Cashing In On Buffalo's Waterfront
This one is almost too good to be true. I just got off the phone with Cash Cunningham and he has big, big news regarding the sale of the 20-acre Freezer Queen property. It was purchased for $3,000,000 by a few investors, one being Ontario Specialty Contracting, with the intentions of… get ready… condos, retail, and hotel. The new owners are looking into keeping the current structure, but it will take further review to see if that is feasible. “The aerials are amazing,” Cash told me. “It’s an incredibly large piece of land and the development bodes extremely well for Buffalo. There is local control of the project, and the combined parties involved will make sure that this project gets moving. All of the land surrounding Freezer Queen is government and agency owned, so it’s difficult to get things done. In this case it’s a private developer and they have the resources. This property will most likely be the catalyst for that whole corridor.”
I asked Cash about the bidding process to which he answered, “I knew that there was going to be an interest, but I had no idea how much of an interest. It was an oral bidding with 70-80 qualified bidders. There must have been a dozen certified checks in excess of $100,000 being waved around. The new owners did their homework. They walked the property, researched the building… these guys are prepared and well-suited to do the job.”
See Freezer Queen BRO post on Hot property and comments.
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Spaulding97
C'mon, his name is Cash!!!? Perfect name for his occupation. HA! I'm pumped for this project, this is gonna be huge. Can't wait to see the renderings and more details. What hotel chain? What retailers? How much for the condos and how many? Great news!
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chiknlil
I seriously hope that the isolation and the relative proximity to nothing of significance nearby will keep the lawsuits to a minimum. Then again, I have a feeling that this may infringe on someone's idea of what could, should, or might possibly go into this area and will therefore result in a lawsuit of some sort.
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bison716
I agree! This can be HUGE if done right. I'm already brainstorming of how I would design the complex just looking at the pictures myself.
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Sullymon54
Just another example of the week dollar encouraging foreign investment into the united states. This combined with the outer harbor clean up/infrastructure improvements, the buffalo lakeside commerce park to the south, and the larkin district plan means that this part of the city could be entirely different in less than 10 years.
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Prodigal-Son
No way. This blocks my views from Tifft Farms. And the reflection off the windows superheats my boat when its in the water. Plus, this used to be industry, not retail, so its not in keeping with the historic nature of the site. Yep - better file the lawsuit now.
Please hear the sarcasm before anyone shoots me!
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sbrof
The only thing that I could think might ruffle feathers would be if they wanted to put up a giant gate. This pier could become a wonderful place for their investment and the city as a whole. good luck to them!
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BROKEEPSBLOCKINGME
UMM THIS ISNT FOREIGN INVESTMENT GUYS, ONTARIO IS JUST THE NAME OF THE COMPANY... IT IS A JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN JOHN WILLIAMS AND GERALD BUCHEIT
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hashma
This is great news. And, thank God there can't be a lawsuit. Its not a new building and any condo there is a great improvement to the industrial site. Sullymom54 is right, this whole area will be much different in the coming decade!
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WilliamZabkaAllStars
This has about as much a chance of coming to fruition as the Uniland-Opus "master plan" does.
Or the Bullshi... er... Bashar Tower for that matter.
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carlmalone
" It was purchased for $3,000,000 by a few investors, one being Ontario Specialty Contracting, with the intentions of… get ready… condos, retail, and hotel." Translation= we are going to secure the property and sit on it until we can sell it in a couple of years to someone at $6,000,000 who will then do the same thing.
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bfloBR
i don't know if i would be as negative about this as ZabkaAllStars or carlmalone, but this is not likely an immediate development. Its good to know that the folks over here at BRO will keep on the pwners to find out if and when concrete plans develop for the site.
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allthingsbuffalo
im calling bs on this project. no one with a brain is going to develop a huge project like this on an isolated site. besides..outer harbor shouldnt be developed until the CBD and inner harbor are much stronger.
serious public infrastructure improvements/ public access need to be made 1st before any legit development is gonna happen on the outer harbor
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rb66
Ontario Specialty Contracting is a local company located on Ganson Street in Buffalo. http://www.ontariospecialty.com/
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carl
if any one thinks this deal is actually ever going to happen, please save your self the future disappointment...and move to Baltimore. it seems to good to be true, because it is.
it makes absolutely no sense on so many levels.
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Andrew
Yeah i'm a bit confused on this one. It looks like it would cost a fortune to rehab and other than the view of the water why would anyone want to live/ stay there? I guess we will find out soon enough
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styler
I'm confused as to why they would want to keep any part of the current building in their future plans, unless. . .Oh, I get it! They plan to do nothing of substance with it.
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icecreamsub
Wow! Furhmann Blvd isn't just going to be for drag racing and dumping old appliances anymore.....Sweet!
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Hospitable
"Condo's.. hotel.. retail"... hahahaah... maybe in 50 years when there is something on the waterfront.
God.. I love SPECULATORS!!!
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Hoss
Hopefully it happens. It will be a pretty swank address what with the ethanol fumes billowing right next door. Oh wait, that location is upwind from Freezer Queen. It's downtown Buffalo that will suffer from the noxious exhaust. Sorry. Couldn't resist.
