Buffalo Rising Online

With the residential development of the Brownstones, Grever's Florist space and 9 Genesee to compliment that of Holling Press and Belasario, I think the art deco building that formerly housed Howard's Shoes is crying out to be tuned into a diner. Besides being in the close proximity to this residential development, the place could be a virtual 24 hour operation with morning commuters stopping for coffee or breakfast, the usual downtown lunch crowd, diner and late night patron's leaving Chippewa who want to take a break from Jim's Steakout.

I'd love to know the history of that building and why there is a huge apple above the entrance.

I love the pink building. I remember going in there when it was a Liberty Shoe store. The walls were lined top to bottom with boxes of shoes. It would make a specatular conversion to loft apartments. The big wimndows on the front are wonderfull. I could never understand why this one was not renovated along with the rest of the bergers block.

Building much needed 'critical mass' via continued residential development is what will spur commercial business development of these buildings...There is a defintive need for 'ownership'...like we see @ City Centre. But additonal, more affordable loft-style condo developments are needed. That delivers people who have a 'vested interest'...(and I apologize for the regulars who read this website for repeating this over and over...). Caffes, diners, wine shops, retail. And if you're questioning 'demand'...think about it. Developers are getting screaming deals when they purchase these vacant buildings...renovating them into upscale, modern apartments...and getting strong rents for the same...$800 (for 1 bdrs) and up in most cases. Look at the prices people are paying for real estate in the city right now...you think they couldn't afford condos in the $85-$150M range? The demand is there. Young professionals would jump on opportunities like this--and developers of the same would fare quite well. "If you build it...they will come"....

It's very exciting indeed to have all the lofts and apartments going up all over downtown. However it is essential for the tax base of the city to increase homeownership in this part of town. It would naturally improve quality of living and increase stability for long term growth of the city.

Has anyone ever considered taking the remaining retail stores out of the Main Place Mall and placing them in the storefronts in this section of Main St. It would bring more density to this area of downtown and make the street more welcoming. Maybe then that monstrosity known as the Main Place Mall can be torn down or coverted into added space for the the convention center.

Main Place Mall should consider Prime Outlet Stores for the mall. Once car traffic is returned to Main street we should see a plethora of retailers, restauranteurs scrambling to do business on main. With all the new lofts and apartments its a no-brainer. What the city has do is be very choosy about what kinds of business they want on their main street.

I agree Marcia, downtown needs to select retailers that are unique to the Buffalo area sort of like what is happing on Elmwood Ave. or Main Street in Williamsville. Wouldn't be great if one day downtown resembled 8th avenue in Chelsea, NYC with unique speaclity stores and great resturants. The idea about an outlet store in the main place does sound interesting. I remember when the Main Place had such national retailers as the GAP and Lane Bryant, it would be great to see these same retailers opening up outlet stores in the Main Place.

Everytime I see mention of The Belesario, it is spelled incorrectly. It's really strange - people spell it Belasario. http://www.ellicottdevelopment.com/belesario.php I don't know why Ellicott Development has two buildings with such similar names - Belesario, and Bellasara - kinda lame. I don't feel that Belesario suits the name of an upscale loft apartment building. They should have affixed the Berger name somehow.

Sort of off topic - I know, but I don't believe that I've ever seen it spelled properly - on Buffalo Rising, skyscraper city forums, etc.

The buildings are named after his mother or grandmother or both, I believe. I agree they are lame names, kind like a monument to yourself or some kind of ethnic-familial narcissism, but the developments are beautiful and he put up the cash so there you go. Money talks and in this case for a while, I'm sure.

Does anyone know the details of Ellicott Develpoment taking over the end of Mohawk street for parking at Berger Lofts. I was told the city gave it to Carl. This corner would have a better shot if Mohwak was open to traffic. Instead Tony hooked up Carl.

Here is some information on the Howard's Shoes building: It was originally a restaurant built in 1946 by a group called Waldorf System Inc. It was a lunch/cafe and appropriately named "Waldorf Restaurant", the company owned around 70 of these typical restaurants throughout major cities in the U.S. The apple that you are wondering about was their logo and if you loook closely you can see a "W" in the apple (for Waldorf). I'm not sure when the building was sold and converted into Howard's Shoes, I would love to know if anyone else can shed some light on that information.