A long-vacant building surrounded by recent and proposed development is up for sale.  The former Ellicott Paint Co. location at 112 Genesee Street, across from Genesee Gateway and between Ellicott and Oak Streets, is listed with Coldwell Banker with a $199,000 asking price.  The two building, four-story property has 9,038 sq.ft. of investment-ready space. 

To continue our focus on Trinity Place at the southern edge of Allentown I want to call attention to a couple of buildings (lead image) with tremendous potential on this charming street that currently act only as a lead weights to improvement.  I have long anguished over the condition and long decline of these two which sit on the southwest corner of Trinity at Elmwood.  They have sported a pair of for 'for sale' signs for several months or more now.   The building directly on

The Genesee Block has been transformed into a welcoming gateway at the base of the Kensington.  Fred LoFaso of Sienna Realty is planning a similar transformative project at the I-190/Niagara Street exit. 

In 2007, LoFaso purchased the Turner Bros. building at 295-305 Niagara Street (originally built as a sarsaparilla, gingers and bitters manufacturer in 1853) and the adjoining taller building to the north built as a storage facility in 1920. The two buildings boast 55,000 sq.ft. of space. While the taller of the buildings would remain as storage over the years, the Turner Bros.

Since moving to Buffalo three years ago, I've watched with great interest the astonishing development of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus.  I've watched the stunning Gates Vascular Institute  rise from an empty lot to rival the new federal courthouse as the most talked about pieces of modern architecture in Buffalo.  I've toured the iconic Hauptman-Woodward

Two model homes flanking the entrance to the Colvin Estates subdivision in North Buffalo are nearly finished.  A former railroad right-of-way is being transformed into 127 new homes.  Twenty-four lots are available in the project's first phase.  The development is located off of Colvin Avenue between Taunton Place and St. Lawrence Avenue.

Burke Homes is offering both one and two-story homes ranging from 1,235 to 2,126 square feet.  The Craftsman style homes, designed by Dean Sutton Architects,

Lafayette Court at 465 Main Street is getting a new food tenant.  The Lunch Box, a café and catering company serving salads, sandwiches and wraps that will be open for breakfast and lunch, is opening its third city location on the ground floor of the office building that is owned by Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation. 

The company was founded in 2009 by Amy McCarthy, co-founder of Globe Market, in the Tri-Main Center at 2495 Main Street.  A kiosk location was later opened in the lobby of the Innovation Center on Ellicott

Back in April, we featured a property located at 408 Amherst Street that we felt was a great opportunity for a buyer with good intentions. Since that time realtor Larry Bartolomei has sold the property and is convinced that the new owner will be a good fit for the street. When I last talked to Larry he wasn't just thrilled with the news of the latest property sale, he was already talking about a number of other successes and potentials that Black Rock was seeing. Personally, I find myself on Amherst Street more often visiting places like Nick's

A reuse project at a key downtown midtown corner is getting closer to opening.  Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) is restoring the long-vacant, architecturally significant building on the northwest corner of Main and Ferry streets.  A three-story addition is being constructed on the west side of the building.  The  expanded building will house the offices of the civil rights organization as well as ten units of affordable housing.

The first floor will provide 3,000 square feet of accessible office space for

A condominium sale that closed yesterday is a record-breaker.  Eugene and Carole Vukelic purchased a corner unit on the 16th floor of Uniland Development's Avant yesterday for $1,597,500.  The two-level unit has over 3,000 sq.ft. of living space.  Vukelic is CEO of Try-It Distributing.

It is the most expensive condominium sold in Erie County and is the second highest sale price for a residence in Buffalo.  That honor belongs to the Miller Mansion at 175 Nottingham that traded

Buffalo Niagara Enterprise's (BNE) ongoing marketing efforts north of the border continues to pay dividends as the region's economic development group has attracted three more Canadian companies to the region in as many months.

