The largely vacant Central Park Plaza has a new owner.  Strickler Development Group LLC purchased the 29-acre property today for $800,000.  
According to WBFO, the new owner is an affiliate of Ciminelli Companies.  Redevelopment for commercial use, with possibly a residential component, is likely.  According to the Help Revitalize Central Park Plaza Facebook page, a press conference is scheduled for next week to detail plans for the property.
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Creative Structure Solutions (CSS)  is closer to converting a vacant, historic North Buffalo library into luxury apartments.  David Pawlik's firm has a contract to purchase the Fairfield Library at 1659 Amherst Street from the City and rehabilitate it into five apartments and a small amount of office space.     The Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday approved variances necessary for the nearly $1 million conversion project.  CSS sought variances for parking, yard requirements and permitted use.

Benchmark Group's proposed infill project at 766 Elmwood Avenue is heading to the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday.   The three-story mixed-use building with retail space along Elmwood and 24 apartments on the upper floors would be built on a surface parking lot located between Globe Market and 7-11.  Karl Frizlen, project architect, says the new building will adhere to the Elmwood Village

Construction continues on a new nursing home on the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) campus on Grider Street.  The $103 million building will contain 390 beds. The facility is slated to open late this year and will replace the 80 year old Erie County nursing home in Alden.
Residents had some input in the design of the five-story, 275,500 square foot building. It will have three floors with over ninety skilled nursing beds each, one floor with 66 sub-acute rehab beds, a 16-bed behavioral intervention unit and a 20-bed ventilator unit. The ground floor contains

Two thousand jobs could be headed to South Buffalo and the outer harbor area if a pair of projects come to fruition.  Buffalo Business First is reporting that local developer and businessman John Yurtchuk is working with local economic development officials to bring an unnamed company to the RiverBend site off of South Park Avenue and to also locate a Calspan transportation safety campus at the Lakeside Commerce Park.  Yurtchuk co-owns and is chairman of Calspan, currently headquartered on Genesee Street across from the airport.

Both projects would seem to be the type of investment

Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation has passed along a few more images of Benderson Development's Donovan Building makeover.  The former state office building was acquired by Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation in 2008.  Benderson was the only bidder that responded to a request for proposals to redevelop the property where construction is quickly progressing.

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Property owner and developer Nick Sinatra kept the County Clerk's Office humming on Monday.  Sinatra and his affiliated companies purchased three apartment buildings in the Elmwood Village and Medical Campus areas for a combined $5.75 million.  Each had been owned by Barons of Buffalo LLC.  Sinatra's Sinatra & Company Realty has been purchased over a dozen properties and over 320 apartments and commercial space over the past year or so.  

The largest building purchased yesterday

When I read Steel's posts on sprawl, I am always left to wonder what the best ways to preserve our natural resources might be. Of course sensitive zoning is one way to make sure that vital land is protected, but there are other proactive ways of safeguarding pristine wilderness so that clear-cutting woodlands doesn't lead to over-developed land. Some say that building 'up' the city with taller buildings offers people desirable residences that would draw them back into the urban core. Others note

Kissling Interests' Remington Lofts on the Canal development is just about finished.  The $25 million effort transformed the Remington Rand plant into a mix of 79 upscale lofts and commercial space overlooking the Erie Canal.  It is Kissling's first local project outside of Buffalo.
On April 26, the Urban Land Institute's Young Leaders Group of Western New York (ULI YLG of WNY) toured the complex and heard from those involved with the project.  
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Buffalo State College's new $110 million Science and Mathematics Complex is taking shape.  The new building designed by Cannon-- a 224,000 sq.ft. facility over three levels-- will be home to the Chemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences and Science Education, Mathematics, and Physics departments, the Great Lakes Center, and a state-of-the-art planetarium.

Phase I of the project seen here, scheduled for completion this summer, includes a 96,000 sq.ft. addition along the west side of the existing Science Building that will house new teaching and research

Big changes are coming to the intersection of Main and W. Ferry streets.  Developer Nick Sinatra's Sinatra & Company Realty is planning to invest $2.3 million in two historic buildings that will bring 31 market-rate apartments and retail space to the high profile corner.  Sinatra's properties are across the street from HOME's office and apartment project now nearing completion.

Sinatra has purchased over a dozen properties with over 200 apartments and 100,000 sq.ft. of commercial space in Buffalo and surrounding suburbs. 

The Lafayette Hotel's grand opening will be celebrated on May 29 with a black tie affair, but the building is already hosting events and recently welcomed residents.  The first apartment tenants took occupancy on May 1 (95 of 115 units have already been leased) as workers finish up work on the building's lower floors that will house a mix of restaurant and retail tenants, and on the second floor, hotel guests.  The 34-room boutique hotel, to be run by Pearl Street Grill managing partner Earl Ketry, is scheduled to open at the end of the month

The Buffalo Planning Board approved plans for 49, two to four-bedroom residences in the Fruitbelt neighborhood.  St. John Community Development Corporation has been designated developer for the fifty City-owned properties needed for the project.  The Buffalo Common Council signed-off on the $80,500 sale in April.  
The new, affordable residences will be built on 17 scattered sites.  Buildings have been designed to complement the 28 townhouses units

Wynne Creative Group, a creative design agency, has officially joined the growing list of companies making their home at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The firm recently completed its move into 1,650 sq.ft. of office space on the third floor of the Innovation Center, 640 Ellicott Street.
The 120-acre Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is home to a number of healthcare, life sciences research, medical and educational institutions and businesses. While not in the fields of medicine or science, Wynne Creative Group leaders

Benderson Development's plan for redevelopment of the Donovan Building has been blessed by the Planning Board.  Benderson is putting a 96-room Courtyard by Marriott on the building's second through fourth floors.  Law firm Phillips Lytle has signed on for the building's top four floors, leaving behind space in One HSBC Center.  The ground floor is expected to house restaurant and/or retail uses.  Construction has already begun on the project to be known as One Canalside.
The new exterior is

Construction is in full swing at the Humboldt Basin Project in Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.  The $4.5 million project will create a new splash pad for summer use and a year-round water feature that can be used as a skating rink during the winter.  In the fall and spring, the basin will be flooded as a five-acre reflective pool.

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The Calumet Building's new windows are in and the 1906 landmark for the first time in several decades will soon have an upstairs tenant, the law firm of Kenney, Shelton, Liptak, & Nowak.  The firm partnered with Frank Parisi and Angelo Natale to purchase and renovate the 24,000 sq.ft. building that was designed by Esenwein & Johnson.

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Darn close.  Alliance Advisory Group, Inc. and 600 Delaware, LLC purchased and renovated 600 Delaware Avenue for the financial services firm's new home.  The two-story, 21,300 sq.ft. building's facade now sports red brick, a revamped entryway, and new windows.  

The building was built in 1962 and was owned by DANFB Associates, LLC, an affiliate of Benderson Development.  It had most recently been occupied by Rural Metro

Six townhouses have been completed at 363 E. Ferry Street.  The attractive, $1.35 million project was developed by Second Chance Ministries and is a women's facility.  It occupies a formerly vacant lot that was purchased from the City last fall for $14,400.

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The Donovan Building's Main Street facade was nearly gone as of yesterday revealing the structure's cantilevered concrete floors.  The former State office building is beginning its new life as the future home of law firm Phillips Lytle, a 96-room Courtyard by Marriott and ground floor retail/restaurant space.

Benderson Development is spearheading the