This may not rank high on the excitement meter, but for some of us, it brought back memories. The former Icon space at 391 Ellicott Street is getting a new operator. Dwain Laws has applied for an on-premise liquor license for the property. The building is located behind the Genesee Gateway project in an area of downtown creeping back to life.
Author: westcoastperspective
Ellicott Development’s planned office building on Court Street has shrunk by three floors. The City Planning Board approved scaled-back plans for 50 Court Street last week. The now eight-story building will include 184,000 sq.ft. of Class-A office space and 147 parking spaces on a portion of the first floor and one underground level. Ellicott Development CEO Carl Paladino says he expects to break ground on the project next spring.
Several BR readers have asked what is going on at the Graystone Hotel where a construction chute recently made an appearance. According to owner Carl Paladino, CEO of Ellicott Development, they are “cleaning trash out of” the building. In March, Ellicott revived plans to renovate the six-story building on Johnson Park into market-rate, upscale apartments.
Uniland Development is taking initial steps towards constructing a luxury high-rise condo tower on Gates Circle. The developer received a permit for the demolition of the Park Lane restaurant at 25 Gates Circle. The cherished restaurant closed on December 31, 2006.
Grain elevator reuse is neither easy nor cheap. Take the recently-opened Globe Mills complex in Sacramento for instance. Last year we wrote up the Sacramento project as an example of what other cities are doing to preserve their industrial heritage. The project combines 114 senior housing units in a five-story building built on the mill property, 31 lofts in the historic mill buildings, and 5,000 sq.ft. of retail space. The silos have been incorporated as a signature element of the design.
West Utica Street near Elmwood is on the verge of a transformation. When and to what is yet to be seen. One thing is clear, the Kaleida creep in continuing. On Wednesday, the health care provider and Children’s Hospital owner made another purchase on the street. Kaleida paid $168,000 for 184 W. Utica, a two-story brick residence adjacent to a hospital-owned surface parking lot. You can guess where this is heading.
The Buffalo Diocese has found a way to save at least one abandoned church- ship it to a community that needs it. St. Gerard Church (circa 1911) at the corner of Bailey and East Delevan avenues could be headed to Norcross, Georgia. Mary Our Queen parish is interested in purchasing the church, disassembling it, and reconstructing it for use by the growing congregation in Norcross. Buffalo Diocese officials are calling the $3 million idea “preservation by relocation.” Others are outraged at the thought.
A Main Street property owner is considering a condominium conversion project. Sean Spurlock, owner of 678 Main Street, tells Business First that he is planning to rehab the building for a mix of uses that is likely to include 10 or 12 condo units “in the near future.” The two-story building is fronted by the light rail tunnel entrance and was recently occupied by the Groove nightclub (center, photo).
Pain at the gas pump could lead to a population shift back to the city. That is the conclusion of several recent studies showing declining distant suburb home values and rising middle-class populations in many cities. In Buffalo, many neighborhoods are seeing high demand, but there are few signs that gas prices are a significant factor at this point. The rising cost of gas is a concern however. In a July survey by the Siena Research Institute, 79 percent of upstate New Yorkers said gasoline prices were having a somewhat or very serious impact on their financial condition. “Gas and—now…
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) is renovating a four-story annex of the Trico complex at 640 Ellicott Street into an “Innovation Center,” a 120,000 sq.ft. building offering state-of-the-art office and wet laboratory space to house local, national, and international life sciences and biotech companies. The $20 million project received a $4.5 million Restore NY grant earlier this year. Economic development officials believe having new laboratory and office space available is critical to attracting life sciences and biotech companies to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.