Finally! Awesome awesome awesome. Looking forward to the renderings. Things are turning around, with all the new developments, Elmwood's award and such. It's a very exciting time in Buffalo.

Damn, something needs to be done about that parking lot. After taking another look at the picture above, I didn't realize how massive it is. Jay you're right, hopefully we'll be hearing about that lot next.

Many have speculated that this will officially mark downtown's symbolic turn-around. I concur. This is wonderful news in a week of other great Buffalo-related development news.

About the M&T lot....very valid concerns. The lot is massive and created a bit of a spatial disconnect. I recommend dividing the plot up into two. Run a narrow new street down the middle from Elliott to Washington. One of the new parcels could make a great park/plaza space, while the other should be earmarked for development.

There ya go-- my armchair planner two-cents of the day.

RE: The M&T lot: Bob Shibley @ UB ten years ago proposed a parking ramp fronted by retail/office on Chippewa. This in fill project would physically connect east and west Chippewa Streets. M&T can't give up parking. Maybe the economics are changing enough that a new ramp/mixed use building could be feasible. But if it stays an asphalt lot for a while, at least the view from the ground beyond the sea of parking will look good in all four directions (the theater block of Washington, Termini's block of Ellicott, St. Michael's and Genesee Street's Genrich block and Electric Tower). In a way, it would be a shame to block the views of the buildings with new construction (especially at night I love the way these buildings look).

A developer (Matt Neil) suggested to me today that the island in the triangle between Genesee, Chippewa and Ellicott should have a monument. Maybe a fountain. Something. It's wasted space now. Put something there and call it something identifiable, like Chippewa square or Cleveland square, or whatever. Give the immediate neighborhood a name: "i live on Chippewa Square. . ." He says the neighborhood needs a name and icon identifying it. I think that's a great idea.

With regard to credit for this deal: Roger and Scot were my buyers but two other gentlemen in our office had the listing (Art Judelsohn and Rob Cowing). We all share the deal.

Roger Trettel gets credit for biting the bullet and buying into the block without guarantees that anything would be happening around him. That takes courage. He also gets credit for bringing in Scot. In the end, he's the one who convinced Scot and Jesse to jump in.

Scot and Jesse, in turn, should get a lot of credit for putting together a capable team willing to pull off the project. He and Jesse spent a ton of money and ran into a ton of bad luck trying to save the corner building from the wrecking ball several years ago. I understand that people are upset about how it's looked the last few years, but remember that without Jesse it would have been demolished years ago (and their plot of land is too small to do anything with. It's tiny). This project incorporates the properties the Fishers put their necks out to save. Credit them with trying valliantly to do the best thing for the city back then. Credit them today with getting the project into great hands (and creating a team of which they will be a part). They deserve the most credit.

And in regards to the Fishers' property at Ferry and Main, Chiknlil, it is under contract to Housing Opportunities Made Equal. HOME is optimistic about tax credit funding next round (the environmental remediation plan wasn't completed in time for this yeyar's round, but the signs look promising for next summer). That project will completely rehab the existing two buildings (adding a third floor to the former pizzeria).

Again, credit the Fishers. They saved a significant building from probable disaster. The two buidlings were vacant for decades (owned by the father of Mark Virginia, the guy whose son was choked to death getting arrested). Virginia eventually donated them to Bill Zimmerman's Sea Scouts group. In turn, I got Scot to buy them from the scouts (Scot and Jesse live literally around the corner from Main/Ferry and were concerned that the buildings might get demolished. With another owner, they likely would have). So they bought the properties, alarmed them, secured them (previously vagrants were constantly breaking in to squat there). They have a grass cutting service and a snow plow service. They saved the properties from demolition by neglect and are getting them into the hands of an exceptionally responsible developer committed to rehabbing, not demolishing, the buildings. That's a good deed.

Yes, their corner @ Main and Ferry looks bad. But it looked worse before they bought it. And it's future looks very bright. Don't just look at a property and say: The owner ought to hang for how bad that thing looks. Consider instead the other options and likely futures of some of the properties most in danger. Scot and Jesse have been doing the right thing in both these cases (Genesee and Ferry/Main), not just the Church (I'm sorry, Babeland is it?).

And give Genrich a little love while you're at it. Yes, he sat on them for too, too long. But he saved them back in the day, and saved them well enough to make bring them intact to this day. And now they have a very bright future, a future they would not have had were it not for the ownership of Genrich. You may hate that he didn't finish them. But he started them so well that they lasted. He was committed to his vision. He didn't sell for a long time, but he protected the skeletons for a long time. They weren't protected by Historic Preservation as Granite Works was. But they made it through to today because of Bill Genrich. Future generations and we will reap the benefits of the work he and others did once. Once the eyesores are out of our field of vision, perhaps people will be more generous to those, like genrich and the fishers, who carried the buildings through the hard times. Sure the City Centre Developments and Bernie Obletz's and Terminis and Iskalos and Paladinos of the world deserve our deep appreciation for the restoration of our city to the extent they are responsible. They deserve the most credit. But guys like Bill Genrich also contribute. If you appreciated the effort and expense and vision he poured into assembling and securing and improving the properties years ago, if you appreciated how soundly he secured the skelotons and how wisely he planned (particularly in the Werner Photographic building), you'd give him some credit too. We're all going to benefit from the restoration of those properties.

Bini, thanks for the perspective. I trust everything you say is quite accurate. One bone to pick about the M&T lot though...

M&T can't give up parking..

I don't buy this. Obviously if they can get a nice sum for the land, they'd sell it. Parking isn't the end all. I'd much rather see M&T do something proactive and environmentally responsible like buy their employees NFTA passes and/or offer them lower-rate mortgages if they relocate within 1/4 mile of a bus line or rail station.

If the city actually used site-value taxation instead of the dumb system (based on built improvements not site context), the big parking lot would be taxed for it's development potential, not for what's currently (not) built on it, it would have been built up years ago. Our current taxation system encourages speculators to freeze unproductive downtown land in cold storage for decades.

Is M&T even considering building a tower? Is that even an option for them? It would be great though.