A critical east-west corridor at the southern end of downtown could be getting a contextual makeover. The 'Cobblestone District Connector Initiative' has been formulated as a public/private effort to improve and enhance Perry Street between Main Street and Michigan Avenue and then south down Michigan Street to link up with the improvements in place at Michigan and Ohio Streets. It would help provide an important connection centered around Canalside - First Niagara Center, the Cobblestone District, the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, light rail, and the Sabres' planned HARBORcenter project - with

This unassuming east side building (see below) at 662 Fillmore holds an amazing treasure.  It was once the home of Schreiber Brewing and is an important and increasingly rare relic of Buffalo's brewing heyday.  Polish immigrant Anthony Schreiber opened the brewery in1899 and quickly built a reputation for crafting fine beer.  Their most famous brew, named Manru Lager (after a famous Polish Opera),  was sold from 1933 to 1950 when the company ceased production. 
The building has been empty for many years and is warn but still in decent condition.

The Langston Hughes Institute Center has purchased the 40,000 sq.ft. Dellenbaugh Block as the site of its future home.  The properties at the southeast corner of Broadway and Michigan Avenue were built in the 1880s.  Sankofa Community Dev. Corp. purchased 163-167 Broadway and 60 Nash from Joseph Violanti for $400,000. 

After selling its High Street building to an affiliate of Ciminelli Development in 2010, the arts and cultural organization temporarily set up shop in the Elsinghorst

Stand at the corner of Main and Scott streets and construction can be seen and heard from three different directions.  Construction crews are busy as cranes dot three different blocks.  Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) President Thomas Dee and Mayor Byron Brown gave Lieutenant Governor Duffy and other officials a tour of Canalside, the former Donovan State Office Building construction site, and the Webster Block yesterday.

"2012 was another breakthrough year for the Buffalo waterfront, with continued progress actively underway at the Webster Block and Erie Basin

Developer Sam Savarino is expected to apply for a demo permit for the Erie Freight House on Ohio Street this week if indeed Savarino needs to apply at all as the building has already been condemned. He is also fully expecting to be sued which will delay any demolition for months despite, by virtue of the condemnation, the City has already determined that the building is a threat to life and safety. 
Demolition equipment has been moved to the site. "We had some particularly windy weather and we were afraid of a further collapse. Despite our efforts, people

After being recently acquired by Israel-based Given Imaging, the manufacturing operations of medical device company SmartPill Corp. are heading overseas.  Thirteen local jobs are being lost as Given Imaging will produce the SmartPill products at its facility in Israel.  It is a small setback for the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus but also an opportunity.
SmartPill was the first medical firm to set up manufacturing on the Medical Campus in 2009.  It produced an ingestible capsule that utilizes sensor technology

From  Cushman Wakefield Pyramid Brokerage Company
Market ActivityBy Q3 2012 the Buffalo market maintained 19.8 million square feet (msf) of office space operating at a vacancy rate of 12.8% and lease rate of $16.66 per square foot (psf) gross.  The spike in vacancies over the past year is largely attributed to a revision in the inventory of buildings surveyed.  The CBD supports 9.7 msf of space operating at a 12.1% vacancy rate and lease rate of $15.85

The popular Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market has become a highlight of summer, not just for those living in Buffalo's Elmwood Village, but for a growing number of loyal customers spread throughout Western New York. But when the market ends its 2012 season in mid-December, several vendors will take part in a brand new indoor winter market that will serve customers every Saturday until the summer market opens again in May for the 2013 season.
Karl Frizlen, treasurer of the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market and owner of The Frizlen Group Architects, will open a Winter Market

Johnson Park, now part of the West Village, rarely ever sees a For Sale sign on It. Johnson Park is the First Park in the City of Buffalo from land donated by our first mayor, Ebenezer Johnson in 1832, and by 1845 it had evolved into a trend-setting and fashionable residential area. After Mayor Johnson passed away, the site of his "Cottage," a twenty-four room Palladian Villa on the park, became the site for the Female Academy of Buffalo, the first institute of higher learning for women in the country. In addition, Frederick Law Olmsted's 1876 map of parkland in the city of Buffalo indicates

The centralized Catholic Health System administrative center at 144 Genesee Street will be six stories and 140,000 sq.ft. in size.  It will be built on a Uniland Development Company parcel known as Block 21 in the Elm Oak Corridor at Genesee and Oak streets.  The primary entrance will be on Genesee Street.
Catholic Health is consolidating 700 employees into the new building

