Buffalorising has been redesigned.

Is there an architect attached to this design or was this designed by Ellicott development?

Looks like we went and got our hopes up for nothing. The building was better off the way it's been since they ripped the last faux facade off of it. Oh well.

I hate the right side design. I thought we were trying to bring retail and other activity BACK to Main St.? We've just added MORE blank walls with this over head windo design for first floor office space. I'm wondering if the group in charge of marketing this building is REALLY pushing for a retailer to take up the remaining first floor or are we going to see ANOTHER office snatch it up with MORE Blank walls to pass on Main St.? We've heard it before, they say it's Retail Space, and then the next day, it's a new office space. I'm not buyin it this time, just look at the design already.

What about the Apartment Lofts that were suppost to go into the upper levels of this building? Did it now change last minute to offices? Did I miss something?

I believe the faux windows on the left side where originally windows, but were blocked in when the brown metal skin was added to the building. It would be nice if they recreated the Neisner's facade, if even with a stucco product. They might have not kept what was left of the original since the first floor sections were missing, and what was left was covered in holes that anchored the metal framework for the brown metal skin. I hope they do better than a half hearted faux brick cover up. I remember reading somewhere online that it was going to be refaced in brick to match the Pearl St facade. I hope they do better than that.

1. Why would someone rent a luxury apartment above or next to the NYS Division of Parole? A luxury rooming house perhaps?

2. Why the bait and switch, and how do we make sure we get retail when they say retail next time? This is where new zoning laws need to come into effect.

3. The architect obviously went to the School of Architecture for the Blind.

TYPICAL ..........

3 years of "progress," trying to make Main St/ Downtown Buffalo ATTRACTIVE to "LUXURY RESIDENTIAL" and "one of the BOYS" is allowed to not only do an unattractive renovation, he's ALSO allowed to put a PAROLE OFFICE next door!

SO TYPICAL......another case of "one of the boys" taking advantage of tax credits, Empire Zones, etc. for PERSONAL GREED and not caring about the BIGGER PICTURE!

Like there aren't about 1000 other BETTER places for this office!

SO PATHETIC!

Retail is dead downtown - get over it.already! If the developers could find retail tenants for their storefronts they would lease to them. You can't force someone to open a store where they don't want to.

Yeah, I want to hang out at a store next to a PAROLE OFFICE!!!! (note sarcasm). Normally, I try to be optimistic when I read articles on this website but this is the STUPIDEST, UGLIEST waste I have yet to see on BRO. A parole office?? I'm so speechless, I don't even know what to write.

Now that's what I call a mixed use complex.

Here is an article for people that don't believe in Main St. and downtown revitalization.

June/July 2005

Virginia Review

Trends in Downtown Revitalization

BY MATTHEW M. DUGAN, TIMMONS GROUP

Local government officials should be happy to hear that Main Streets are making a come back. According to Kennedy Lawson Smith, Director of the National Main Street Center, at a recent presentation for the Virginia Main Street Program, “there are some threats to downtowns, but also some of the best signs I’ve seen in over 20 years of working at the National Main Street Center.” Healthy downtowns generate more sales, property and other tax revenue for local governments than a deteriorated and vacant downtown and provide an important place for people to live, work and enjoy.

The Virginia Main Street Program, managed by the Department of Housing and Community Development, hosted Ms. Smith’s presentation on the latest downtown revitalization trends because of her recognized expertise and experience in downtown revitalization. Virginia Main Street works to revitalize the state’s historic downtowns by providing training and technical support to help Main Street communities improve and beautify their downtowns and encourage private investment, business development, and tourism.

Smith began her presentation by outlining the Main Street “circle of investment:” (1) the first step in the circle is to help businesses sell more; (2) businesses can then afford higher rents; (3) this leads property owners to rehabilitate their buildings; (4) the district then looks more attractive; (5) more people visit the district, and then the cycle starts over again. Here’s what Kennedy Smith sees for the future of historic downtowns:

1. Life on the Streets—24/7

Downtown housing is starting to increase, which has led to an increase in foot traffic and purchasing on Main Streets before and after work hours. While each new downtown employee spends between $2,500 and $3,500 downtown each year, each new downtown resident spends anywhere between $7,500 and $14,000 annually in the downtown. Therefore, local government strategy for economic development should include attracting residents to downtown in addition to recruiting new businesses to downtown. Residents living downtown help encourage neighborhood–oriented development such as commercial services and retail.

