Downtown Housing Tour Recap
The Downtown Housing Tour, as a part of Buffalo Old Home Week (BOHW), happily exceeded my expectations. An impressive amount of people came downtown for an intimate glimpse at what the new loft craze is all about.
This offered a wide variety of folks an opportunity to see, first-hand, this exciting type of city living. Our small downtown kept this tour comfortably walkable on a rather humid afternoon.
Personally, this was the first time I had ever stepped into any of the new lofts, despite my constant blogging about the advantages of downtown life. Prior to this, all I had seen were pictures. Photographs donit do these living spaces much justice. Being there in person is the best way to experience a Downtown Buffalo on the cusp of a massive regeneration.
Working our way south from Allentown, my girlfriend (photographer of this slideshow) and I explored everything on the mostly-solid streetscape of Main through the Theater district (Granite Works, Sidway, Market Arcade). We made our way toward the developing iGenesee Villagei where lofts (Ellicott Lofts, IS Lofts, Oak School Lofts) have been built along Ellicott and Oak streets on the northeastern fringe of downtown.
Toward the middle-section of Downtown was the Holling Place Apartments, and nearly-completed iBuehl Block,i a miraculous conversion of a forgotten corner gem that was once featured in a Charles Burchfield Painting. Inward, on Main St., next to the Hyatt is the Belesario Lofts, a collection of majestically grand spacesotrue luxury lofts.
Down in the emerging Cobblestone District, Savarino Construction is working on the Cobblestone Lofts, a massive complex of, yes, Condos! When these are completed, within a year or two, people will have the option of buying in the heart of an upcoming creative urban district. Their office building is almost complete, with a few tenants already lined up, according to some circulating rumors. A brisk walk to the east is the Lofts at Elk Terminal, one of the very first pioneers of Downtown Living. Once a mundane loading dock, the building has become a collection of spacious, luxurious modern living spaces.
This Downtown living trend has all seemed to have happened so fast, just within the past few years. Getting banks to bankroll these projects has been difficult proposition, so a lot of grants and subsidies have been utilized. As a result, many of these new units are rent-controlled or income-restricted, making downtown living affordable to those of more modest means. The Holling Place has a strict income cap which means many apartments average about $550 a month. 10 floors of uber-affordable yet fresh, new and modern apartments, gives the impressive building the feel of a luxury college dorm. Having Club Diablo and Mohawk Place within spitting distance is a nice amenity.
I met some of the inhabitants of these great living spaces, a diverse bunch in age and occupation. They all seemed to greatly enjoy their urban living experiences. Many agreed that there certainly could be more interesting places to walk to though. This will undoubtedly happen when a greater density of new downtown housing is built. The next step is to come up with a coordinated plan of concentrating new conversions and construction within specifically-designated new neighborhoods. The idea is to concentrate enough of a icritical massi of residents within a small area to create ripe conditions for retail to thrive. When residents have a good selection of vital services and shopping within an easy walk, downtown living will become even more attractive and residential demand rapidly increase.
This first batch of lofts and apartments I saw has been essentially an experiment to see if there was any real demand for living in Downtown Buffalo. From the very few vacancies, we can safely deduce the demand is there and building more of these is a no-brainer. Itis also safe to say that more developers and, more importantly, the local banks, are cordially invited to step up to the plate and help get the downtown ball rolling even faster.
The road toward vibrant downtown living has certainly been paved.
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RepatEd
The housing tour was fantastic! Having just moved back myself after 8 years away, it was great to see all the progress that has been made with regards to downtown housing. I was especially pleased to see even MORE construction currently underway (more space coming next to the IS and Ellicott Lofts).
There was one MASSIVE "disappointment" with regards to the entire tour: with the exception of The Belasario (which, in my opinion, was a bit disappointing considering the prices, although I suppose you're paying for the building and its amenities at that point), the overwhelming majority of the properties HAD NO VACANCIES, or only a few, usually in the more expensive two-bedroom range.
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westcoastperspective
Great re-cap Gabe!
