Amherst Firm Moving to Delaware Avenue

BUFFALO - 1
AMHERST - 0

We need to see more of this type of migration back to the city more often. It is time the suburbanites realized that Buffalo is the city that made their precious suburbs possible.

Yeah.. it's a huge victory when the City and the Suburbs are competing with each other for jobs and not with other cities outside of the region. People who look their nose down on suburbanites are no different than suburbanites who look down on city dwellers... as in they're immature and we need far less of them.

Time to accept that both the cities and suburbs are dependent on one another for the time being so lets stop this grade-school pissing match. Time to focus on bringing jobs into the region as a whole.

one company i'd love to see move from amherst back into the city is Buffalo Spree. I know they cover events/businesses/homes in the suburbs too, but come on now, the city's name is right in the title!

So when Amherst 'steals' a company from Buffalo using IDA breaks...it is bad.

However, when Buffalo 'steals' a company from Amherst using IDA breaks...it is good.

Got it. I guess this solves the issue of IDA breaks.

"increasingly black"

It's funny how these mid-20th-century buildings, which I used to have nothing but contempt for, have become appealing to me.

How pathetic that this "discussion" becomes yet another "Amherst is evil" session. You city-lovers need to get over yourselves.

Also pathetic: How a relocation and investment for 2,700,000 is all of a sudden made possible by a benevolent government giveaway of 24,000.

You idiots mean to tell me that a company will uproot itself entirely and move to somewhere it'd allegedly NEVER consider going because they were bribed with less than 1% of the overall investment?

GIVE ME A BREAK.

This company wanted to move, was ready to invest a couple million. Buffalo giving them the equivalent of a few cases of Blue is a joke - their executive team can join their favorite CC for a couple years.

It's VERY telling that the Buffalo Rising More-Government-Is-Good-Government crowd would lead this post with the IDA's pennies as if it was the only way this deal was possible, and ignores the usual problem of multiple IDA's passing money around to poach from each others' territory.

As a postscript, 35 whole employees gets you on some "top 100 in WNY" list? Ye gods.

This is a definite win for the city and that strip of Delaware; however, this is not a win for the region, which Buffalo and the suburban and rural towns of Erie County are a part of. No new jobs were created as a result of this move (as mentioned numerous times before) and now there is an empty building in Amherst that has the potential to promote the same kind of blight/decline that the city has been abused with for the last half-century.

I am all for the region realigning its goals of expansion to one of filling the gaps in its core, but I call into question the mentality that allows us to celebrate at the expense of another empty building. There needs to be a regional plan (which includes all of Erie and Niagara County) drawing a line in the sand as to where and how new and existing businesses operate, expand, or move and promotes less car depended more walkable/public transportation design. There needs to be a promotion of policy that encourages businesses to start, move, or expand into WNY. There needs to be a more prominent Urban Homesteaders program that encourages people that may build new in the suburbs to gamble on saving an old home in the city, reducing the need for expanded infrastructure and helping to stabilize communities in peril. I know this is a fool’s dream since it is quite evident, based on the postings on BRO and other sites and the discussions I hear here and there, that very few people can let go of the bitterness and self-victimization this region seems to breed.

I am often astounded at some of the things posted that smack of such absurd provincialism and hypocrisy by people that I have come to respect over the years of regularly visiting this site. There is no great conspiracy to steal business from the city by the suburbs and in reverse, I do not recall armies of city dwellers descending upon the suburbs to spread the disease of crime and violence. These gross generalizations and outright fallacies must stop in order for us to realize any forward progress. Like it or not, neither the city nor the suburbs are self-sufficient and rely on one another for their continued existence. We need to stop fighting with one another and reveling when misfortune descends upon our neighbors. Let’s start fighting the real battles which exist between the citizenry of WNY and the elected officials and captains of industry on the local, state, and national level that keep us neutered and impotent.

Then again, I am a dreamer and a fool . . .

JSmith - I couldn’t agree more. The act of infill is better than the current unsustainable outward expansion and the destruction of the surrounding rural environment (something I frequently lament on this site); however, the trend here (and elsewhere) of adopting the “better them than us” position only promotes division and ill will, perpetuating the ridiculous infighting that prevents us from focusing on making this region a better, more stable place.

But . . . with that said, I would rather see a building constructed with care and craftsmanship (not that 600 Delaware really fits that profile) saved over one built on the cheap and at the expense of the environment.

Oh - and thanks for the correction about the jobs - I should have read with a little more care.

@ Dan - To your comment -

"Nobody benefits when cities, towns and villages poach businesses and jobs off of each other, with no new jobs created as a result. From a regional standpoint, economic development is pointless if it's just a zero sum game."

I have to disagree. The benefit is actually keeping the business in WNY v. moving to another region. THAT is the regional benefit.

We are not playing SimCity. You can not force businesses to move to an area because it fits better into some armchair plan for redevelopment. In an idea world, there would not be the need for IDA breaks simply because WNY is so vibrant and growing, businesses would want to stay or move to the region just to be a part of it.

Lost in all of the comments about IDA breaks is the net benefit, regardless of if it is Amherst or Buffalo. This group is getting $24K in exchanged for investing $2.7M or for every $1 of tax breaks, this company is going to spend $112.50.

But the idea that Buffalo owns the right to all growth, simply because it needs it the most, is downright stupid. It is that arrogance that makes most of Erie County not care about the city.

What a lot of people fail to recognize is that every healthy metro area has urban office space and suburban office space. These two options go hand in hand. The narrow view that Steel has of "a net benefit in contracting to all and a net negative to all in expanding outward in a shrinking region" is naive.

Right now, WNY is on the verge of great opportunity. It is also on the verge of sinking further into a black hole. The way I see it, the COB should focus on the BIG FISH. Instead of looking to 'steal one from Amherst', they should use every break possible to ensure that First Niagara, M&T and HSBC stay in the downtown core. They should use every break possible to attract out of region options to expand the medical campus and lastly they should focus on technology. With the recent news that Verizon wants to build a $4B data center, that market should grown.

In a healthy region, the city lands the BIG FISH and the suburbs collect the spin off. In WNY, Buffalo is trying to compete with Amherst instead of trying to compete with other cities. THIS is the zero sum game. The reason is Buffalo and Amherst are two different flavors. They need to work together to make WNY a better option than other metro regions. But in order for this to happen, Buffalo needs to stop crying about what Amherst does and just focus on what it should be doing.

I think its terrific that another company is moving into the city. I've been looking for a job for months (presently employed and looking to make a change)and the city is as far North as I really want to go, as it takes me an hour to drive that far. Most of the opportunities in my field (legal) are in the Northtowns.