ESDC To Be Headquartered In The Cobblestone District
Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) has signed up to be the anchor tenant in the former Benlin Distribution Services warehouse at 95 Perry Street. ESDC, whose current offices are located within the Liberty Building, is planning a late winter/early spring move into upwards of 30,000 sq.' of the building currently owned and operated by Savarino Development Corporation.
Savarino has retained the architectural services by Silvestri Architects, who will start work on the fifth floor of the building. The fourth floor will also see work as part of the first phase of the project. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed provides for a ten-year lease. The location to the Erie Canal Terminus and the Canal Side project was a major draw to this particular site, where ESDC Headquarters will have plenty of room for current offices with the option to grow if needed. This is their main office outside of NYC - it will be their Upper New York Office - a fulfillment of Spitzer's promise to move Empire State Development to Buffalo.
According to Sam Savarino, this is ‘development central’ for NYS (outside of NYC). The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation and affiliates will also be housed within the building. That means that there will a significant amount of jobs - both current and newly formed due to the expanded operations in Buffalo.
What many people don't know is that there are still intentions to build out living accommodations on the second floor (rental units with a condo conversion planned down the line), as well as retail build-outs on the ground level. Savarino is currently searching for a restaurant operator for an eatery on that same floor.
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al-alo
development in the cobblestone district, that rocks! whats that, you say, your sediment exactly?
ahem.
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flyguy
Very cool looking conversion and great to see it get a big tenant but very very sad to see the deck simply shufled downtown. The Cobblestone benefits and Liberty Building gets more vacant. The truly great news wiould be expanding business taking up new space or out of town companies setting up shop. Reshuffling within downtown, within the city, within Western New York isnt necessarily great news when thinking about the bigger picture. I hate to see icons like the Liberty Building losing tenants but am glad Cobblestone benefits. The greater benefit would be a comprehensive gain instead of a reshuffle.
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Denizen
Musical chairs....
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flyguy
exactly
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SLEEPL8
How empty is the Liberty Building?....Or how full if you are an optimist.
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halljd39
wow - this is a great improvement on this building. looks great!
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RonR
Denizen great point on the shift but the one good thing about it is the development in the Cobblestone.
Sure the Liberty is empty but that can be fixed. I have no problem with NEW office space being created and the draining of older buildings. This might force the owners of the Liberty to invest in the building OR lower rents to reflect their place in the market. Either way it makes room for MORE business to come downtown.
Collins won so Today for sure is a glass half full day!!!
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TBone
Flyguy, you are right on. Liberty, Main Place and Trishman all face severe vacancies at the heart of the CBG. Some real planning needs to be done as to how to sure up the CBG with new areas competing for business within the city.
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TBone
That should be "shore up", pardon the typo.
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halljd39
The one problem with the location is the lack of resturants in that location. Other than that, this is another great development for the Cobblestone District.
I'm still a proponent of building buildings that look old along the Cobblestone streets like the SOHO district in NYC for anchor shops. The whole bit, large display windows, tall ceilings, exposed brick etc... etc... I know you can't beat already built structures but making the building look old would work, since it is actually new.
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BuffaloDave
The ESD has much less space than 30,000 SF in the Liberty Building. This is a very large expansion. Also, the Liberty Building is more like 20% vacant than the numbers being thrown around above. Michelle Mazzone, the new leasing agent on behalf of Liberty Group has had great success in turning that building and the whole complex around (as a recent Business First article pointed out). So guess what? - this is a good thing!
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gaustad
great place for a nice martini bar or lounge
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WeLovePanos
Is there a tenant out there that is NOT Government funded? It seems Buffalo is full of these acornyms. ECHDC, ESCD, WNYECID, ECIDA, GBCTA, blah blah blah... I mean are there any, ANY companies out there that dont suck the teet of the Gov't???
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WeLovePanos
Yeah this way our fashionable people can wear their Gilbert Perreault or Bill Hajt jerseys into a nice Martini Bar or Lounge... You need a dumpy bar to serve our residents from Depew and Cheektovegas... hhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm
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halljd39
martini bar? what the heck are you guys talking about?
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RisingDamp666
The Liberty Building needs to empty out completely so it can be redeveloped as high-end condos, or a boutique hotel. Its days as an office tower are over forever. New class A office space has already been proposed for Downtown. A forward-thinking developer just needs to wrest it from a hapless non-starter named Issa.
