Mayor Brown went to Washington seeking $7 million from the federal government to help construct a mixed-use commercial building on a vacant parcel behind the new Federal Courthouse, steps from the boarded-up Statler building. The 15-story structure would contain 900 parking spaces on eleven floors topped by four floors of office space. It is expected to support current and future nearby development, including a repurposed Statler building and the new Federal Courthouse. Besides the absence of a capable developer, the lack of nearby parking has been called an impediment in redeveloping the Statler.
The $35 million “Statler Intermodal Transportation Facility” is designed to enhance the redevelopment of the Statler. It would be built by businessman Mark Croce on a surface parking lot he owns at the corner of S. Elmwood Avenue and Mohawk Street. The parcel is where Bashar Issa had proposed what would have been the city’s tallest building, City Tower.
The ramp and office building leads the City of Buffalo’s 2010-11 Federal Agenda. The Mayor presented the city’s funding wish list in a series of meetings with White House Deputy Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs David Agnew in the West Wing of the White House and Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Congressman Brian Higgins and Congressman Chris Lee.
The City’s federal agenda includes funding requests for expansion of the Mayor’s Youth Employment & Training program; improvements in the African American Cultural Corridor; installation of GPS tracking system in all city-owned vehicles (current pilot project has GPS tracking devices in the city’s snow fleet vehicles); installation of eight more surveillance cameras (109 of planned 125 cameras are currently operational throughout the city); and the proposed Fillmore Avenue Streetscape Improvement Phase 2 project, which would complement the Mayor’s Better Schools/Better Neighborhoods Collaborative.
Mayor Byron W. Brown is greeted at the White House on Tuesday by David Agnew, White House Deputy Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs.