Buffalo Rising Online

I agree that location on Main could be a good site for a new residential project. Will be interesting to see what happens to the space, if anything.

Would be AMAZING residential! Delaware just keeps getting stonger and stronger. Some will argue that it's at the expense of Main. However, the impact of a stronger/more vibrant Delaware is much more visible than Main....thus perhaps changing people's impression of downtown as a whole. Residential AND office will eventually transform Main. Visibility on Main is another issue in itself.

gotta love the shuffling around of the board pieces. there is potential for main to become a heavily-residential area though...a trickledown of sorts from the theatre distict especially if century lofts get done.

From what I hear at Damon & Morey, Kissling were pretty horrendous landlords for them. Thats pretty bad considering they're the anchor tenant in the same building that Kissling has its main offices. I've lived in a Kissling building for 3 years at Gates circle and I've watched this building severly deteriorate during the time I've been here. Constant elevator problems, frequent power outages, laundry facilities are completely useless, rugs are worn and probably 30 years old, etc... Yet, they have raised the rent almost $200/mo since I've been there. I'm currently searching for a new apartment and more than willing to break my lease and lose the deposit to move out.

Would be fantastic if Cathedral place were converted to residential though. I've always thought that might be the most ideal building and location for such a project. I just have landlord concerns...

That is a shame about Kissling because they do own a lot of property around here, most of which appear in good condition from the street.

I think the 'hat' gives it almost a Gotham City kind of feel As for the surrounding buildings they were probably just all extruded for the same height as the architect was commissioned to design and render 200 Delaware not the community as a whole. There are models of that building out there and it would be a great tool for the city and its businesses to use if all the models were compiled into some sort of computable format and made available...

SimBuffalo

Reshuffling, indeed. BUT - we can complain complain and complain (as this comes natural of Buffalonians), when it all boils down to square footage a lot of the reshuffling results in an increase of net absorption. SO THERE! Now go pick that apart. LOL

It may be reshuffling the deck but the city's vacancy rate has not gone up even though new space has been added. So I guess that we are now shuffling a bigger deck.

LOLOL have you ever heard of New Era, Wizard?

or HealthNow, Savarino. Sure this is reshuffling (kinda) but what it is doing is opening up some of the lower quality spaces that would become ideal for other uses. There is a proven demand for higher quality space in downtown and a continued growth in the amount of residential units downtown, which are from converting older spaces like this. There is going to be an inevitable reshuffle here or there that is expected and positive for downtown because it reaffirms those businesses commitment to downtown and gives them the room to grow without having to leave the city.

This is a win, but how big of a win will happen once we find out what is going to happen to the building on Cathedral Park. Which is easily the cutest place in downtown and would make a lovely urban front yard.

Steel- your comment needs to be clarified... class A vacancy rates have not gone up- I don't believe the same can be said for class B space.

I agree.

I'm assuming the last space was not class A? Much better to be moving into DT class A then sprawling out to the towns. A class A for a class A swap I'd be less estatic about. Having tenents "move up" is not a bad thing.

Emptying the Class B or Class C by having them bump up to the nicer vacated B could open up nice possibities for new rental/condo residential or other uses.

This would make a killer view:

I agree but maybe if 200 Delaware was completed or even in discussions earlier maybe Geico would have considered downtown.. Instead they were shown the Pierce Arrow building (boring). SO it does happen now and then but without the ability to house large scale offices in quality spaces we will always get bypassed especially with a perception (not truth) out there that renovations cost more than new build and you would still have less quality space.

Geico strategically places their campuses in very suburban/borderline rural areas FAR FAR away from public transportation.

urbansoul - If what you claim is true about 'FAR FAR away from public transportation', then doesn't it look like they goofed up when deciding where to build their location here? They chose the Crosspoint Business Park which has around 25 NFTA bus trips per day inbound and 28 per day outbound, to and from the Metro station at UB South Campus.

http://www.nfta.com/metro/schedules_pdfs/44.pdf

Geico strategically places their campuses in very suburban/borderline rural areas FAR FAR away from public transportation.

Actually Geico worked with the NFTA to establish those routes. And the building was built from the ground up exclusively for them. They took temporary space while it was completed. I wonder how it is that they couldn't be talked into the city. Waterfront Village (which they were shown) would have been a great location with excellent visibility ie free advertising to all the cars on the 190.

Oh, I have been meaning to ask if anyone knows if 200 Delaware is really going to be this gray? The blue was over the top but this looks like an error in the opposite direction.