Communities are seeing a growth in upscale upper story housing, and retirement and assisted living housing is also slowly opening up in downtowns. Movie theaters are making a comeback to Main Street. Theaters that show movies in the evening help increase the number of customers and energy in downtowns. Catering to working professionals, small retail businesses are increasingly open during evening hours.

Smith mentioned an exciting new addition to the Federal HUD program, HOPE VI, which will likely bring more housing to downtowns in the coming years. The HOPE VI program was created in the early 1990s, with significant input from the Congress for the New Urbanism. The program's sole focus has been to provide funds to demolish substandard public housing and replace it with mixed-income, mixed-use communities. The results have generally been very positive. However, because HOPE VI is directly tied to existing public housing, smaller cities, which generally do not have either public housing or a public housing authority, have not been able to take advantage of the program.

A new "Main Street" provision has been added to the regulations that will fulfill the intent of HOPE VI, by providing high-quality affordable housing (“affordable” housing could also include housing for the elderly, artists, et al.) in a mixed-use environment. This is a departure from the way HOPE VI has worked in the past in that it will allow smaller cities to use HOPE VI funds to create affordable housing in existing buildings, such as upper floors, in downtowns. This means that HOPE VI could be used under the new "Main Street" provision even in very rural communities that were not eligible before. For more information about HOPE VI, visit www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/hope6/index.cfm.

2. National Retailers

Another sign of the success of downtowns is that national retailers are starting to open stores downtown. Smith commented, “National retailers are trend followers, not trend leaders.” This is an indication that Main Streets are accepted as economically strong areas, worth moving into. Culpeper and Warrenton, two Virginia Main Street communities with less than 10,000 residents, have an Orvis store located downtown. Furthermore, most of these retailers are not tearing down historic buildings; instead their stores are respectful of the architectural context of downtown.

But as many national retailers are coming back downtown, Smith expressed concerns that U.S. Post Offices were pulling out of Main Streets – a trend that should be monitored in the coming years. Local business leaders and government officials need to be prepared if building stock downtown becomes available.

3. Promote History and the Memory of Place

There are currently 4,500 dead or dying shopping malls in America and some are getting redeveloped into developments that look quite similar to historic downtowns. Smith believes this could cause problems for Main Streets by confusing what is historic and what is not. She believes Main Street communities will need to make a point to distinguish themselves by promoting their rich history and the special memories that their historic downtowns hold in the minds of local consumers.

4. The Importance of Incentives

Smith discussed the need for Main Street communities to offer and promote incentives to potential developers. Local government plays an important role in developing and promoting economic incentives. The Old Town Development Board of Winchester, another Virginia Main Street community, published a guide to help businesses start-up and expand. The guide, Doing Business In Old Town Winchester, contains information on ten different financial resources available from local, state and federal sources. Currently it is easier to develop outside of traditional downtowns because there are fewer hoops to jump through. Incentives such as tax increment financing districts, local technology zones, enterprise zones and various types of tax credits make locating in downtown attractive.

One tax credit program Smith specifically mentioned was the New Markets Tax Credits Program, which is targeted to low-income areas. The New Markets Tax Credits Program permits investors to receive a credit against Federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in designated Community Development Entities (CDEs). In simplest terms, this program makes it attractive for investors to provide capital for community development projects in low-income areas because they receive a Federal tax credit. Without the incentive of the tax credit, it’s unlikely that investors would front capital for many of these projects. In Lynchburg, a Virginia Main Street community, the Lynchburg Neighborhood Investment Fund received a $70,000 award to make affordable housing loans to low-income individuals. For more information, visit www.cdfifund.gov.

Positive Signs for the Future

In her conclusion, Smith stated, “there are some threats to downtowns, but also some of the best signs I’ve seen in over 20 years of working at the National Main Street Center.” The strength of Main Street is the commitment of local governments and volunteers across the country to save buildings and revitalize downtowns.

