Midtown Main Street is seeing a lot of positive activity recently. One good example is the renovation of a two-story commercial building at the southeast corner of Main and Utica streets. 1373-81 Main Street is being turned into a small business incubator along with retail space by the Bethesda Community Development Corporation, an affiliate of the Bethesda World Harvest International Church.
Bethesda purchased the 17,200 sq.ft. building in 2007. The church is located in the renovated circa-1914 Regent Theater next door to the incubator building. Financing for the project is from a number of sources including $162,000 in New York State Aid Incentives for Municipalities funding and a recently awarded Restore New York grant.
Midtown Main Street has been on a bit of a roll lately, 25 years after light rail promised big things for the corridor that never materialized. There are multiple development opportunities within the corridor with solid institutional anchors including the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus on the south and Canisius College to the north. Investment, primarily rehabs of existing structures, has seen an uptick particularly since ArtSpace opened in mid-2007:
Ira G. Ross Eye Institute – 1176 Main Street
Delta Sonic and Training Center – 1192 Main
ArtSpace – 1219 Main
Packard Apartments – 1325 Main
Bob Biniszkiewicz’s Main/Ferry Bldg. Rehab – 1526 Main
HOME Project – 1542 Main
Buffalo Steak & Sub – 1335 Main
Seeing is believing. The revitalization of Main Street has been a long time coming and is far from thriving, but is visibly moving forward.
Entry and above images courtesy of David Torke.