Buffalo Rising Online

Can someone tell me why it wouldn't make more economical sense to drop the price per sq ft on the ground floor to attract new tenants in the short term.....isn't something better than nothing?

Seems like most commercial land lords down town will not negotiate while we have a glut of vacant space....why?

"much of the building’s ground floor is obscured by the outbound Theater District light rail station."

Most of the vacant spaces on Main street are on sites behind subway stations. Once those are removed and people can actually see the spaces I see them getting filled easier.

Even if a retailer was interested, they would still have alter one of the big windows to make an Entrance. I believe their is only a way in from the main door in which you have to buzzed in, and a small side door that will not work if your customers can't find it or figure out how to enter your business. And yes, the price per sq. feet in most of these first floors are OUTRAGEOUS. I was looking at some spaces and my favorite one would have been around 58 Thousand a month. No wonder it's so hard to get a business (especially a retailer) downtown.

eac- no, not an ad. Besides the occasional press release, I'm never told what to post. The pics are mine, and what is posted as 'retail ready' is up to me. Next: 285 Delaware.

They are not asking $58k PER MONTH. I would bet they are asking about $20 per sq ft. which might equal closer to $58k PER YEAR. PSF is calculated per year.....not month. That is definetely steep for the city, $20 psf is more in line with good retail space in the burbs.

I would think these guys would be flexible if a good, solid, stable retailer was interested in the space.

What doesn't help this space is the big ugly subway station in front of it. For $20 psf i want my store to be seen.

What is the typical $/sf for mainstreet or downtown? whats the cost at this site?

I'm fairly certain that Benderson is getting more then $20 Net for Chip and Delaware. I think that will end up being the market for that section of Delaware and all it's new construction.

I don't think you can come up with typical for Main Street. It should be somewhere between cheap as hell and $12 Net. Depending on space, location and who has to do what to the space.

The vacancy is especially unfortunate as this is a *great* building -- very nicely designed to work into the historic fabric of the theater district while not in any way hiding that it's a very modern building. Bergmann has some great architects - and had a great team of volunteer architects and designers working on our downtown planning charrette last year. In fact, one of the coolest visuals to come from the charrette was by one of their newer architects, who designed a high-rise residential tower to occupy a strategic parcel adjacent to our old subway tunnel and Erie Canal aqueduct space. It showed a cut-away of a below-ground link to a walkway that will be developed in the old aqueduct space to connect our convention center and downtown library with the Blue Cross Arena/War Memorial on the other side of the river.

You know, *six years* is a long time to go without - and there are also other buildings in the Theater District and along Main with empty street-level retail space. Has anyone (e.g. Buffalo Place) ever thought about a program for at cost/below cost/free use of these spaces on an interim basis (i.e. until market forces draw interest from lessees ready to pay full freight) for non-profit organizations, art galleries, events, exhibits, etc.--? That would at least bring more life and foot traffic, which could only help in making Main Street more commercially viable. Sometimes you have to prime the pump.

Oops - Gaustad said something similar above - didn't mean to plagiarize, G.

I see no problem filling the first floors initially with offices if the rest of the building is full. If residential etc is brought on-line over time, the spaces can be then leased to commercial retailers as the demand grows. The big mistake is not designing/planning for the future use possibilities. Maybe even a rent break of some sort to keep the windows "open" so people can see the activity inside, even if it is not retail.

Good points by all, with current shopping trends there is too much first floor retail space in the city, BUT there is PLENTY of wealth around the city or region to support it if we so desire. Making a couple fewer trips to the gallaria and spending that money in local shops, where ever they may be would eventually spill into these empty retail locations because small local businesses are the ones that will take the chance on them. The Jenny Shop, Seabar, Washington Market etc. We have the money we just need to make an effort to spend our money differently.

I also agree that we need to design these types of spaces into buildings even if they are used for something different in the near future.

But is'nt downtown (most areas) ALREADY BUSY with people? And yet we still have very little retail to offer. So how many people do we need to intice people to set up shops here? And how come we don't have any Downtown Retail Marketing Group? Benderson is on the ball with going to National Retail Conventions and promoting the Inner Harbor area to businesses, why does'nt Buffalo Place or someone in City Hall do the same for Main Street or Downtown in general? Remember, you have to go to them, they're not going to say one day "hmmm, let's check out Downtown Buffalo for a new store". We need a marketing push for retail to come back.

As much as it would be cool to see it under grade (why did they reverse it from below grade downtown and above grade outside of DT to what we eventually got?) there is no reason the trains and cars can not coexist. Buffalo used to be crisscrossed with cable cars. It would just be turning back time even further to when the cars and trains shared the roads. When I vist toronto or San Fran I find the trains add to the experience. The same could be done here.

Wonder if an open-air car could be used in the summer months to roam up and down the free portion. SImilar to the old cars still in use in San Fran?

and save the money used to dig the tunnels to an airport or UB north extention.

RonR, the plan for the redone Main St (the last time I saw it) does have traffic in both directions and parking along the side. On top of that it also has bike lanes in both directions until the 700 block. The parking isn't the entire length of main street but usually where the big red areas are now. That way most of the trees and pedestrian sidewalks are not impacted since the travel lane for the trains and cars will be the same.

Mike Attardo and Get Dressed is an institution... thats a shame