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300miles
THis is NOT just "reshuffling" if it results in new apartments/condos and restaurants. The move would be jumpstarting additional investment.
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halljd39
The Liberty Building with condos or loft apartmens would be an excellent idea. Seeing new businesses, Tim Hortons (gotta get to Timmy Ho's), etc... are opening up within close proximity, apartments would make sense. The main entrance to the old Liberty Bank Tower is grand, who wouldn't want to live there?
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Texpat10
This isn't a new building. It is a conversion of the Benlin warehouse. It is a pretty good one at that. Hopefully some new buildings will get built down here and not just the casino. That will give the area mass. While I don't necessarily think the buildings all need to be faux old warehouses it'll be nice if they follow a consistent design principle. I really hope to see this area take off although I am sad to see the downtown core lose another tennant. Unfortunately Buffalo just isn't a city with enough to go around.
Total aside but I have been here in Washington, DC this week and every damn night the weather woman originally from Erie, PA starts talking about the snow so the anchorman can say "That's another reason I'd never live in Buffalo" or "I'll bet you couldn't wait to get out of there." Then they proceed to show pictures of Cassadaga. It is snow. Like rain, It doesn't usually kill people. I'll bet when the hurricane hit Punta Gorda, FL and people actually died they weren't saying "Well look at that; another reason I'd never live there." Sigh.
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tudorguy
What happened with the lawsuit the Liberty Building filed to keep the other Court Street office building from going up? hopefully THAT suit will be dropped so we can build to the street on Court.
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scarmina
Just want to note that the rendering shown in this article and the shell design for this building was done by Carmina & Wood, PC, since proper credit was not given.
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chris69
If their having this much success with 5 story buildings in the cobblestone district then why not build a few new 5 story buildings.....
Come along now.....Buffalo is a very under-developed city...and at the same time we are creating all these new startups and attracting all these new companies....they need urban office space!
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Biniszkiewicz
Re: ". . . the Liberty building's days as an office building are over forever. . ." Really?? What special knowledge do you have?
The Liberty building, the Rand Bldg, Main Seneca, the Brisbane, Convention Towers and a number of buildings have a legitimate niche in the marketplace. They offer bang for buck: very reasonable all inclusive rent in a building that looks good and which doesn't overwhelm small to medium size businesses. There are a lot of windows. Even if you don't need much space, you get views. the Liberty building is narrow. The central hallway makes large spaces difficult to accomodate. If you need a lot of space (30k'), the Liberty Building is not your best bet. But if you have a smaller business, you can look good in a building like this. You can rent a fairly small office and still look very professional. You're not lost on a huge floor. Your office doesn't look disproportionately small.
The firm I work for (Pyramid Brokerage--we broker commercial real estate) occupies 5,000' in the Rand Building. Landlord (David Sweet) remodeled our offices as part of the new lease we signed this past year. I worked for Berlow Real Estate before Pyramid bought us. The Pyramid guys came to our offices when their Audubon lease expired because we had extra room. That was supposed to be temporary. We were supposed to go out to the burbs within six months of them coming downtown. None of the suburban Pyramid guys initially liked coming downtown and paying for parking. The Berlow guys all liked downtown. Today enough of the Pyramid guys like it that we committed to staying right where we were.
Not everything needs to be new. Carrying fine architecture into the future has merit (I think the Liberty Building qualifies as good architecture worthy of preservation; it's not the Guarantee Buidling, but its lobby is better than most of what you'd get now. It has charm). Bringing new businesses to downtown would inject new life into old buildings without changing their use (an incredibly expensive proposition).
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RisingDamp666
It's all about the floorplates, Bini, unless you're a dentist or new lawyer early in your practice, you're going to want column-free, floor-through space that is flexible, can accomodate growth, and is cheap. Old buildings like the Liberty just aren't what the market wants, otherwise, every new office tower in America would be slivers or have funky 5,000-15,000sq ft floors., not the 25,000-40,000 sq ft floorplates that are getting put up. O.K., in New York, some boutique traders and hedge-funds dig this stuff and the rents are through the roof, but in Buffalo? Can you say Dr. Happy Smile? By the way, I'm very pleased that the firm you work for is keeping the old Rand alive and well. I think that tower is still very much a business object. Cheers to you and your gang!
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