Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 12th, 2:13pm By queenseyes

Ever since Eaton Galleries and Antiques closed up on Elmwood in Allentown I've been waiting to see what would happen with the building. Over the summer I learned that it sold to Mitch Bechtel (second from right) for $256,000. Shortly after I ran into Mitch and asked him what his plans were for the building. He told me that he was moving his web design business (specializing in customized content management solutions) into the second floor. At that point he was an operation consisting of two developers. Six months later Comand Solutions has hired on five additional designers and might be looking into expanding to the first floor. I asked Mitch about the missed opportunity for having retail on the first floor and he told me that when he has his 'Buffalo Rising hat' on he opts for retail, but when he has his 'Comand Solutions hat' on he reverts back to office.

The former gallery/antique space is really amazing. The wood floors and vaulted ceilings only pale when compared to the spectacular display windows. I asked Mitch what he thought about the idea of having a scooter dealership on the first floor and he said that the idea had already passed through his mind. "What if we dedicated the front windows to a scooter shop," he asked. "And turned the rest of the first floor into an office? The owner of the scooter shop could run a small retail operation in front featuring the scooters, which would look great in the front window. We could take up some additional space and share the first floor. Then, a scooter could be rolled right out the front door and onto the sidewalk. We even have a separate entrance to the second floor for Comand. Plus there’s a full basement for storage."

Even though Mitch and his team has worked on more national projects than local, one of the sites that he’s really proud of is the Allentown Association’s website. The site has compiled thousands of photos of Allentown properties and the plan is to have the history of each attached. So, say for example you have identified a house in the neighborhood and you have the house number. Enter that number into the search engine and you can see a current photo of the house. Eventually you will be able to see historic images as well, along with links to other sites and written documents that tell the story of the property. It’s a really cool site and very user friendly.

Mitch is still weighing the options of incorporating retail into the building, so if you know of someone looking for a space in Allentown, just give him a shout. In the meantime, look for good things to come from Comand Solutions. This is the type of operation that we need to bring more of to the city. Look at the relationship that they have already struck up with the Allentown Association. And think about the national companies that will have relational ties to our city. These types of businesses can operate just as well from Buffalo as they can from NYC. Oh, and try buying your own historic building in NYC like Mitch just did in Allentown… I don’t think so.

Comand Solutions is located at 115 Elmwood Ave in Buffalo. 800-598-0869

Side Note: I spoke to Percy from the Buffalo 66 scooter shop... he's going down to check out the space (and there may be a new development on that end so stay tuned). If you are a bit lost... then check out this post.