Unfulfilled Dreaming
Last December, Gabe and I put together a list of ‘planning and design headlines’ we hoped to see in 2006. As the year winds down, here's a look to see how we’ve done. Short answer: Lousy. Looks like the wish list can roll-over into the new year pretty much intact.
•Barnes and Noble Signs Main Place Lease. Redevelopment of this key property remains a pipe dream.
•City Cracking Down on Slumlords, Illegal Flipping. Somewhat. The Anti-Flipping Task Force has issued a report, but solutions and action are slow in coming.
•City Neighborhoods to be Aggressively Marked to Region’s Empty-Nesters. There is not a coordinated effort to market the city to this emerging demographic market.
•Construction Started on AM&A's Rehab. Progress but no work started. The property was sold to a downstate developer with initial conversion work expected to start in 2007. Getting closer anyway.
•Developer Commits to Building Townhouses on Franklin St. Parking Lots in Theater District. Still plenty of parking on this stretch of Franklin.
•Developer Found for Central Terminal. No such luck. The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation continues to do yeoman’s work preserving the landmark and utilizing the space for events in the meantime.
•Elmwood near Buff State to Get Pedestrian Friendly Make-over. No work eminent.
•Elmwood/Auburn Wilson Farms To Demolished and Replaced With Mixed-Use Project. Still dreaming about this one and the potential of the site.
•Emergency Demolition Ordered for Skyway. The Skyway isn’t on the verge of collapsing, but Brian Higgins is creating momentum for plans to replace the elevated eyesore.
•First Lofts Planned for Exchange Street Corridor. Getting closer. CityView Properties is said to be considering a residential project near its Larkin Building and Mill Race Commons developments.
•Former Burger King and Main and Mohawk to be Demolished. While a plan is being worked on to redevelop the 500 block of Main, so far this corner building is sitting on the sidelines and remains for sale.
•HSBC Commits to New Downtown Tower. HSBC’s lease at it namesake skyscraper expires in a few years but a lease renewal is likely.
•K-Mart at Broadway/Fillmore to be Redeveloped. No redevelopment in sight. A plan to convert the property into a school faltered.
•Lafayatte Hotel Sold, Condos Planned. Condo buyers won’t be moving into the Lafayette anytime soon. The New York City owners seem content with operating the building as-is.
•Landbanking Program to be Studied. It would represent a significant policy change at City Hall and doesn’t appear to be on the Administration’s radar screen.
•M&T Bank Agrees to Sell Washington St. Parking Lots. The bank’s two full blocks of surface parking remain, but development on surrounding properties is creating more to think “if only.”
•Mayor Brown to Appoint a New Urbanist Planner as Head of Strategic Planning. Right.
•Metro Rail Extensions Promised by 2010. Lots of talk for extensions, even by Brian Higgins, but so far falling on deaf ears at the NFTA.
•Outer Harbor Work Begins after 50+ Years of Study. Looks like more studies coming. The development plan by Uniland/Opus derailed and the NFTA is transferring ownership of the property to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation.
•Paladino Sells Greystone and Webb Buildings. We got one! Ellicott Development sold the Webb Building to Rocco Termini a few weeks ago. Rocco is also planning to purchase the Greystone. Both will be converted to apartments.
•Plan to Reopen Genesee Street Advances. Until the convention center goes, just wishful thinking.
•Ray McGurn Retires; Next Stop: Florida. Not sure where Mr. McGurn is living, but he isn’t overseeing the Inspections Department at City Hall.
•Regional Land Use Planning Commission to be Created. Regional cooperation on land use decisions is a pipe dream. See the Greenway Plan fight for an example of the region’s current cooperative spirit.
•Richardson Complex Renovation Begins. The money set-aside by the State for shoring up the property is dwindling, but substantial renovation work hasn’t started.
•Senecas Hire World Class Architect, Promise to be "City-Friendly.” Not sure if SOSH Architects is world-class, but they have carved out a niche designing casinos throughout the country including the Buffalo Seneca Creek Casino on Michigan Avenue.
•Survey Reveals that most WNYers with Office Jobs Prefer to Work in Urban Environment. No such survey undertaken.
•Townhouse Project Slated for Fruitbelt Neighborhood. Although not market rate, St. John’s and Bethel Development each have subsidized town home projects planned in the Fruitbelt and Masten neighborhoods.
•Twenty-story Condo Planned at Former Convention Center Ramp Site. The former parking ramp site remains for sale, but BSC Development has proposed a 40-story mixed-use development for a parking lot a few blocks away. Close but no cigar.
•Upper Floors of Chippewa St. Buildings to be Converted into Residences. A residential redevelopment plan by Kissling Interests for the Calumet Building fell apart. Another near miss.
•Whole Foods Scours Downtown for Location. Whole Foods doesn’t appear to looking downtown or at the region at this time. Wegmans and others will have to do for now.
One out of thirty isn't bad, is it?
Have a loving, healthy and prosperous 2007. Happy New Year!
Chris
McGurn is now an inspector in the North District of the city. Seems McGurn prefers NOT to go into buildings where his shoes can get dirty, however, and has yet to write any cases for Housing Court. (I ain't kiddin')
Wow... your usual excellent work in preparing this scorecard and update.
Thanks WCP for all your informative articles on this site and Happy New Year!
