News broke yesterday that Ellicott Development wants to give Silo City the bird. Three of them, actually.
Now, getting “the bird” from Ellicott’s founder is nothing new there. He and a couple of partners own the Gelmac silos, the first on the left as you drive in. Unique among the concrete giants along the river, they are not actually individual silos, but a cavernous interior space. Since purchasing the elevators in 2007, the owner has followed a not-atypical pattern of – apparently – investing little-to-nothing in the structure. It is unsecured, with a decaying roof. It’s hard to argue that has been a good neighbor to the rest of Silo City.
Things got even worse for a time last year, when the owner allowed the building to be used, essentially, as a waste transfer station for construction debris, according to a story in The Public.
City Hall Permits and Inspections put a stop to it, but not before tons of debris had been dumped inside the building and spread around with an excavator.
Now comes word that Ellicott Development wants to shoehorn a helipad onto a sliver of land between the Gelmac elevator and the Perot elevator owned by Silo City. With a three-helicopter operation, no less. Three helicopters operating off a small piece of property at the bottom of a concrete canyon? What could go wrong?
If you’ve ever been through the “concrete canyon” in that area on a boat tour, it’s not just a visual experience but an auditory one. Because of the echos, you can carry on a conversation with someone on shore as if they are standing next to you. All sounds reverberate back and forth across the river. Can you imagine the sonic chaos there from a heliport?
And how about safety? The Gelmac owners have already showed little concern for the building since purchasing it a decade ago. It’s reasonable to speculate about speculation: that they purchased the property not for the building, but for the land. If it were abutted by a heliport, how long do you think it would be before the owners pushed to demolish it?
So it’s not necessarily being over-dramatic to call this project an existential threat to the integrity of the grain elevator collection at Silo City, and to its future as a beloved event space.
Aside from the question of adding more helicopters to what seems like an already over-coptered airspace (in Rochester, it was rare to hear a helicopters, in Buffalo, it seems like a daily occurrence), where would be a good location for something like this? If anywhere close to downtown, I’d say the only location would be off Elk Street east of Lee Street. There is extensive brownfield land along the river there. Some of it, just east of Lee, was going to be used for the Heritage Discovery Center. As I wrote in June[LINK: ], that project won’t be happening. But in anticipation of it, extensive concrete building footings were left in place.
But then again, maybe Buffalo doesn’t need to become Niagara Falls, with annoying helicopters buzzing around, especially in the Buffalo River corridor which may be the only spot people can find in the city to spend some spare time getting lost in nature. Just so wealthy people can get even wealthier showing other wealthy people around?
Really, couldn’t they just take one of the existing boat tours, or the Open-Air Autobus?
Mike Campbell’s dream of creating a Buffalo waterfront heliport may cross its first hurdles next week.
Working with Ellicott Development Co. and Benderson Development Co., Campbell wants to create a tourist-friendly helicopter landing complex along the Buffalo River, nestled next to Silo City.
The rides would be similar to aerial tours that Campbell already flies from his FlyBuffaloNewYork operation at the Buffalo-Lancaster Regional Airport in Lancaster.
Campbell and Ellicott’s request will be reviewed during the Oct. 10 Buffalo Planning Board meeting and later by the Buffalo Common Council.
The tours would be similar to those Campbell offers from Lancaster, where up to four passengers can take a 55-minute ride in his Robinson R44 Raven II copter.
The targeted vacant parcel is on Buffalo River Place. Plans call for a trio of helipeds, an office trailer, vehicle parking… proposed is an 11,625-square-foot hangar that would also serve as a customer lounge.
The targeted vacant parcel is on Buffalo River Place. Plans call for a trio of helipeds, an office trailer and vehicle parking, according to documents filed with the planning board.
Also proposed is an 11,625-square-foot hangar that would also serve as a customer lounge.
The Buffalo News also has the story, including a couple of vacuous and jejune statements by the tour operator about the beneficial effects, and lack of detrimental effects:
“I think it’s just going to improve the development and start to make things happen quicker down there.”
Campbell said helicopters “have become more eco-friendly and environmentally sound by nature. They’re working on technology that make them quieter.”
Channel 7 had this report, which included three images, apparently from the planning board application. Note that the project design doesn’t even appear to be site-specific, but simply shows a design of a heliport already existing at an airport.