Real deals
By Barry A. Muskat
 |
According to Richard Tobe, Commissioner of Buffalo’s Department of Economic Development, Permit, and Inspection Services, the average amount of construction in the City in typical recent years was less than $50 million. (In years 2001 through 2004 there were permits for construction that averaged approximately $49 million per year.) By even my unscientific estimate, I calculate that we are currently seeing sixty-five times the dollar value of construction projects of each of the previous four years. Is that even possible? Does anyone else find that staggering?
The current list of projects (which is updated each week by the Erie County Industrial Development Agency) logs sixty-five projects in the private sector and another forty-one in the public (non-taxable) arena. These are bonafide projects that are in the pipeline—on the design tables, under contract, starting construction, or nearing completion.
One can’t accurately compare the volume on the current list with historic data. It represents more than twelve months’ activity, so it’s clearly different. But even if we’re comparing apples to oranges, the list appears to be conservative and legitimate. (For example, the Elmwood hotel, which has caused some controversy and is currently on hold, is shown as a zero dollar amount. The Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino is listed at a lower dollar value than recently declared. And the renovation of the abandoned AM&A’s/Taylor’s department store is also logged with no dollar amount pending the actual filing of plans.)
 |
Over the course of the last decades of the twentieth century, the complexion and character of many American cities changed. Many mercantile and manufacturing activities that historically operated in cities dispersed to non-core locations. Urban residents moved to the suburbs in droves. As business and residential populations shifted, the decentralization of activities and momentum of suburban sprawl drained the vitality of these cities, and entire segments of the population migrated to the south and west. To our dismay, Buffalo achieved iconic status as a stellar example of a rust belt city. With fewer people, less commerce, and little investment, hopes for vibrancy and viability evaporated.
As a somewhat stable realist who very seldom veers toward being a cockeyed optimist, I see a wealth of tangible evidence that the trend in Buffalo is reversing—in the form of real live building activity. This article is the first of several that will report collectively on ongoing development. As more projects come to fruition, we’ll be able to review, compare, and critique both the new buildings and the re-use of our city’s incredible existing building stock.
Look at the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex (New York State’s Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics and Life Sciences), the new Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Center for Genetics and Pharmacology, and the Hauptmann-Woodward Medical Research Institute. These are all major and impressive recent buildings—two might even be called signature buildings. What I find most important is that they’re grouped together with the existing facilities for Kaleida Health Care and Roswell Park to form the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The effect of the Medical Campus is starting to reach towards adjoining streets. (Witness the Granite Works: an adaptive reuse project that took a group of derelict buildings with abandoned storefronts and converted them to well-located, upscale housing.) The next positive step will be to extend Allen Street across Main Street to link the great divide of east and west and to blur physical and socio/economic barriers.
 |
|
295 Delaware rendering.
|
Rich Tobe notes, “One of the themes we’re seeing is a very great interest in preserving, restoring, and reusing great structures from the past.” AM&A’s, a vacant department store building on Main Street, is given as a prime example of one of those structures. Tobe continues, “Located on a significant part of Main Street in the downtown core, we think it represents both a real opportunity for good economic growth and also a very symbolic turn-around.” Although in the original transaction between former owner Richard Taylor and Kaufmann’s, Taylor was actually paid to take ownership of the building, Tobe describes the recent sale of the building—to the Apollon Group of Long Island—as an example of the reversal of that type of transaction: “There was a significant offer and payment to purchase without any guarantees or commitments of government support.” Tobe’s point is that not very long ago a building in a significant location in Buffalo had negative value: now there can be substantial interest, purchase negotiations, and even bidding wars for a building of its type.
In other construction projects, Health Now has reclaimed a polluted brownfield site at one entrance to downtown and is building a dynamic new headquarters. Erie County has built a striking Public Safety Building on Oak Street, another major corridor into the downtown core.
New Era Cap is remodeling the historic Federal Reserve Bank to become its corporate world headquarters. Ray Berry, its C.F.O., explains that the company wanted to be in a city center with easy access. Berry talks of a “born-and-raised management team” who wanted to stay in Western New York. (Their Buffalo company used to be located on Seneca Street until they were “eminent-domained out.”) The company’s continual visitors will no longer need to drive to Derby, will stay downtown, and patronize the city’s hotels and restaurants. The company expects to be up and operational in their new location before Thanksgiving, with an increased work force of three hundred and fifty (from two hundred and eighty). Berry describes the employees as “excited to be where things are happening downtown.” Bill Hovey, President of BHNT Architects, describes a project that has added landscape, expanded balconies, and pedestrian lighting. He thinks the design will make a real impact on Delaware Avenue, noting, “It was a stodgy, institutional building designed to be a fortress; we’re excited to have created an inviting entrance.” He describes the entire organization including management as all being young, “the kind of people who will create a real vitality for the city.”
