After a longer than expected incubation, a Cottage District condo conversion project is about to hit the market.  The three full-floor units at The Lofts on York at the corner of York Street and Union Place are priced from $209,000 to $219,000. 

Each residence contains two bedrooms and two baths with 1,400 to 1,500 sq.ft . of living space.  Finishes include granite countertops, travertine, bamboo and polished concrete flooring, high efficiency furnaces and central air, security

A long-vacant building in the West Village is being targeted for a $1.1 million makeover.  Kissling Interests is seeking City approvals to convert the historic Lake Hotel at 201 W. Huron Street into eight rental apartments.  The project will be before the Planning Board on July 28.

Business First reports that units will each be two bedrooms with at least one bath. 

A former elementary school in South Buffalo will be converted to senior housing under a $9 million plan unveiled yesterday.  The Holy Family Senior Housing Development Project will contain 30 one-bedroom apartments and five, two-bedroom apartments in the three-story structure. The 35 apartments will be affordable to persons of low- and moderate-income who are 55 years of age and older. 

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The ice boom has found a new home.  The New York State Power Authority (NYPA) bought a 10.3 acre site at 41 Hamburg Street along on the Buffalo River yesterday as a new off-season storage location for the ice boom.  NYPA paid $1,025,000 for the property owned by Killian Black Trucking. 

Consisting of steel pontoons linked together and anchored to the river bottom at Lake Erie's outlet to the Niagara River, the 8,800 foot long ice boom prevents the buildup of ice, yet allows water to continue flowing downstream to the power projects.

Under its 2007 relicensing agreement,

Sharp-eyed commuters have noticed work underway on the Arctic Freezer building in recent weeks.  The bombed-out appearing eyesore, next to the I-190 in the Cobblestone District with the faded Coffee Rich logo and trees growing on the roof, is getting an overdue makeover.  It has been giving travelers a terrible first impression of downtown for too long.

Ellicott Development has owned the eight-story, 120,000 sq.ft., Scott Street property since 2001.  The development company paid $20,000 for the building also known as The Fairmont Creamery.  It is located across from

Ellicott Development has had a busy day.  The developer not only finalized the sale of three units at Waterfront Place, the firm also purchased a vacant church property at 1091 Main Street.  Ellicott's 9274 Group Inc. bought the Our Lady of Lourdes parking lot, convent and school from Prayer & Praise Fellowships Inc. for $370,000.  The purchase did not include the vacant church located on a separate parcel

A piece of Buffalo's industrial past is quickly becoming a part of its science and technological future as work is winding down on renovations to the four-story annex of the Trico complex at 640 Ellicott Street.

The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) is converting the former industrial building into an "Innovation Center."  It will offer 108,000 sq.ft. of research and development space available for life sciences and biotech companies seeking to be part of the Medical Campus.  The makeover will includes installation of new windows, elevators, heating, cooling and air

A few of downtown's largest property owners are expressing concern about downtown parking policy.  It is a battle over philosophies and they believe the future of downtown is at stake.

In one corner are James T. Sandoro, Stephen Fitzmaurice and Mark Croce, owners of numerous downtown properties and thousands of parking spaces, who believe misguided parking policies are killing downtown.  Others see it differently saying affordable downtown parking is the key to bringing new tenants, retailers and additional events to the center city. 

The differing opinions are

With its lease expiring, a large downtown law firm is exploring its options for a future home.  The search by Phillips Lytle PPC is sure to be of interest to any property owner with space to fill or harboring dreams of landing an anchor tenant for a new tower. 

Business First's Jim Fink has the story:

Phillips Lytle, Buffalo's second-largest law firm, has retained the Studley Group to handle the search. The law firm's lease at HSBC Center

Things are looking up for 95 Perry Street.  The mixed-use project by Michigan Street Dev. LLC, an affiliate of Savarino Cos. and Avalon Development in the Cobblestone District, is getting a rooftop garden and patio area.  It will be available to the office and residential tenants of the recently-opened complex at the corner of Mississippi and Perry streets. 

