Buffalo’s Lakeside Commerce Park is getting some flex space. Savarino Companies is proposing a two-building, 75,000 sq.ft. complex at 200 Ship Canal Parkway that can be utilized by office, light industrial, warehouse and distribution tenants. The project is to be constructed on a 5.7 acre site in the fledgling business park located off Route 5 near Lackawanna.
200 Ship Canal Parkway will consist of two L-shaped buildings, one with 38,222 square feet, the second slightly smaller at 34,450 square feet. Silvestri Architects is designing the single-story masonry and steel buildings. Environmental and civil engineering is being performed by Malcolm Pirnie Engineers.
The project has been accepted into the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfields Cleanup Program (BCP). By virtue of its inclusion in the BCP program, the site, its buildings, and its tenants will enjoy benefits formerly offered under the New York State Empire Zone program – without sunsets.
Savarino is currently finalizing the details of the Land Disposition Agreement with the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corporation. The purchase agreement is expected to be signed this week.
The 250-acre Lakeside Commerce Park is a brownfield reclamation project. The site initially produced pig iron for the Buffalo Union Steel Corporation in the early 1900s. Hanna Furnace Corporation bought the property in 1915. The Hanna Steel Plant closed in 1982 and it turned into a scrap yard for the following years. The property was abandoned in 1986 and acquired by the City in 2001.
Three businesses currently call the park home. CertainTeed, Cobey Inc. and Sonwil Distribution have created more than 400 new jobs. Sonwil has plans for a second, 300,000 sq.ft. distribution facility on its parcel. Conax Buffalo Technologies, currently operating in Cheektowaga, is eyeing a 10-acre site in the park for a 77,000 sq.ft. manufacturing plant.
Lakeside Commerce Park is centered around the former Union Ship Canal. With the business park filling, the City will soon construct a new street north of the canal connecting Ship Canal Parkway to Furhmann Boulevard. The half-mile road will open up 60 additional acres of industrial land for development. A new 22-acre waterfront park encompassing the Union Ship Canal is planned (post tomorrow).
Get connected: P. Christopher Dirr, Savarino Companies, 716.332.5959