In November Nutrablend foods finalized plans for their second expansion here, while December saw Avanti Advanced Manufacturing Corporation announce their first U.S. operation.  In January, Blockbuster Costumes confirmed that they would be the next Canadian based company to locate in western New York.  These companies

Ricotta & Visco's future home is taking shape at the corner of Main and Mohawk streets downtown.  The law firm is redeveloping the long-vacant historic building for office use at a cost of $1.5 million.  It will move from leased space in Main Placer Tower when the project is finished this summer. 

Empire State Development (ESD), USA Niagara Development Corporation (USAN) and the City of Niagara Falls today announced that The Hamister Group, Inc. was selected as the preferred developer in response to the request for proposals (RFP) for development of a key City-owned site located at 310 Rainbow Boulevard in downtown Niagara Falls.  Hamister is planning a mix of retail, hotel and residential space.

The site is located at the northwest corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Old Falls Street,

Planners looking for a way to rebuild a downtown neighborhood have a good model in Portland, Oregon.  Portland's Pearl District used to be an area of decrepit warehouses and parking lots.  Today, the Pearl District is the city's arts district and a coveted residential location, an award-winning leader in urban renewal.  It is also home to two full-service grocery stores.

Portland has created the model for downtown neighborhood development. Over the last twenty years, this community adjacent to downtown Portland has been transformed.  What had been an industrial

Work continues on the $23 million Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) on Ellicott Street just south of Goodell.  The four-story building is connected to the Downtown Gateway complex, the former M. Wile factory. 

The new EOC building will replace its current location at 465 Washington Street and allow the EOC to significantly expand its services, which include programming in remedial and academic preparation, as well as specific job training programs in allied health, life sciences, information technology and environmental industries. 

It's a common refrain on Buffalo Rising: "Let's get a supermarket downtown."  Commenters have suggested a grocery store for Main Place Mall, M&T Bank parking lots, the upper level of the DL&W Terminal, the AM&As Department Store and elsewhere.  Wishful thinking.  While developers have added 700 residential units downtown over the past decade, and more are planned, it's not enough to warrant a new grocery store. 

There isn't an agreed upon number of residential

Build it and they will come.  For downtown residential, that has certainly been the case.  Since First Amherst Development's Lofts @ Elk Terminal opened in 2002, over 700 units have been brought online stretching from the Cobblestone District to the Medical Campus.  Downtown residential was only a planner's dream before then.  For the longest time, residential use wasn't a viable option for downtown building owners.

Early residential projects such as Ansonia Centre, the Roosevelt and St. Mary's Square all got off the drawing board due in part because of subsidies from

The new Courtyard by Marriott in the Donovan Building may get a new neighbor to the south.  Mayor Byron Brown announced that proposals will soon be sought for the Inner Harbor's Webster Block.  The Brown administration plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) from developers interested in developing the key parcel later this month.  The 1.9 acre parcel, currently a parking lot, is bound by Main, Perry, Scott and Washington streets, two blocks south of HSBC Center and

Benderson Development is putting a 96-room Courtyard by Marriott in the Donovan Building at 125 Main Street.  The hotel is taking three floors in the eight-story, 160,000 sq.ft. building that Benderson is redeveloping.  Law firm Phillips Lytle has signed on for the building's top four floors.

Business First has the story:

The hotel will anchor the building's second, third and fourth floors while

One month ago we featured a property for sale at 408 Amherst Street that was in need of a caring owner. I'm happy to say that that property recently sold, and shortly we'll have some updates on who the buyer is and what he is planning on doing with the commercial space. In the meantime, we have another property on the market that, although much larger in size, is ready for a new life. This building is located within eyeshot of the Peace Bridge and The Armory. It could play a major role in the advancements

Allentown will soon have an additional eight residential units when Ellicott Development completes their conversion of the former Allentown Athletix building on Allen, near Delaware Avenue. The project will likely be wrapping up within the next two weeks with four loft style, one-bedroom units and four, two-bedroom units. Several of the units have already been leased.

Each of the units