I want to thank everyone who made this day an incredible success including the Buffalo News for the super publicity, Peggy and Buffalo Place for producing and printing the fantastic brochures, the many volunteers who helped host units and hand-out information at the Market Arcade, the Old Home Week organizing committee for all of their support, and Jason and the Blu Mirage at The Sidway for allowing us to unwind after the event and putting out a great spread. Most importantly I want to thank the developers, managers and residents who opened their homes and buildings to the public. Without properties to show, there would have been no housing tour.
We estimated that at least 500 groups of folks took the tour. It was incredible to see so many people walking the streets of downtown Buffalo on a Saturday afternoon. Many were from Buffalo and the suburbs but there were also people from California, Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York City, Rochester, Ontario and elsewhere. They all saw first-hand the incredible transformation underway downtown and hopefully, planted the seed that downtown living is fun, convenient and a viable lifestyle choice for themselves in the future.
Most common question of the day? "Are any for sale?"
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Nan-C
WCP, You made it all happen! Super organizational skills, a dedication to development, a passion for Buffalo, AND a great guy, too!! Thanks for all of your efforts. Now you can relax ......until we start thinking about next year's event! :)
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wtl
Yes, this was a success. Let's now get planning for next year's event- Bigger and Better.
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M Rodgers - WVRG
WCP: Good to have finally met you and many thanks for the connection on Saturday. Hope you and G have a relaxing last few days here and your flight home is flawless.
Thanks for all you do from afar.
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BCB
Congratulations to the many people involved who made this downtown housing tour such a great success!
I escorted my friend from NYC to each of the downtown lofts. He is interested in returning to Buffalo and prefers to eventually buy a downtown condo.
We are very pleased with what we found in both the quality and pricing. My friend said every property viewed was a bargin by any comparison.
I must also say that the homeowners were SO FRIENDLY and SO WELCOMING. Thanks so much for openning up your homes.
Buffalo is definitely at the beginning of a downtown boom. We seen many tangibile signs and can't wait to see more of them.
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Shopitall
Great job, WCP, and ALL who worked & planned!
And great post, Gabe!
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CitySportsBuffalo
Slide 15 - how much? when will it be ready? rent or own? need more info! :)
I felt like I was just watching a show on HGTV...
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Andrew Kulyk
Thanks to all the volunteers and residents who made all this happen. It was a very enjoyable and informative afternoon,
For me, the highlight was meeting up with Dennis Brinkworth, the proprietor of the new Morrisey's Pub which will be going into the loading dock building behind Cobblestone Lofts. Dennis was proudly showing off his sketches and renderings, and even had samples of his Irish beer for visitors at the Savarino/Cobblestone open house! The arena neighborhood is screaming for new establishments to cater to hungry and thirsty hockey crowds. Let's wish Dennis well and hope that others follow his lead in locating down there.
I hope that investors and developers are paying attention to this groundswell of demand for downtown condominiums and living spaces. There ARE buyers out there, not just renters. A number of people I bumped into during my travels yesterday were interested in purchasing, but sadly, the inventory just isn't there right now.
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Andrew Kulyk
Note to CSB above - photo 15 is the 4th floor of the Savarino office building. Eva Hassett from Savarino was kind enough to take visitors up there to give an idea what the raw space of the Cobblestone Lofts will look like.
Aren't those floor to ceiling windows awesome?! Not to mention the brickwork and the view.
Memo to the tenants who will be occupying that 4th floor space ... you couldn't have picked a better location for your business! Will your announcement be forthcoming shortly?
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Dan
The demand is there, and hopefully some intrepid developer will come along and fill in some of the gaps in downtown's built environment. What are now surface parking lots should be the siote of housing for young professionals. There's a booming residential population in downtown Cleveland -- and two supermarkets to serve them -- and the future for Buffalo should be no different.
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quinnyarch
I wish i was in town for this!
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Dino
great review I was sad I had to miss this as im aching to move downtown. Are there anymore tours like this comming up? Or not till next home week?
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westcoastperspective
Dino- We're expecting this to be an annual event as part of Old Home Week and would look to do it even bigger and better as part of the centennial celebration. If you're in the market for a downtown rental, email me at wcp@ssctv.net and I'll get you a list of contact information for the buildings on the tour or visit the buffalo place website where you can find a more comprehensive list of downtown properties.
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