Gotta take issue with your "Landbanking" item. That is what City Hall has been doing for decades with properties it acquires through tax forfeiture. Just try and purchase one of them. You will be expected to pony up an imaginary "market value," which is well in excess of what the building is really worth. What we need instead is an urban homesteading program, in which qualified buyers get a building for a dollar. In return, they must bring it up to code, get it on the tax rolls, and occupy it at least 5 years before selling. No flipping, no absentee landlording.
I don't know what problem you have with Tim Wannamaker. As soon as he came to town he rewrote the strategic plan to include smart growth and urban design principles. He has made great progress considering the condition of the department he inherited. Retaining him was one of the best moves Brown has made since taking office. I can't think of any reasonable explanation that would lead BRO to call for his head. Just because a guy doesn't come with star power or throw around your favorite buzz word doesn't mean he's not the right guy for the job.
I just don't understand why the owner/s of Main Place Mall don't invest and market to lure retail back to the only urban mall in Buffalo. A makeover, better street scape on both Main and Pearl, an anchor store, and even extend UP to the 3rd. floor if the demand was there ....if they marketed the Mall. If all the other malls in this region can re-do themselfs for the better, why can't Main Place?
Spandrel - Right On! Everyone is jumping on the landbanking bandwagon but homesteading is the absolute cure!
QUANTUM....I do believe MR McGURN DID write one property !! yes 1, for Housing Court on RESERVATION ST in BLACK ROCK.
IT TOOK PERSISTENCE ON MY PART FOR HIM TO DO IT AS HE WAS VERY RELUCTANT , and I had to go over his head to a superior, who personally came out to inspect the property AFTER!! I produced photos of the exterior violations that were first brought to the inspection dept's attention in 2003!!! while he was HEAD of this dept. The owner has been given to MAY 07 to bring the house in compliance. I wish RAY well...IN ANOTHER DISTRICT!!
Is the above picture from the granite works? What a great project that is! A true sucess for Buffalo.
We need more projects like GW for the city to prosper.
Wendy- Yes, that is from a unit at Granite Works that has access to a rooftop deck overlooking Main Street and the Medical Campus.
Homesteading and land banking could actually team up and work as a successful formula. The city should get more serious about demolishing abandoned and problem properties then group them together into bigger parcels that would make homesteading much more tempting.
People would be more apt to homestead if it involved removing problems blight, crime, and other nagging problems from troubled neighborhoods.
durak, couldn't agree with you more. My neighborhood motto is "Clean up the yard before you invite folks over for the bar-b-que." In other words, clean up the crime issues proactively BEFORE you start building new houses. Look to see what you can rehab BEFORE you build new houses. Help the neighborhood come together with a block club or neighborhood association to assist with the identification of bad properties regarding crime and other issues BEFORE you build new houses.
Otherwise, you might just step in a pile of doo...........
JOE D, you're hysterical!!!! Was that the house McGurn didn't want to walk in to becuase he was wearing his good shoes?
Good for you, Joe, keep the pressure on to make sure these people are accountable for the money they're making, they should be. Either that or have McGurn move to that building from his South Buffalo oasis.
if main place mall could attract clients that no one else has in this region i.e. H and M or urban outfitters or maybe even a grocery store it could work. But then all you need is parking and accessibility. I've lived in buffalo for 23 years and won't step foot in the mall. I don't even know whats in there
Steve, the Main Place is usally busy during lunch hours and most Saturdays, but the sad thing is the lack of stores. With such a select few of retail options, I can't shop there. At least in the clothing area, nothing for me. I don't want to look like a pimp or a street dude. With so many office workers and those like me who actually like to dress decent, we have no place in the Main Place to shop...how sad.
As for parking. You do know that you can park under the Main Place for FREE on Saturdays right? And street parking is also free after 5pm and weekends. If the mall was to stay open past 5:30pm like other malls and was open on Sundays (usally a busy day at the other malls around the country), and if the owners would invest, market and lure more retailers (major ones) AND Renovated the dated 1960's look, then maby this Mall would be hot stuff.
What about the Rich's Coffee building right next to Elk Terminal?...I was hoping there would be an announcement in 2006 about redevelopment, of course not, maybe in 2007.
Excellent list.
When asked, Wannamaker admitted to not knowing who Andres Duany was (Duany is the most prominent urban planner of our time.) Ouch, that hurts.....
Wannamaker may be a good administrator but we could use better.
As for McGurn, I have some frequent flyer miles I'll donate to send him packing for Florida.
All those listed proposals and dreams with the obvious exception of the proposed Seneca Casino are excellent ideas and would help revitalize Buffalo into an exciting, prosperous city. I especially like the proposed 20 story luxury condo tower at the empty Huron-Franklin site and the idea of a Barnes & Noble Booksellers superstore at the neglected Main Place Mall. Our major stumbling block is our continued weak economy and predominance of mostly low wage service jobs. In order to implement all the above listed ideas, we must change the way we do business in Buffalo and Western New York and change our overall attitudes about our city and region. Enough said.
To the earlier comments, the Main Place really is depressing. The entire second floor is dead except for the food court. Now Waldenbooks is closing and the mall loses one of the few recognizable names it had left. Given that there are office towers surrounding all four sides of the place, those guys running it should be run out of town for putting forth so little effort.