Author: fashionmaniac

Fashion Maniac: Keeping tabs on Buffalo’s fashion industry, including models, catwalks, retailers, designers, stylists, visual merchandisers and jewelers.All Photography & Publisher : Cheryl Gorski Managing Editor : Nicole FordBray Alexander: Facebook Social Media Director Creative Assistant & Web Layout : Alyssa Marzolf Contributing Style Editor : Kara Weymouth Hair Stylists : Whitney Curry Make-up by : Dani Weiser Stylist : Katie Gariepy Accessories Stylist : Marilyn Hammer Prop/Set Stylist: Todd WarfieldCreative Social & Media Director: Kim Cohen Leather & Lace by: Kara Weymouth If the lace and leather trend dominating the spring 2013 runways is any indication, designers are channeling…

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This weekend, the members of Emerging Leaders in the Arts Buffalo (ELAB) will be taking things beyond the visual realm with their second annual Creative Conversation event: Emergence. Having gotten their feet wet last year with Urban Alchemy, the group will be moving in a new direction at this year’s event, focusing on the diversity of the city’s growing flock of emerging artists. “A big goal of mine was to open things up to all disciplines of art: theater, music, performance, poetry, spoken word, etc.–not just visual artists,” said Rich Tomasello of ELAB. “I tried to include as many emerging artists…

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On November 4, three of Buffalo’s cupcake gurus will face off in the Artisan Kitchens and Baths kitchen showroom to see who will take home the title in Feed Your Soul’s latest baking and decorating competition: The Nickel City Cupcake Challenge. “In Buffalo, cupcakes have really taken off in the last few years,” said Christa Glennie Seychew, owner of Feed Your Soul. “There are so many independent bakeries who are choosing to specialize in this sweet treat that we thought it would be fun to showcase them.”Justina Adams of The Buffalo Cakery, Genevieve Perryman of Cupcake Orchard, and Kelly Audette of…

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The historic Erie Freight House could be demolished and replaced with a residential development. Property owner 441 Ohio Street LLC consisting of FFZ Holdings of Buffalo and Savarino Companies, have determined the condemned building cannot be feasibly restored and have reported this to the City of Buffalo. In its place, the development team is proposing a four-story, 48 unit residential project with public access to the Buffalo River. It would be built upon the remaining foundations of the former warehouse. The circa-1868 Erie Freight House is a two-story heavy timber frame structure with 550 feet of Buffalo River frontage. It…

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Many of Buffalo’s remnants from its industrial past are finding new life and new uses. Buildings along the waterfront, in Midtown, University District, Larkin District, Medical Campus and of course downtown are finding new life in the form of offices, lofts, incubator space or arts centers. The latest is the F.N. Burt plant at 500 Seneca Street. Savarino Companies and FFZ Holdings are proposing to convert the building into over 250,000 sq.ft. of office space at a cost of $35 million.Preservation Studios is writing the National Register Nomination and completing the Part II and Part III Applications to qualify the…

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Savarino Companies and FFZ Holdings have further refined their plans for the renovation of the former F.N. Burt Company plant at 500 Seneca Street. The vacant industrial complex at the edge of the Larkin District will be converted into a mix of offices and cultural and business incubator space. Revised plans include more subtle balconies for office tenants, an amazing sign on the southwest corner of the building, and enclosed parking.

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The downtown hotel market has a high occupancy rate, rising rates, and many more rooms in the development pipeline. The occupancy rate for downtown’s 1,798 hotel rooms rose to 67.7 percent in the first seven months of 2012, up from 64.9 percent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research, a research and consulting firm. The national occupancy rate for the same period was 62.3 percent (see table below). Downtown Buffalo occupancy rates ranged from a low of 45.5 percent in January to 82.7 percent in June. Industry standards suggest it takes a 60 percent occupancy rate for a hotel to…

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A vacant Elm Street property has changed hands. Elm Street Properties LLC sold the former Spaghetti Warehouse building at 141 Elm Street (officially 456 Michigan Avenue on property tax records) to Elm/Michigan Holdings LLC for $706,522 yesterday. According to the NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database, Elm/Michigan Holdings has a mailing address of 2760 Kenmore Avenue in Tonawanda where TM Montante Development has its offices. The circa-1883 building has been home to a string of restaurants and bars beginning with Spaghetti Warehouse in 1988, Your Father’s Mustache, Sweetwater’s, and finally SensationZ which closed in 2004. The 43,500 square foot structure…

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Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo is getting a new name. Kaleida Health announced this morning that the John R. Oishei Foundation is donating $10 million towards the new hospital planned for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The facility will be named the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. The 12-story, approximately 400,000 square foot hospital will be built at the corner of Ellicott and High Streets, across from the Buffalo General Hospital and across the street from the planned University at Buffalo Medical School. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott of Boston, MA, one of the country’s top pediatric healthcare architects,…

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Rocco Termini’s redevelopment plans for the long-vacant AM&A’s Department Store appear to be dead thanks to Albany’s foot dragging. A $60 million makeover would have put office space, apartments, retail, restaurants, a small hotel and health club into the Main Street property. The AM&As project was contingent on Governor Cuomo signing a bill into law that would have raised the State’s historic preservation tax credit cap from $5 million to $12 million. That bill has been passed by both the State Senate and Assembly, but incredibly, hasn’t been forwarded to the Governor for consideration. Rocco says he has tenants lined…

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