trees planted. There could almost be a link to McCarthy park on the back end near the post office.

Or how about this: Land Bank the parcel to a developer for new housing? Novel i know...

I agree with Arch; I think it would be best to just remove the buildings, tear up the pavement and plant grass and trees, with some simple walking paths across it. Make it into a nice place to live near. Or if demand merits it, reconnect the Hill Street and extend Chalmers and Wade to Manhattan and sell the individual lots for development of new houses.

I think retail would be better kept on our existing shopping streets like Main and even Kensington.

just clear it out and landbank it along with much of the wasteland of the east side. get some homesteaders in and start farming or start silvicultural operations on it.

sure, you could suburbanize it even more than it already is. clear the site and plant grass and apply the magic 'green space' band-aid, everyone's knee-jerk solution to an abandoned site.

thanks, but we have enough urban prairie.

if no one will farm it, which is a much better idea, consider reurbanizing it. restore street connections through it and divide it into house lots sized like those around it. auction off the lots to homesteaders who will build by a certain year.

Hire Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill and build an awe-inspiring skyscraper and develop a grape orchard in the back. Rezone it from commercial to farm and then back to commercial/farm along the way to confuse people a little.

This area used to the Quarry, like what can be found over across the tracks on Main Street. It was then 'filled' probably with junk and garbage. I would doubt any suitable soil exists under this pavement for farming. The location is just off the beaten path too much for new commercial development. I am in agreement with those that feel it should be redivided with any 'original' streets and greened. http://www.erie.gov/aerials/1920s/atlases/book7/html/b7_g24.html

This neighborhood directly south of this plaza, a once stable area of the East side has become increasingly more and more volatile. I grew up here not too long ago and it wasn't nearly as depressing as it is today. You can see from Leroy, through Jewett to Wakefield in some spots as housing has been demolished under our mayor's 5x5. It makes the whole area feel even more unsafe and worthless than with the boarded up buildings there. It is the opposite direction they should be going to spur development.

No developer is going to come in to save the day, if the city doesn't start either forcing people to maintain the property they own or just start taking it and giving it to people willing to do the job. This area still has a lot of good homeowners in it but it needs support, where the homeowners are.

If you develop this area into new housing it will probably be developed as an island and in isolation from the neighborhood and do nothing to support it as a whole. Think of McCarley gardens. 30 years of stable, isolation does nothing to help the neighborhood it turned its back on. The Fruit Belt continued to decline even with a great new housing development. If you want to save this neighborhood you need to focus on the residential soul (Victoria, Rodney, Wakefield) and commercial heart (Fillmore, Amherst Main). Trying to make the neighborhood bigger means the spreading out of what little resources might be available to help what is left.

To go further these houses are quite nice. Great woodwork, single families (mostly), BIG yards, tree lined streets, walk up attics, full basements.

Some people in their hearts may consider it "prime land", but reality is saying something different.

Why shouldn't CP Plaza be land banked? In other words, the city should take ownership, not try to find new occupants, and plan to leave it empty indefinitely. Some relocation assistance could be given to the last few remaining tenants.

Some day way in the future, there might again be real demand for some private sector activity there. Until then, there's plenty of vacant commercial space on the part of Main St near there, not to mention streets like Bailey and Kensington.

No need to spend money converting CPP to green space. Instead, there's already McCarthy park near there which is closer to the residential streets and would be a smarter place for better green space or maybe a playground, etc.

article> You would think that this would be prime spot for a grocery store or a housing complex

Search for my earlier posts explaining why CPP died, and why redevelopment for retail use would ultimately harm, not help the surrounding neighborhoods. It's quite far off the beaten path, with almost no vehicle traffic passing by the site. Retailers want passing eyeballs, something that is almost nonexistent adjacent to the site.

Redevelopment of the site for retail uses would only exacerbate the decline of the nearby Bailey Avenue retail district in Kensington, and prolong the revitalization of Main Street. Retail in the area belongs on Main, where it's easily accessible and visible from the Parkside, Central Park, University Heights and Fillmore-Leroy neighborhoods; not hidden away a few blocks to the east.

What to do with CPP? Land bank it for now, but also find out what dangers lies beneath the surface, and what can be done to remediate them. CPP occupies a part of what used to be the Bennett Quarry.

this talk of the central park plaza being a dead zone is too fatalist. there are a select few big box stores that could save that area. ikea is obviously the fantasy but in reality something as pedestrian as a lowe's would suffice. think about the area that became home depot on elmwood....that was a complete dead zone for a while. that home depot spawned a tops, a target, a petsmart and an aldi's. admittedly none of these are an urbanite's dream but they manage to pay the rent every month and draw in consumers and at the end of the day that matters.

Here a few pics from today:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixbuffalo/sets/72157623801531107/

Here, as a slide show:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fixbuffalo/sets/72157623801531107/show/

I'd suggest some of the posters here step out of their bubbles and enact their CPP redevelopment plans by trying to obtain financing for such a project, or by putting their own money at risk.

I'm sure the experience will reveal that the CPP ought to be mothballed until demand returns which enables its reuse.

The Central Park Plaza should be bulldozed along with the Bennett Village Projects and every decrepit vacant house in that area. The Mayor should institute a task force to have the buildings stripped of anything of value that remains and then have them torn down. This used to be a habitable area of the city, but it is now a gang infested ghetto, it is time we get to work to tear out all the decay and start rebuilding this entire area as a park. This could be the feel good project of the summer. Make it a true "CENTRAL PARK".

Wow, I'm a Libertarian and even I can see the owner has given up defacto ownership of the property. Some very clear ground rules have to be made that at some level and length of abandonment, the right of ownership is lost.

I really don't know Buffalo, but from my experience in NYC and now Pittsburgh, I would say that showing no care at all for the property will have a very negative effect.

We just had a Jane's walk in Pittsburgh's Polish hill, an area that over time lost a good deal of housing but managed to infill it with small community gardens and pocket parks- which then shift around the area as new houses are built. Most of these were volunteer efforts but the sum total showed the remaining residents were not giving up.

I know this is a large chuck of land but showing some concern for it will pay dividends in terms of removing really dangerous hazards and then letting nature take over.