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A new custom-built home at the southeast corner of Lincoln Parkway and Middlesex Road is framed.  The 5,200 sq.ft., four-bedroom stone and stucco residence is being constructed by Natale Builders for owner Devin Piscitelli.

Piscitelli purchased the half-acre lot at 186 Middlesex Road in December for $425,000. The parcel is one of four lots created from the grounds of the Miller Mansion, sold by Nichols School, split by developer Brad Randaccio, and resold.  

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Two projects along Michigan Avenue on the east side of downtown started work in recent days.  Demolition crews began tearing down a nondescript addition to the Alling & Cory warehouse on N. Division Street between Michigan Avenue and Elm Street.  The six-story building is being converted into 88 units of student housing.  Nearby at Sycamore and Michigan Avenue, construction has started on Lakeshore Behavior Health's adaptive reuse of a historic residence as homeless housing.

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To help celebrate the July 4th weekend, we're happy to offer our first Buffalo Rising t-shirt sale.  If you order anytime from now until midnight Sunday (July 5th) and use the gift code FIREWORKS, you'll be able to buy any Buffalo Rising shirt for just $15.00 plus shipping. 

This sale allows you to save a couple bucks on all of the Buffalo Rising shirts including Queen City, Lake

The Buffalo Fire Department is one step closer to building a new station in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood.  The station will be built at 3226 Bailey Avenue at Hewitt on the site of a McDonald's restaurant that was closed and demolished.  Plans for the one-story, two-bay facility were approved by the Planning Board yesterday.  
The 10,000 sq.ft. station, designed by Stieglitz Snyder Architecture, features full-brick, limestone trim, cedar trellis accents, and red overhead doors.  The roof of the truck bays will be sloped.  Decorative

A nondescript building behind City Hall is in line for an expansion and makeover.  The plans by Buffalo Metropolitan Federal Credit Union for its 62 S. Elmwood Avenue facility were approved by the City Planning Board Tuesday morning.  The one-story building will receive a new 5,440 sq.ft. second floor, vastly updated facade, and an additional drive-thru lane.
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Construction continues on the first phase of a multi-year effort to bring two-way vehicular traffic back to Main Street. The $2.4 million streetscape project on the 700 block is scheduled to be complete in July.  

The restoration

Heart of the City Neighborhoods has received a $1.5 million award from New York's Housing Trust Fund Corporation to build eight units of green, affordable housing on the city's Lower West Side. 

The proposed development will be located on what is currently vacant land at 294-302 Hudson Street. The two townhouse-style buildings designed by Stieglitz Snyder Architecture reflect the neighborhood's historic character and will contain four apartments each. It will include four 2-bedroom, 900 sq.ft. apartments and four 3-bedroom 1100 sq.ft. apartments. 

Rehabilitation efforts are in full-swing on one of downtown Buffalo's most prominent sites. CityView Properties and the Wendt Foundation are taking on the revitalization of the architecturally significant Genesee Block.

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Not all closed churches are doomed.  An east side congregation purchased a shuttered Catholic church on Bailey near Walden Avenue today.  New Life Harvest Church of God in Christ bought the Holy Name Roman Catholic Church complex at 1947-65 Bailey Avenue for a miniscule $130,000. 

Holy Name (my childhood church) was closed as part of the controversial "Journey in Faith and Grace," a strategic planning and spiritual revitalization initiative launched in June 2005 to respond to shrinking

Work on a new 22-acre waterfront park is expected to be underway this year.  The Union Ship Canal Public Open Space includes the Union Ship Canal and a 200' buffer around the canal.  It is the signature feature of Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park located east of Route 5 along the Buffalo/Lackawanna border.  Development of the park will be an amenity for the area by providing residents, business park employees and visitors waterfront access and an environmentally friendly homage to the site's industrial heritage.

The park will provide approximately 22 acres of urban