The following comment was left by ECHDC Chairman Jordan Levy in the Benderson/Donovan site post:
Ok, I usually don’t participate in these types of discussions, but since the attacks on my character and integrity are so specific here, I think that I need to defend myself.
For the record, Benderson was selected before I joined this Board. Second, we did go through a state mandated RFP process to get to this point and while people may have preferred that we select someone else, the Benderson Company was the only bidder and many others looked hard and visited the building.
Next, the building is currently a piece of garbage and this is a great adaptive re-use of a 1950’s office building. For five years. anyone could have come forward and offered to develop this property, nobody ever did!
We now have a private sector investor spending $30MM of their own money in downtown Buffalo, putting a non taxpaying property back on the tax rolls.
Lastly, the plans for the Historic District and Aud Block will come together shortly and will celebrate the history of the district, but remember, there is almost nothing remaining from the great history of this district, so whatever we build will be a re-creation of what we think makes sense and meets contemporary standards in today’s world.
I am happy about what we did today and where we are headed and hope that all of the folks that have nothing positive to say will come forward and invest their time and money in doing something that will move the needle in downtown Buffalo vs just criticize people willing to invest their time, energy and money. my close friend or not, this was an open, transparent and extremely positive day for Buffalo.