The City has released its Request for Proposals for a parking lot at 201 Ellicott Street. Mayor Byron W. Brown at the 2015 State of the City Address set a goal of developing the site with a mix of residential space, parking, and a grocery store. Developers have until July 29 to submit their ideas for the 2.54 acre site that is located between the central library and the Metropolitan Transportation Center.
According to the RFP, the City is “seeking proposals for a full line grocery store and a mixed-use development project that includes a significant residential element (with a possibility for condominiums), commercial elements and a required parking ramp. A proposed office use will only be considered if it results in new jobs for downtown or a type of office space not currently available in the downtown market.”
More:
“Compliance with the proposed City of Buffalo Green Code Unified Development Ordinance is expected, including but not limited to setback, height, transparency, pedestrian access and other building design standards; landscape, storm water management, outdoor lighting, parking (for both vehicles and bicycles), transportation demand management, signage and other site design standards. The proposed zoning under the Green Code UDO is N-1C (mixed-use core) which regulates mixed-uses.”
“The City intends to place institutional controls over the parking component to protect the availability of parking spaces for current users and for the public generally through either a public-private partnership or as the owner and or funder of a parking ramp structure to be integrated into the proposed development. Any proposal must show a proposed parking plan that meets current and future parking demand.”
Development of the site is an opportunity to fill in one of downtown’s largest surface parking lots. The City-owned parking lot currently provides 380 spaces and is managed by Buffalo Civic Auto Ramps (BCAR). A majority of the spaces are reserved monthly by tenants of the Hotel @ the Lafayette and M&T Bank employees.
A new development will also help tie together the residential and restaurant resurgence along Ellicott Street north of the site and ECC and Coca Cola Field to the south. Neighboring blocks have seen substantial investment such as the mixed-use Hotel @ the Lafayette that includes 115 apartments and 40 hotel rooms, the 30-unit Historic Warehouse Lofts that is being converted to condos, the 48-unit AM&A’s Warehouse Lofts, the Planing Mill with 22 units on Elm Street, the redeveloped Tishman Building with 18 apartments and a Hilton Garden Inn with 123 rooms, Historic Buehl Block with five apartments, The Sinclair on Washington Street with 45 units, AC Lofts on Elm Street with 91 units, and the planned reuse of the AM&A’s Department Store with 300 hotel rooms and six apartments. Lost count? That’s 380 residential units and 463 hotel rooms.
Proposals will be evaluated by the following criteria according to the RFP:
- Completeness of the Application Proposal: All required documents have been submitted and the project is presented in a clear and concise manner;
- Experience and Qualifications: Respondent and any affiliated partners have successfully completed project(s) similar in size and scope or have completed similar project(s) but smaller in size and scope or have otherwise demonstrated capability to complete a project as solicited in this RFP;
- Consistency with Local Plans;
- Community Impact: The extent to which the project will be an asset to neighborhoods, the City and the region;
- Creative Design Proposal: Provides for the creative and architecturally appropriate concept and incorporates sustainable design and development principles into the project;
- MBE/WBE Participation Proposal: Includes participation of certified Minority and Women Business Enterprises;
- Project Budget: Budget is complete, and all sources and uses of funds are clearly defined and documented with evidence of commitments; costs are limited to amounts or percentages specified in the request for proposals;
- Cost Effectiveness: Proposed costs are reasonable;
- Project Readiness: The likelihood of timely progress toward closing on a property transfer agreement leading to the positive redevelopment of the site. The City of Buffalo is looking for projects that will begin construction in the spring of 2016; and,
- Sale Price.
The City wants construction to begin next spring.