The first buyer closed on a unit in the Avant today. The 1,283 sq.ft. condominium on the 15th floor was purchased for $383,250 according to County Clerk records. Residences on the building’s top three floors are the last component to come on line in Uniland’s $85 million redevelopment project at 200 Delaware Avenue. There are now 26 residences as several buyers will be combining units. The Avant includes a 150-room Embassy Suites hotel on the first seven floors and 128,000 sq.ft. of office space on floors 8 through 12. Law firm Damon & Morey has taken two of the floors. Each use has separate entrances and elevators,…
Author: Elena Cala Buscarino
Move over Steve Christie, there will be a new banner flying on the former AM&A’s Department Store if developer Rocco Termini and The Hamister Group have their way. The development team has announced that the 117 room hotel in the AM&A’s complex is expected to carry the Hilton Garden Inn flag. Downtown has been Hilton-less since Adam’s Mark purchased and renamed the Buffalo Hilton in 1998. The recently-opened Embassy Suites in the Avant and the Hampton Inn are members of the Hilton family of hotels. Hilton Garden Inn is an award-winning, mid-priced brand with 450 hotels in the United States, Canada and Latin America. …
Reusing a squat, 350,000 sq.ft. former department store, five historic buildings that were combined over time, has been a conundrum for a line of developers that have eyed AM&A’s and walked away. Rocco Termini and architecture and design firm Carmina Wood Morris think they have a winning formula. Their plan is to go mixed-use with an atrium and a light well to help bring light into the center of the building and break up the large floor plates. An atrium is planned for the south half of the building (visible in second floor windows above), skylit above and extending down…
Downtown has a lot to be thankful for this holiday. Topping that list is Rocco Termini. The busy developer has completed six residential developments downtown, has one project underway, and is working on plans to redevelop two significant buildings, the Lafayette Hotel and AM&A’s Department Store. Next Tuesday, the Buffalo Planning Board will be reviewing the design for the $70 million restoration of the department store at Main and Eagle streets into a mixed-use complex. Plans call for underground parking, a first floor food court, second and third and fourth floor office space, 117 hotel rooms on the Eagle Street…
Former Engine No. 36 firehouse at Elmwood and Great Arrow is getting a makeover and a new life. Louis A. Haremski purchased the surplus City property in July for $128,600. He intends to move his working business, Loose Lumber, into the first floor of the 4,438 sq.ft. building. The second floor will be Haremski’s residence. The circa-1913 firehouse was vacated when a larger, $2.8 million fire house opened in late-2005 at 860 Hertel Avenue. Haremski’s $300,000 renovation includes a new roof, mechanicals, new front doors, and new windows in the building’s hose tower. Loose Lumber, designer and fabricator of fine…
The (infamous) One Sunset location near Gates Circle is sporting a “leased” sign. The former Locker Room bar, and later Lotis restaurant, has been vacant since Leonard Stokes’ One Sunset shuttered in October 2008 under a pile of debt and unpaid bills. The new tenant for the building at 1389 Delaware Avenue is unknown. Elsewhere, a unique Main Street property is under contract. The mixed-use property at 1716 Main Street was profiled previously on Buffalo Rising here. A two-story building fronting Main that was constructed during the Pan-American Expo period includes 3,210 sq.ft. of commercial space and a stunning 4,200 sq.ft. second floor…
Work has started on another town home unit at Waterfront Place as sales continue in the development’s mid-rise tower, The Pasquale. The new residence will complete the project’s first town house block. Work on additional town houses, smaller than those built to date, will start in the spring. “We have 24 units closed, six under contract, and another five leased,” said Ellicott Development’s Chris Martoche who is overseeing sales at the project. Prices on the sales closed to date range from $344,000 to $1.32 million for the largest penthouse unit. Tower residences include 10 to 12′ ceilings, gourmet kitchens with…
These pictures, courtesy of Joe Cascio, tell the story of ABC’s Extreme Makeover project at 228 Massachusetts. Enjoy!Top image: A rash of volunteers.Below: The Powell family.Below: Mayor Brown and Extreme crew.Below: Extreme van on site.
West Side Buffalo resident Delores Powell and her four children are enjoying a stay at Disney World in Florida while their home at 228 Massachusetts Avenue gets a much needed redo. In truth, it’s the plot of land the single mother’s house sits on that is being redone because the house – slated for demolition before Powell bought it – is coming down, with all of its problems, and a new house will go up in its stead.All of this, courtesy of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.Powell is a native of Jamaica, has been here 20 years, has children who…
Buffalo’s own Alan Friedman, President of Great Arrow Graphics and President of Buffalo Astronomical Association has shot the sun, and it appears as the “Astronomy Picture of the Day” on this NASA site.This isn’t Friedman’s first play on the NASA page, as his moon shot got their attention back in February of 2007.Friedman’s reaction? “It’s always cool when Buffalo makes the national news for an image of sun instead of snow!”Can we call Friedman an amateur anymore? We don’t think so. See more of his work at his site, Averted Imagination. He has a speaking gig tonight at UB for…