To learn more about the Virginia Main Street Program and downtown revitalization resources, visit the web at www.dhcd.virginia.gov/mainstreet or call (804) 371-7030.

Matt Dugan is a Land Planner with Timmons Group and can be reached at 804-200-6455 or matt.dugan@timmons.com. Before joining Timmons Group, he worked on a variety of downtown revitalization projects as a Program Assistant with the Virginia Main Street program. He holds a masters degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

you'd have to hope that a parolee wouldnt be dumb enough to do anything funny in front of the parole office... but then again, least competent criminals is one of the funnier categories of news of the weird

Sally,
Retail is not necessarily dead, on life support yes, but not dead. The addition of something like a parole office however is not something that will help the cause. If I'm not mistaken this thing has been vacant forever, there's no reason why the owners couldn't have waited a bit longer for a more attractive renter.

Zen? - no reason not to wait? Let's see you have a building you have been trying to rent for 15 years, you finally get an offer, but you say no? What planet are you from? You clearly must work for either a governmental agency or a non-profit

Jeffrey - huge difference between Va and NY. One has lower taxes, fewer restrictive regulations, and an exploding population. The other is NY with a propose half billion dollar tax increase this year on top of the nattions highest taxes, a declining population and regulation out the wazoo.

Until NY changes it can't happen here.

It's not that bad. If you consider it from the perspective of the building ownder, a parole office makes for a dependable, long term tenant. If you feel that the parole office makes the building unsafe I feel you are mistaken. It actually should make the building very safe buy establishing the presence of law enforcement in the building all day long. I have to think that criminals will be less likely to commit a crime in that building because of the presence of their parole officer. It wil be one of the safest buildings down town. There is still hope for Main St.

I don't care what goes into the building. But come on, if you are going to put a new facade on a ugly building do not replace it with an equally or worse facade. I do not get it. This is main street put a historic type facade on it, so it can transcend time; it can't cost that much more. Besides a better looking building equal better rents.

I, like many of you, would prefer to see the space vacant and deteriorating before a PAROLE OFFICE located there. I mean golly, we should PUNISH the building owners for trying to make money, or even break even on their investment by accepting tenants who are willing to move into their space. That way, it will certainly make investors think twice before buying and rehabbing a building downtown. YEAH! GO heavy handed unrealistic goal enforcing regulations!

Ellicott Development just does not get it. They understand how to construct a building and have it fully leased as soon as possible, regardless who the tenants are and what the buildings looks like. But they haven't a clue of how to develop projects that are going to be good for a neighborhood, raising both property values and demand to be there. Horrendous designs drive people away like this building or his parking garage-like thing over on Tupper. No one wants to locate next to that. There is not going to be as big of a demand for his loft apartments as there would be if this were a decently designed facade with potential for good retail. Furthermore, Paladino couldn't give a rats ass about who his tenants are, just as long as they pay him money, and if its a gov't job, even better because they're not going anywhere. Who is going to want to locate next to the Division of Parole?? Maybe this area isn't ready to boom with retail just yet, but in the future, there will certainly be a market for it. Unfortunately, he is forever damning this part of main street to never have retail development.

At the same time, as this area continues to decline due to negligent development, his property values will also continue to plummet. 15 years down the road, the Belasario will be marketed for subsidized housing instead of the most expensive apartments in the city, right in the heart of a vibrant downtown.

Wow, retail and high end living next to a parole office? Not likely. It seems to me that Washington, cobblestone district and Delaware are the next "IT" streets, Main died a long time ago and with this type of development, will never turn around.

There seems to be a lot of bitter and jealous architects on this site, resenting the fact that their designs were not chosen for this building.

No? Not the case? Do any of you really think the architects will read your opinions and immediately halt construction on this project so they can redesign?

I understand you're disappointed in the design, but none of us have any say in what the building looks like. If any of us wanted a say, the thing's been vacant for 15 years - we've all had plenty of time to put together the funds to purchase and redesign it ourselves.

Obviously the owners and the tenants are okay with the design, or it wouldn't have gone forward. But it's better to have floor to ceiling windows so we can all see the vacant space inside, I guess.