Critical mass
Throughout downtown, whole segments of healthy, restored, and new buildings are emerging. At Elmwood and Huron (just behind the New Era headquarters) is the Niagara Center, a bustling eight-story office building (recently sold to Government Properties Trust, a real estate investment trust based in Omaha).
 |
Another Uniland project is 295 Delaware, a handsome five-story building currently under construction. The design is the result of an architectural competition (calling for a building that would transcend eras, trends, and styles) won by Buffalo architectural firm Hamilton, Houston, Lownie. Uniland’s building (now at the steel skeleton phase) will feature a full-height center entrance with a pedestrian-scaled ground floor, and alternating rhythms of glass bays echoing the neighboring storefronts of Delaware Avenue. One hundred parking spaces will be created, one third of them below ground. Three floors will be leased to M&T Bank to supplement their downtown work force. Describing this and other future projects, Montante notes, “There is nothing better than activity—activity begets more activity.”
If you squint as you drive south on Delaware, you can begin to envision the restored streetscape. From Edward Street, there’s the Mansion and the Buffalo Club. There’s the Church, Ani DiFranco’s restored home for Righteous Babe and Hallwalls. 295 Delaware is to its south.The street is fairly intact (with room for improvement which should now have the impetus to occur) all the way to New Era Cap and Chippewa. Plans for a glistening new Federal Court House coupled with first class renovations to the Statler Building make the block bordering Niagara Square especially strong.
The Statler
The Statler renovation is key—both tangibly and symbolically—to the success of downtown. It was an iconic building and a formidable anchor for the city in the past; it’s become key to the future.
The man leading the charge of its restoration is Bashar Issa, chief executive officer of the BSP Group. Twenty-eight years old, Issa was born in the Middle East, but has lived in England most of his life. He has assembled a team of fifteen people, including architects, engineers, a landscape architect, a mechanical engineer, a project manager, a cost consultant, lawyers, and others, before the contract was signed for purchase of the building. With a quick purchase negotiation and closing period, plans have been submitted to the city for initial stages of construction—which are now ready to begin.
As an out-of-town investor, Issa saw unlimited potential in Buffalo. “It needs regeneration with products that impact the city,” he says, while noting that he finds “the people warm, the city helpful, and the consultants smart.” Elsewhere, he’s tackled conversions of buildings from industrial and office to residential, and vice versa. Primarily involved in new-builds, he now focuses on mixed-use schemes, described as “residences and offices to be complemented by amenities that are used by both.”
Though many have asked “why the Statler?” or “why Buffalo?” Issa sees it more as a big “why not?” He recognizes a great location and an amazing building, saying, “It’s not derelict, it’s just tired.” He continues, “The architecture makes a statement, it’s in the heart of the city—anywhere else in the world it would be a no-brainer.”
For naysayers who know disappointment with many previous announcements that remain unrealized, Issa points out that the fact that it took only two months to consummate the sale should send a message. “Contracts worth $1.3 million have been awarded to repair the lifts,” he notes, stating, “Our job is to be developers, not investors who flip properties or buy and sell.”
 |
Richard Baer, chairman of Baer & Associates, is construction consultant and cost estimator, acting as liaison between the parties working on various aspects of the design. He sees this project as “an icon for the city,” and notes that the decline in the building has matched the decline in Buffalo. “I firmly believe that the city has turned the corner and is coming back in many ways; this is symbolic, and that’s why people are excited about it.”
Philip Silvestri, principal of Silvestri Architects, reports on plans to create 4-500 parking spaces by adding ten stories above the existing three-story wing on the Franklin Street elevation. To meet fire codes, a more immediate priority is to extend new stair towers within the existing building. Terra cotta repairs and exterior façade work are also priorities, with removal of existing canopies. New windows will be installed in the first three floors and the grand entrances will be restored. The lobby will also be returned to its original grandeur.
The owner points to the grand chandeliers and the original dials above the elevators, reiterating, “It’s a beautiful building—just a bit tired.” Most visible will be the ambitious plans to light the building—from its top, middle, and base—to highlight the beauty of its architecture and its terra-cotta art. The structure has been dark for many decades.
At the time of this writing, Issa was announcing a new project destined for a vacant lot at South Elmwood and Mohawk: a forty-story tower that will become the tallest building in Buffalo. Designed by Cannon, the shimmering steel and glass structure would contain office, hotel, and residential space. Issa sees the Statler as just the beginning, stating, “Development is my business and has been my business for a decade. We want to grow our business with additional projects. We are committed to the city of Buffalo and need to address the city’s future, not just the Statler’s.”
Barry A. Muskat is Buffalo Spree’s Architecture Critic and a regular contributor. Comments on this article may be directed to spree.architecture@adelphia.net.
Back to the Table of Contents
Back to Top