Real Estate: February 2012 Archives

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

An historic West Village church has a new owner.  The Evergreen Foundation, a subsidiary of the Evergreen Association, has purchased the Prospect Avenue Baptist Church at the northeast corner of Georgia Street and Prospect  Avenue.  The sanctuary at 262 Georgia Street and adjoining properties at 71 and 73 Prospect Avenue were purchased for $115,000 from the Prospect Avenue Baptist Society in late December. 
 
The not-for-profit Evergreen Association oversees four affiliated agencies including the Foundation, Evergreen

Accounting firm Lumsden & McCormick, LLP signed a lease with Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation to relocate their offices to the Cyclorama Building at 369 Franklin Street.  Lumsden & McCormick will occupy the entire two-story building totaling approximately 26,000 square feet of office space in July. 

Founded in 1952, in Buffalo, New York, Lumsden & McCormick currently has approximately ninety employees.  They are one of the largest locally owned certified public accounting firms in Western New York.  The company will be leaving space in the Brisbane Building

Ellicott Development is adding two residential units to the upper floors of 522 Main Street, the former Gamler's Jewelers store.  Gamler's, which had occupied the building since 1927, relocated to Amherst in 1995 citing declining sales as the reason for the move.  The Amherst store lasted just two years.  Ellicott Development acquired the three-story building in 2001.

522 Main is located between the former L.L. Berger's Department store, reborn as The Belesario, and the Hyatt.  Ellicott completed

I twas back in 2007 when real estate investor Gian Franco Bertolino first purchased a beat up old house at 419 Porter Avenue. He picked up the property at the same time that he bought an apartment complex next door. At first, thinking that the house was too far gone, his inclination was to demo the structure to make way for parking. Fortunately, a year earlier, Steel had