Lastly, when someone is gazing out the window while riding the Metro Rail down to a Sabres game in a few years, the embarassment will not be that there is an average-looking parole office on Main Street downtown. No, the embarassment will be the fact that there are (still, after all these years) numerous vacant storefronts, with a Rainbow and a random Chinese restaurant thrown in to break up the monotony.

One should not complain about the developments taking place unless I have the means to effect the change him or herself.

I should say, unless THEY have the means. Sorry.

Sally,
That is the most contentious point to be sure, these owners are not philanthropists (Newell, you need a spell check here), yet I'm sure they own other properties in that area that are vacant. Renting to a parole office (might as well be a flop house) is not going to fill those other vacant spots, it's going to repel any "established"? retailer/businesses.

No say in development? Then why is there a Zoning Board, Planning Board, and in some cases, a Preservation Board? The City DOES have a say, but they choose not to demand higher quality and pedestrian-friendly design. These boards have proven to be useless. And Shop-it-all said it best: The City certainly isn't going to stall 'one of the boys.'

Wardo,
Jesus Christ, perception shapes reality. A parole office does not equate to safety. People are not going to make it a point to go to Main to view the parole office or admire rapists, theives, et al stamping their monthly Stay Out of Jail card. No this is not Elmwood but can you imagine a parole office going in next to Spot or Everything Elmwood.

Zen, I am not happy about what is going to be put in the space, but you can't legislate leases however my point is there should be guidelines on what a building looks like from the outside, that you can legislate, the city however lets developers do what ever they want when it comes to aesthetics, case in point the old Gas Works Building.

why does everything have to be a landmark retail destination? Perception of prosperity and actual prosperity are not the same thing. Many of you strongly confuse development with economic development. (referring to every comment ever, most recently with comments about the "arena district" and the southside development of Pittsburgh. These developments just shuffle around already existing funds and consumer activity, but they hardly create a booming city. Largely, they funnel public funds to large corporations via national retail outlets, and remove any sense of actual character and pride. If you want to get on the backs of anyone, get on the backs of your state legislators who continue to hold Buffalo hostage with corrupt members, massive taxes to fund STUPID projects (see "Bass Pro," also Rochester's "Renaissance Square"), and no intention to change their ways, not the developers who are struggling to work with this ridiculous and buiky system.

So much for a downtown renaissance....MORE criminal bums on this block of Main St. We already have HEAP two doors down and at least 5 well know panhandlers hanging out on this block..Let's add more with the people on parole.
But, then again, remember a few years back, when an idea came up about tearing this building down for a parking ramp and a over pass to the Tishman Building (which was going to be turned into apartments)? ...Either way, both the planned and current project sucks.
Main Street is really dull and this just adds to it.

Oh my, and I can't wait till Main St. is re-done for traffic to come back, and then retail.....Oh, but wait, we already screwd that up by putting all offices on the first floor....So much for a retail renaissance with auto traffic back.
So, again I ask, "What is Buffalo Place's responiblity?" Are they not in charge of MAIN ST? Does it not say in thier website they work to IMPROVE Main St?---Isn't it about time they do their job and, oh wait, didn't say not too long ago on thier site as well as in the Downtowner that Buffalo Place was not yet aware of the final design for this building? Even as it's been under-construction since summer? Isn't Buffalo Place, a Downtown/Main St. improvement org. suppost to know what is going on in the area they represent? You would think so...and if we they really cared about bringing life and retail back to Main St./Downtown, would'nt you think they would have stepped in by now to fix this problem of over head windows and a parole office taking up space in an area that was suppost to see new living and other activity such as retail/entertainment?
In a town so backwards, I'm not suprised noone even knows who or what group should be responsible for this.
Gawd, I'm so sick of this town.

After rethinking the issue this could be a new springboard away from those annoying imaginative & unrealistic suggestions. A parole "shop" might attract a bailbond office, a bounty hunter training school, an unemployment office, meth clinic...hell put the casino there too. This could be Vice & Down & Out Alley.

How many more of these low life offices need to take up space in this section of Main St. before we see more day time shootings, MORE fights and even office workers packing mace and hand guns for thier own safty, just to walk down this street? Great job Buffalo! Starting the trend to be the next Detroit.

Carl Paladino is on the Buffalo Place Board. Why wouldn't Buffalo Place know what was being done here? Even so, you think they're going to criticize Paladino? Yah, Right.

