gfgfgfgf - I was financially involved in a small business that did not look for any govenrnment money. One day I began getting calls from my wholesale accounts, questioning my pricing. A small startup, in the same business, had received a fairly substantial amount ofpublic money, and was going after my wholesale accounts. While I knew it was unrealistic for this new competitor to offer these prices over the long term, it created long term problems that the business could not overcome. That 'new' business, that opened with public money, didn't last a year (out in the suburbs). My city based business closed soon after. Whenever government intervenes in the market, it causes unintended disruptions.

This is such a positive for Buffalo, how can anyone complain? This money is to rehab an existing building to create a whole new job growth market/urban mass for our area. It also will bridge a gap between Allentown and the City itself. Not to mention I am sure the school will be dumping buckets of their own money into this project!

This isn't money to start new businesses this is money to renovate a building for which profit driven businesses can setup shop in the medical campus. This is about creating good quality spaces in close proximity to other research institutions to capitalize on the initial investment of the Center for Excellence.

This isn't undercutting someones bills it is giving an old building new life, something that few purely profit driven companies would ever touch. Hence why most profit driven companies and residents flocked to the burbs for cheaper land & new buildings. If it takes government money to this make this and other buildings in our city competitive with green field development.. so be it because in the end we all win be using current infrastructure and not subsidizing new roads & other infrastructure needs in Clarence.

I always laugh when I see all of these overlapping grants, breaks and government 'incentives'. A large constituency of New Yorkers are consistently wrong in believing that government actions can somehow 'create business'. No one seems to get the fact that these stupid friggen programs are just more of the Big Brother/Nanny State that makes NY so unattractive to do business in. Real businesses don't make decisions like unionized government workers or welfare recipients do. They don't run around chasing grants and loopholes and handouts. They are motivated to start something new and strike it rich. That's a dirty dirty motive to New Yorkers, thus, business owners are scared to set up shop. Meanwhile stupid rinky dink little states without all of these dumb frickin programs do just fine by basically just staying out of the way of the business owners.

"Real businesses" chase after government incentives -- "grants and handouts" -- all the time. You're wrong and stupid.

I would urge my fellow Buffalonians to think BIGGER PICTURE!

Eight blocks south on Michigan one will run into the ECC downtown Campus.....so longer term what we are seeing the renaissance of two areas that have struggled for almost half a century.....Niagara Street and Michigan Street.

gfgfgfgfgf- did you miss the part that this is a not for profit group...they tend to apply for grants very often. They are also just trying to fix up a building (which probably doesn't have too many offices in it that would be geared towards a medical community) in order to make it attractive to businesses to come in and grow the medical community downtown. Sometime's people can't see past the "this is Buffalo, everything will fail because its Buffalo" stigma out there. Those are the people who make it harder for Buffalo to thrive. People need to take chances, not just sit around and give up before even starting. That's how strong communities are built.

Damp - this is Buffalo Rising - don't you know if you hope that the appears than it just will - we need to stay positive and things will just, PUFF, happen....just like that

Ok gfgfgfgf, "start something new and strike it rich". Get going now. We'll be watching.

By the way, because the real profit-motivated people have left Upstate NY for the most part, the state is forced to try to deal with the people that are left. That is, to try to cultivate new, democrat socialist-friendly business owners who will "be good" and be willing to be milked like cash cows for the benefit of 'the collective'. Precisely what I meant when I said "Real businesses don't make decisions like unionized government workers or welfare recipients do. They don't run around chasing grants and loopholes and handouts"... and precisely why these efforts result in churn and turnover... after the incompetant/grant-motiviated parties lose their shirt or crawl away with their tail between their legs. One aftter the other. Haven't there been a large number of efforts to save the Trico plant facility (for SOME REASON, please someone tell me why it's such an important focus for all of these NGOs and Government workers, media. and locals?

But Dan, what about all the tax revenue that the Hyatt has generated and not been completely abated since the 80s???? Oh wait....

It's 4.5 million for the 4 story complex renovations, not the entire building, according the article. I'm sure more would be needed for the rest of the 6-7 story complex.

WHAT THE (#*&# IS IT WITH PEOPLE SOMEONE DELETING MY POSTS!

sbrof - My comments were more in reply to gf's comments than the original post. I own property in the Medical Corridor, and am pleased at it's expansion. I think some argument could be made that you'd prefer to see 'new' businesses (spin offs) from the campus, locating in existing commercial space in the Allentown area. Make no mistake, UB entering into the business of being a landlord (see all the new 'apartments' on the Amherst Campus, and the subsequent demise of the University District) puts property owners in the area in competitiion with them to attract commercial tenants. Yes, BNMC is good for the area... but it would be nice if some of the 'investment' had a spill over effect in the neighborhood.

untrue....Monroe community college and other NYS community colleges have highly successful housing (on and off-campus) complementing their academics especially if they are networked with complementing 4-year programs at other local colleges and universities.