The former Highmark Building at 257 W. Genesee Street has snagged a significant tenant. In a big win for downtown, Ingram Micro is relocating its local offices and 1,300 employees from Amherst into four floors of the currently vacant building at the foot of Church Street.
WBFO has the scoop:
Ingram is leasing slightly more than 100,000 square feet, spread over four floors, in the former Highmark Building. The publicly traded Ingram is a business services support firm.
What the deal means is that Ingram will be bringing 1,300 workers into downtown, and it will also kickstart efforts to fill the eight-story, 430,000-square-foot building that has sat vacant for more than one year since its three anchor tenants left for other buildings.
[Update: The Buffalo News is reporting that the firm will take the six-story north wing of the complex encompassing 160,000 s.ft.]
Ingram Micro is global technology firm providing a broad range of technology services, including financing, specialized marketing, and lifecycle management, as well as technical pre- and post-sales professional support. Its local offices are currently located in a two-story operations center located at 1759 Wehrle Drive that opened in 1992. Ingram leases the space from the same owner as the downtown building it is moving to, Arizona-based Orion Properties (formerly Orion Office REIT).
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York moved out of the W. Genesee building last year after leasing nearly 100,000 sq.ft. of space on the 34th through 38th floors of Seneca One tower. While Highmark had been leasing the entire eight-floor building, the insurer had been only using three of the floors since most of its workers have been working remotely. Several other tenants had been subleasing space in the building from Highmark including Invest Buffalo Niagara and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.
The W. Genesee Street building was developed by Ohio- based Duke Realty and opened in 2007. Current-owner Orion Properties recently announced plans to upgrade the building’s common areas in order to attract new office users. The commitment to invest in the building, rechristened Genesee Tower, has apparently paid off with the signing of Ingram as an anchor tenant. The building features two office wings with six and eight floors, on-site cafeteria, fitness center, and attached 1,500 space parking garage.
Prior to the pandemic, rumors circulated that Ingram Micro has been looking to relocate downtown. The owners of Main Place Mall were heavily wooing the company to anchor their ambitious plan to revamp the mall into a tech hub.