Buildings here get renovated once every 50 years. Thanks Carl.

Funny, because according to a recent Buffalo Place blurb that I read recently, even Buffalo Place have not seen what the final design would look like.
Hmmm, maby this town really is backwards. Even the ones in charge don't even know what is going on.

Hey, Maby the AM&A's can now be transformed into a downtown Prison? Yeah, think about it...New Life, New residents,...at least something would be done to it. Now I know the rumor is that it'll be turned into living spaces, but then again, wasn't the former Courtyard Mall suppost to have lofts too?

Or better yet, DowntownGuy, how about the Main Place Mall be the new Attica? Yeah, it's larger, just about all the stores are gone and the walk-way over Main St. can lead to the new prison wards living/office spaces. Think about that! A brand new Main St. - Spaces filled and no retail,, who shops downtown anymore anyways.

Good point on re-opening traffic on Main St. What will be the point. I thought the original draw on that was to entice retailers back to Main St.? But how can we if all the spaces are filled with offices and worse, they are filled with Parole, Heap, and other non-profit draw for the lower class? Yeah, I'm sure H&M or the Gap would love be on Main St. now.
It comes as no surprise, all these different groups who are suppost to be promoting downtown, all with different ideas and yet, none actually work together. Not one of these people have a clue of who or what group is doing what and what they are suppost to be doing themselfs. No over-all downtown plan, Queen City Hub is suppost to be in charge, but the Hub Plan haven't changed much since the late 90's when we they were looking forward to a new casino next to the Statler and a massive Convention Center taking up blocks between Washington St.- Oak St. which is now becoming new living spaces.
Buffalo Place says they are in charge of this area and work to improve it, but um,, where are the cops or even some security guards they allegedy have available? Where or what kind of marketing are they using to lure retailers to come downtown? Oh, but wait ,isn't that BERC or the Hubs job? Do these groups even know it's their jobs? My Point exactly! We watch downtown and Main St. die as more and more retailers close, but Buffalo Place have been a part of downtown since the 1970's. Just around the same time Downtown had begun to vanish.

Noone shops downtown anyways. What's the big deal? Downtown is just a place to go for paying fines, jury duty, watching parents beat their kids in public, high school kids taking control of the metro rails and an occasional fist fight every 5 minutes, getting bothered by panhandlers with no orginality, looking at blank walls, mini blinds in first floor windows, .....yeah, that pretty much sums it up...I mean, just look at the above photos, only 2 people walking on Main St. I was downtown yesterday walking past here at around 2pm and not one single person was walking by. Totally not what one would expect of a downtown in the afternoon.

This is the best place for the Parole office. Every other neighborhood in the city would have complained about it. The nice thing about Main Street is that there are no residents, it is on the metro, and the real estate is cheap. Think about the savings to tax payers by putting the office here. Parolees have fewer excuses for not making it to appointments, the real estate savings lowers overhead, and POs can spend less time looking for parking and more time doing their jobs. Another plus is that they are only a few blocks from the Aud, so they can drop in on Parolees at any time. It is a win-win situation for everyone!

This is a travesty. In the past, Paladino has had the nerve to suggest that Buffalo lacks strong leadership. He should look in the mirror.

And yes the Planning Board and Zoning Board have a say in all this. That's why we have facade guidelines and other requirements that building designs must meet. It would appear that the city doesn't care what Main Street looks like. Why are we bothering to bring cars back, when we allow an eyesore like this?

Where is the mayor and Buffalo Place? They love to talk about their great Queen City Plan, but then they let this kind of trash get built.

An eyesore? Let's not get carried away. Wait a minute, this is BRO where everyone loves to get carried away.

Anyways, a building falling apart from neglect that hasn't been occupied in 15 years is...a BIG EYESORE. A building occupied with tenants and a new facade...A WELCOME SIGHT. You may not like the design, but be reasonable.

It is hard to judge the final design of the building without seeing a sketch of what it will look like when completed. Maybe that is why no preliminary sketches were released, to avoid the conflict. Overall, the buildings shape is similar to when it was first constructed. The window openings and spacing are exactly as they were when first built. Of course the small windows on the first floor are a shame, hopefully they leave the floor to ceiling windows on the left side alone. The determining factor will be what finish material they use. If they utilize a similar art deco skin as was originally on the building, then the upper window design would make sense. If they apply a cheap red brick facade it will look no better than the white brick Rite Aid two doors down.