Sure we will see opportunistic flippers as downtown and the harbor areas improve. But we are also going to see a lot of motivated developers jump in while the land is still dirt cheap. I really think we are about to see a snowball of new development occur in this city.
I wish them luck. I hope they are sincere.
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RisingDamp666
Better him than his brother "Crash" Cunningham. What I like here is the selling price, $3 million which leaves plenty of "Cash" left over to get something going on. Like so many ventures of its type, expect phased development starting with the housing component. Will it fly? Probably better than the structures' current tennants: dust.
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DumpsterKid
Start building in a year or get out of town.
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dougk
park lane condo owners have already hinted new development at the freezer queen property will super heat the surrounding neighborhoods, accelerate global warming, and their block line of sight views of the ontario escarpment their attorney commented today
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BuffaloBloviator
I think its for real. $3M will seem like they stole it very soon. In my opinion, that is possibly the #1 site in Buffalo. Huge parcel, three sides are waterfront, sitting right next door to the future. Great purchase!
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STEEL
You people probably think it is a bad idea to renovate the Larkin Warehouse too. Like that could ever happen...oh wait a minute!... it did happen and it is fully occupied! But who would ever want to live work on a beautiful waterfront location like this? no one would ever want to occupy this place in the same way that no one would want to occupy Larkin.
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kahawa
If the building were repainted and the horizontal bands of windows were extended across the areas where there is now only solid wall, this could be an amazing building!
People at one time shuddered at the idea the "eyesore" Seneca Paper building on Ellicott Street would ever be a viable reuse opportunity, and here we are, awaiting the opening of beautiful new lofts in that building.
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MeliQ
OK, I know most people who read this blog are going to hate my idea but here it is: in terms of retail, I would like to see a bunch of national chain stores, small ones though, not big box things like Target, plus a mix of independent business to make a sort of, yes, I'll say it, mini shopping plaza with a grocery store for the people who live in the building and the office workers there. Perhaps put some sort of cultural venue there like a museum to something or stage for music, plays, etc. It could be used to attract boaters from the Small Boat Harbor, and others from the city. If we could extend the light rail to the outer harbor, city dwellers would have the opportunity to go there easily, enjoy the water and sunsets, etc, do a little shopping.
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orlanmon
Great news, and because of the close proximity to NFTA/Small Boat Harbour some retail on this property may work, well at least in the summer.
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Martin
we'll see...
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tudorguy
I often find it better to just read the article rather than continue on and read the comments as they are mostly always negative, no matter what the story might be. I'm surprised at the number of armchair "experts" there are in WNY.
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Spaulding97
The only thing that makes me nervous is that one of the owners (Buchheit) used to be the owner of the Statler before Issa bought it. Hopefuly Buchheit won't pull that stunt again.
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dcoffee
We should seriously work on putting the Boulevard back in Furhmann Boulevard. Call Higgins and find out what's up with the transportation money that was allocated to make this a place something other than a tractor trailer depot!
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SLEEPL8
I just got off a conference call with Timmy The Tool Tielman and Tricky Dicky Lippes and they got their suit all ready.
The only that will develop on this property is piles of bird shit.
Dream on Buffalo. This dump will be up for sale again by summer with a juiced up asking price.
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fredrico
It surprises me everytime I read comments about how " isolated " this location is. It's 5 minutes from downtown. It's 8 - 10 minutes from Elmwood, the art gallery, grocery stores, etc. Does everything have to be within one minute of where somebody lives?
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tonyarmani
Knock it down and put the Bills Stadium there!!
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RisingDamp666
Before they do anything to this historic structure's unique facade, someone should film one last Godzilla flick there...it has that Tokyo Harbor industrial scape circa 1960 look.
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militaryfashion
Being around the corner from Tift Nature Reserve and on the water are two things to build around .I am totally into refurbishing an old Naval ship and have a floating retail next to this .
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gaustad
ONCE AGIN - THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH BUFFALO - unrealistic expecations. Announcing projects like these are NOT GOOD for the morale of the city.
If and when the constructions starts, then lets celebrate. otherwise it is just yet another falied project providing false hope for a city on anti-depressants.
as for the casino, I am against it, BUT development begets development. sometimes we need to compromise our principles to get moving.
once the casino is built, watch how fast Bass Pro is built and things start moving.
Too much criticsm on design and everything else. We have nothing to lose. I don't see how things can get much worse.
Build it and that whole waterfront area will start booming.
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chris69
I dont know what all the bitching and moaning is about! There is nothing said about the Freezer Queen Building that wasnt said about the Larkin @ Exchange Building and the Freezer Queen building is half the size.
Nanodynamics has the smaller Ford Factory in a similar pier like location and it loves its location and its a growing company....so all this talk about location is BS!
The Freezer Queen Building is perfect for corporate offices, small business incubators with some added residential component...heck....I would even say its ripe for an expansion all the way to the foot of the water.
No it wont happen immediately....but its an awesome location ... and its a building that has geat bones.
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