Author: jlb716

A week into its first foray into crowdfunding, local buy-one give-one t-shirt company, You and Who, finds itself in an interesting position. On one hand, you could say the social good company is well on its way to success, having raised over 44% ($11,091 as of 6:00pm on Tuesday night) of its $25,000 goal in just under a week, with almost four weeks left to go. On the other hand, the company has wound up in a bit of a “horse latitudes” (see The Doors) in the crowdfunding cycle. Contributions have slowed considerably, and almost all of You and Who’s “staff”…

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The Bethlehem Steel Administration Building may be headed to the landfill officially as news sources report demolition was slated to begin yesterday. Owners have been reluctant to see the building reused, even after conversations that detailed multiple approaches to save the building in a profitable way. Don’t forget, this piece of our heritage didn’t get this way overnight. The owners neglected this building for the better part of three decades since they have owned it. The building hasn’t made any friends with Mayor Szymanski either, as he has been a proponent of its demise from the start. In previous news reports…

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Two historic properties are showing off their new windows this holiday season. The Lake Hotel at 201 West Huron Street and the old Horsefeathers Building on Connecticut Street are in the midst of being redeveloped. Both will have residential apartments when completed next year. The Horsefeathers property will have a commercial component- the Horsefeather’s Market.

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Heart of the City Neighborhoods is building eight units of green, affordable housing on the city’s Lower West Side. The project is being constructed at 294-302 Hudson Street between Plymouth and West avenues.The two townhouse-style buildings designed by Stieglitz Snyder Architecture reflect the neighborhood’s historic character and will contain four apartments each. Four 2-bedroom, 900 sq.ft. apartments and four 3-bedroom 1,100 sq.ft. apartments will be available to eligible low-income households. Parking for eight cars will be located at the rear of the buildings.

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Construction is in full swing on a mixed-use project on the former Cloister restaurant site at Delaware Avenue and Virginia Street. Scott Croce is developing a three story building on the property with nine apartments along Virginia Street and medical offices fronting Delaware. Croce, a chiropractor, plans to move his office to the first floor of the building. The Frizlen Group is project architect.

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Buffalo State College is celebrating the completion of rehabilitation work on the second floor of Rockwell Hall. Utilizing space created by the relocation of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, the $6.8 million project includes expanded laboratories and specialty resource/studio spaces for the Art Conservation Department, eight new “smart” general purpose classrooms and a new recital hall and recording studio for the Music Department.Architectural Resources collaborated with project representatives from the State University Construction Fund (SUCF) and the State University of New York College at Buffalo on the design and renovation work. The project included the comprehensive rehabilitation of the mechanical,…

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Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation’s planned medical office building at 1001 Main Street has a new design and new name: Conventus, Latin for ‘coming together.’ Remedial work on the now surface parking lot is getting underway at the Main and High property. The $98 million building will front Main Street and will be adjacent to the planned Women and Children’s Hospital and across from the proposed UB Medical School. Current plans call for a 300,000 sq.ft. building with two levels of underground parking and some retail space on the ground floor. The developer has decided against adding an extended stay or…

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The “Trico Lot” at the southern end of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) is going green. A bio-retention facility is being constructed at the three-acre lot, along with landscaping and new lighting. It is one of several projects by the BNMC to increase sustainability as well as improve access and increase public safety. Construction started last week on a rain garden at the south end of the Trico parking lot along Goodell Street between N. Oak and Ellicott streets. The rain garden, or bio-retention facility, is designed to address sanitary sewer infiltration of sediment and surface pollutants prevalent in…

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Properties needed for a $13.5 million Swan Street redevelopment project have traded hands. Architect/Developer Jake Schneider purchased the four properties on Friday for a total of $1,906,650 according to Erie County Clerk records. Schneider’s The Apartments at the Hub will bring 10,000 sq.ft. of commercial space and 50 upscale apartments to 145 and 149 Swan Street. The other two properties purchased are parking lots.145 Swan Street, sold by the Buffalo Transportation Museum for $600,000, was built in 1908 for Witkop & Holmes, a grocery business that commissioned the 30,000 sq.ft. brick and frame structure. 149 Swan Street, sold by Synthetic…

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Legislation to raise New York State’s historic preservation tax credit cap is expected to be vetoed by Governor Cuomo. Increasing the tax credit to $12 million was seen as providing a greater incentive for developers that would lead to revitalization of larger and more expensive structures. Capped at $5 million per project, the State’s tax credit program has been used successfully by developers in Western New York and throughout the state to renovate and restore buildings that have suffered from years of neglect and were in need of serious repair. Most of downtown’s recent redevelopment projects have utilized the tax credit benefits.

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