I'm not sure why people feel compelled to defend this developer.
He's building an ugly piece of garbage.

It flies in the face of all the other great things that are happening downtown. And that's a shame.

I can accept an old decaying building. But something new, like this is inexcusable. I don't think this is much better than a vacant building. In fact, I think it's worse, it's a real missed opportunity.

Doesn't Paladino own the Bellasaria (the old Berger's Building)? Let's see how many of his high-end tennents renew their leases in the next 2 years.

But then again, if the building goes empty, he can use it for section 8 housing!

Win/ win! And Empire Zone to boot!

Let's face it, kids.......it's ALL about construction jobs, votes, tax credits used for offsets, campaign contributions, cushy government jobs with PENSIONS paid for with tax dollars, where people get paid even when they do LAME or NO work etc......

I keep wondering what Mr. Termini thinks about this?

Hamp. and all the other naysayers,,, I have an idea for you, Round up your collective funds or raise capital from Investors, purchase several blicks of vacant buildings on Main St. and rehab them to your specific tastes! Its very simple, instead of putting down a developer who constantly injects millions into our local economy, you guys should do it on your own. Then you can hire all the armchair out of work architects on this site. Just an idea...

Rocco doesnt give a shit about this project, hes off gettin his own tax credits to make his own money, come on, do you think anhyone beside you people on this site really give a shit? Heres a clue...THEY DONT!

The Belesaria was also promised to have First Floor Retail, and look what we got. More mini blinds with offices behind them taking up more than half the first floor. And who want's to pay over two thousand a month with the front views of empty buildings rotting away, people on parole and welfare right out side your door and no place open past 5pm for such needs as cold medicine?
It is all about special interests and who you know. This is a perfect example of it. The mayor and Buffalo Place can continue to talk out of thier ass about how great this and other downtown projects are, but it's not working anymore. What is the over all plan for downtown? Are we trying to bring Main St. back to what it was and should be? Do they even want Big Retailers back on Main St.? What is the point of re-opening Main St. right now if the original purpose was to bring back retail? Oh, but wait, I know why...More Parking spaces (on Main St.) That must be it, I had to of known it was'nt for tyirng to lure retail back. It's all about the special needs for the elite few in this town.
That's more like it people.

Buffalo is so backwoods. The powers that be allow this crap to go up on a well known street. Powers that be vote to raise our taxes, yet don't want to pay their own (George Holt). Your news is always a joke. Oh boo hoo, cathlic schools are closing (your all surprised because.....???- um population is going else where people). The school board and everyone else bicker like the children they are suppost to look out for (such fine role models), No one has yet to answer the question "What is Buffalo Place's purpose"? to allow this sort of development to occur on Main St. I see why so many are moving away. Did anyone catch that news story the other day about how so many people from WNY are moving to Charlotte? How sad, yet we still wonder why "what's wrong with Buffalo?". Time to wake up people, grow some balls and start demanding answers and change, this parole office is what you get for sitting back so long and allowing "just anything" to happen for the sake of new development.

I personally hate working downtown. All I deal with on my way in and out of work is bums, panhandlers, moody people (some in suites) and no place to shop. It's dull, dark and gloomy. I can't wait to re-locate someplace else soon (to a REAL City).

From a California native who moved here for a job (the opposite of the usual, I know), Main street seems really deserted. So even if thousands of parolees come in and out, well they are going to help the economy out. Just think how long the waits must be in anything involving the government as well as convicts, who don't exactly keep a good schedule even if they risk getting sent back to the slammer. So they'll be buying stuff in shops around the area. I realize these are the last people who you want to be "helping the economy", but really it's hard for me to see Main Street becoming revitalized in a more traditional way when you have this declining population and high tax rates.

We have enough "BUMS" on this block (between Court and Mohawk St.) I try to avoid walking down there now. "Yo, man, you have any change"? GET A F*^%$I*&G JOB!