Catholic Health System is looking to move downtown.  The area's second largest hospital system wants to consolidate it corporate and administrative offices and is eyeing a vacant parcel at Genesee and Oak Streets controlled by Uniland Development Company for the new building.  A consolidation at the site would bring upwards of 700 workers downtown that are currently scattered at a number of city and suburban sites.  Details on the design of the new building have not been released but is expected to be about 120,000 sq.ft.
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Developer and restaurateur Mark Croce added to his extensive downtown holdings on Friday by purchasing 286 Franklin Street for $275,000.  The 3,200 sq.ft., single-story building (entry image) is literally in front of Croce's Buffalo Chophouse restaurant.  It is also next to two other properties owned by Croce: 290 Franklin and 294 Franklin, home of Buckin Buffalo Saloon.  Also driving the purchase is the pending arrival of Dinosaur BBQ in a Croce-owned building at 301 Franklin Street.

Over the past decade, Ron Cozzi has seen plenty of change in his neighborhood.  Cozzi's Old Edition Book Shop at 74 E. Huron Street opened in 2003 and since then the blocks surrounding the store have gone from forlorn to spiffed up.  Former County Executive Dennis Gorski's dreams for a new convention center that would have straddled Ellicott Street and removed two or more blocks of buildings were torpedoed by newly-elected County Executive Joel Giambra in 2000.  In ensuing years, buildings on Huron, Broadway, Washington, Genesee,

A contractor has purchased a long-vacant building fronting Roosevelt Plaza, a vote of confidence and money in the critical 500 Block of Main Street.

Genesee Block LLC, a company headed by Buffalo contractor Nathaniel Fountain, purchased 9 Genesee Street yesterday for $60,000.  Fountain is said to be planning two residential units on the building's second and third floors and reportedly has a tenant

The historic Erie Freight House could be demolished and replaced with a residential development.  Property owner 441 Ohio Street LLC consisting of FFZ Holdings of Buffalo and Savarino Companies, have determined the condemned building cannot be feasibly restored and have reported this to the City of Buffalo.  In its place, the development team is proposing a four-story, 48 unit residential project with public access to the Buffalo River. It would be built upon the remaining foundations of the former warehouse. 

The circa-1868 Erie Freight House is a two-story heavy timber

Many of Buffalo's remnants from its industrial past are finding new life and new uses.  Buildings along the waterfront, in Midtown, University District, Larkin District, Medical Campus and of course downtown are finding new life in the form of offices, lofts, incubator space or arts centers.  The latest is the F.N. Burt plant at 500 Seneca Street.  Savarino Companies and FFZ Holdings are proposing to convert the building into over 250,000 sq.ft. of office

Savarino Companies and FFZ Holdings have further refined their plans for the renovation of the former F.N. Burt Company plant at 500 Seneca Street.  The vacant industrial complex at the edge of the Larkin District will be converted into a mix of offices and cultural and business incubator space.  Revised plans include more subtle balconies for office tenants, an amazing sign on the southwest corner of the building, and enclosed parking.  

The renovated Hotel Lafayette opened to rave reviews locally.  Developer Rocco Termini and the design firm behind the effort, Carmina Wood Morris, are now getting well-deserved statewide recognition.  They will receive the President's Citation from the New York State Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANYS) at the chapter's annual convention, held in Saratoga Springs today. 

The award presentation is set for 1 pm at the Saratoga Springs Convention Center. Carmina Wood Morris, a leader in local historic preservation efforts,

The downtown hotel market has a high occupancy rate, rising rates, and many more rooms in the development pipeline. 

The occupancy rate for downtown's 1,798 hotel rooms rose to 67.7 percent in the first seven months of 2012, up from 64.9 percent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research, a research and consulting firm.  The national occupancy rate for the same period was 62.3 percent (see table below).  Downtown Buffalo occupancy rates ranged from a low of 45.5 percent in January to 82.7 percent in June.  Industry standards suggest it takes a 60 percent

A vacant Elm Street property has changed hands.  Elm Street Properties LLC sold the former Spaghetti Warehouse building at 141 Elm Street (officially 456 Michigan Avenue on property tax records) to Elm/Michigan Holdings LLC for $706,522 yesterday.  According to the NYS Corporation and Business Entity Database, Elm/Michigan Holdings has a mailing address of 2760 Kenmore Avenue in Tonawanda where TM Montante Development has its offices.  
The circa-1883 building has been home to a string of restaurants