I have a suggestion to all this negative thinking. Why don't you all call the mayor, Buffalo Place, Carl Paladino, and tell them that you want to see a better Queen City of Great Lakes (Buffalo). There is a comprehensive plan as someone mentioned above that is supposed to guide downtown development. I posted an article about Virginia's Main Street plan above, and there are some lessons that we should learn.

That's one of the main problems here , Jeffery. If we did contact these people, they will all say "Oh, you need to speak with...through this group" and then you after you made all your rounds, your back where you started...Nowhere. A Queen City Hub was introduced around '99-2000 and very little was actually followed through. I belive the only thing that actually happend so far is downtown living. Other than that, we still do not have a great marketing campaign for downtown, no group marketing retail, no visitor signage (you are here markings), we still have no plan for the Outer Harbor, no new Peace Bridge/Twin Span (did that get thrown under the rug too?). And we are still facing BAD Developments in the core of the city. You would think we have learned from our mistakes, but we continue to ignore them.
As for Virginia's Main St. I have to wonder why we don't have anything like this. The main purpose, even stated in literature and on their website, BUFFALO PLACE is suppost to be the group in charge of promoting and making 'Our" Main St. into a better place. Yet, since they have been around (1970's) Main Street has dwindeld to what it is today, allowed a pedestrian mall be built at the same time other cities across the nation were ripping theirs apart because 'Pedestrians Malls" did not work. They are now allowing MORE Offices take up first floor spaces that should be marketed to RETAILERS. We just lost Walden Books, what's left? A Queen City Hub? Who is in charge? Mayor Brown? He thinks downtown is moving in the right direction, so he sees nothing wrong. And Paladino? Don't get me started on him. He will tell you to get your own property and do what you want.

CG, the Peace Bridge expansion is a federal project, the city of Buffalo only has limited say on how it moves forward since two separate cities and countries are impacted by its construction. People from Buffalo tend to blame the city for dragging it out when there is only so much they can do. I'd rather wait for a decent new bridge to be contructed (which has now been approved) then be stuck with the original twin span proposal.
As for the parole office, this just looks like only one small building to me, and just because the street is called 'main' street doesn't make it the end all and be all for downtown development. Buffalo may not be perfect but its better than most places. But, I'm from NYC so what do I know...

Buffalo has nothing on NYC.

After reading all these comments, I did check the website for Buffalo Place and it does mention they do mention in their marketing section on how they work to improve a visitor friendly downtown, market the downtown core to improve it's image and blah, blah, blah. It seems they started in 1982 and have done very little to improve Downtown's image or even make it 'Visitor Friendly". If they did, we would have visitor info- signs saying "You are here" with maps, and numbers on the street- on Main St. especially to say, 600 Block- This way.. Seems how you cannot drive on Main St. since circa 1984, some signage would have helped. And they need to re-work thier commercial link, we have way more available space dowtown than what they mention. Also, if they were really concerned about the "SAFTY" of downtown visitor's, why don't I ever see officers walking up and down Main St? Or better yet, didn't BuffPlace have their own security? I never see then (not since at least 2001). So, I and many others continue to walk down Main St. to be harrased beggers, walking around school kids who have no respect for others, watch our heads as we pass all these abandoned buildings (you never know what may fall off as they sit and rot).
My point from the begining of the post is...Why haven't anyone answered the question being asked several times on this page- "What is the purpose of Buffalo Place?"

The answer to the question "What is the purpose of Buffalo Place?" is they are a bunch of political friends. In my opinion, we should do a revolt against these people that are are holding Buffalo from being a better city.

Finally, someone "With BALLS". Go Jeffery. If Buffalo Place was intended to improve Downtown/Main St. , then why has it been dying ever since they were formed? Kind of ironic isn't it?

A parole office has to go somewhere I guess but that is not the best location for it. Also, why rip off a faux facade just to put up another.
Very disappointing project.

It's another plain looking new project. I do not see how they could even fill the retail space up with it being blocked by the metro station. The station wont be fixed for another few years after and IF Traffic is brought back to the portion of Main St. Even then, with so many first floor offices and blank windows, we would have to have a about a dozen major retailers brought in at the same time. I don't know who could do that, seems noone wants to take up the responsibity for Downtown Retail.