In the last two years, a number of restaurants, business services and retailers have opened, or announced plans to open, downtown. Restaurants include Chop-Chop, WJ Morrissey’s, Chow Chocolate, SeaBar, Andiamo!, and coffee purveyors Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts. Retailers include New Era Cap, Get Dressed, Jenny Shop and Marcell by Chaybeen. New businesses occupying ground-floor space include Avalon Copy Center, SEFCU credit union, Hair-2-Go Naturally, Document Advantage, and Fix Day Spa. There is talk of another retailer heading to Ellicott Commons and a new coffee shop coming to the east side of downtown. Due to development of downtown housing, retail…
Author: Laila Bondi
Avalon Development has signed an anchor tenant for its 723 Main Street renovation project. So what will the revamped property look like? RisingDamp666 on Queenseye’s original post demands, “Please no old-timey facade! Put a glass wall in front of this.” Does this qualify? Avalon Copy Centers is taking 4000 sq.ft. of the one-story, 5500 sq.ft. building at 723 Main. Chris Jacobs’ Avalon Development has been buying and renovating a string of non-descript buildings on the east side of the 700 block in recent years. In 2002, Avalon redeveloped the circa-1911 Stokes Seeds Building at 737 Main Street. The three-story building…
Are you or someone you know currently living in one of the downtown housing developments? If so, we need your help! We are looking for downtown residents who may be interested in participating in the annual Downtown Housing Tour planned for Saturday, June 28th as part of Buffalo Homecoming. Downtown Buffalo homes and apartments, many of them new or newly renovated, will be displayed during the third annual tour. The free, self-guided tour is designed to let the public know what’s in the works or what already exists with regard to downtown living spaces – spanning from the Cobblestone District…
Iskalo Development’s renovation of the former Howard Shoes building at 5 East Huron Street is in full swing. The developer is currently looking for a retail or restaurant tenant for the one-story, 4,500 sq.ft. building. Located at the corner of E. Huron and Washington streets, the building was constructed in 1946 as a Waldorf Lunch, a popular restaurant at the time which had 75 locations throughout the northeast. The building later became home to Howard Shoes which it remained for many years until the venerable shoe store closed a few years ago. Iskalo acquired the building in 2006.
Storm clouds are gathering around Bashar Issa’s Manchester, England development projects, but there is promising news regarding the Statler hotel. According to Crain’s Manchester Business, Issa’s BSC Development faces “financial difficulties and severe cashflow problems” along with “limited liquidity.” Closer to home however, Wyndham Hotels confirms it is close to agreeing to open a 346 room hotel in a renovated Statler. In Manchester, Issa and other developers are facing financial troubles as a once hot real estate market has suddenly cooled. Crain’s Manchester Business has the details:
The NFTA is inching closer to starting a multi-million dollar make-over of the Metropolitan Transportation Center at N. Division and Ellicott streets. NFTA Commissioners got a look at preliminary design plans on Thursday and will now be looking for funding for the $15 to $22 million renovation project. If financing is secured, the work to bring a modern aesthetic and ‘green’ design to the transportation hub could begin next year. The much-needed facelift of the 30-year old bus terminal has been in the works for two years. Architectural Resource’s preliminary plans are aimed at increasing “transparency to enhance safety and…
Authorities in the region had a rough week taking heat for toll increases and bridge design changes. But here’s a stunner from our neighbor to the east: Rochester’s transit agency is lowering its fare. The Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority has voted to cut the bus fare from $1.25 to $1, the lowest level since 1991.
Traditional methods of interpreting regional economic conditions, such as employment data, paint a useful but incomplete picture of economic change in the 21st century, according to the University at Buffalo Regional Institute’s latest Policy Brief, “Grasping the New Economy.” Using newly released data on metropolitan gross domestic product (GDP) from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the institute highlights the complexities revealed by looking at a region’s employment and output patterns collectively. Between 2001 and 2005, the manufacturing sector in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area shed 17 percent of its jobs while expanding its total output by 3.5 percent.
Family Video, the largest privately held video chain in the United States, is coming to the corner of Hertel and Sterling avenues. On March 3, the video rental chain purchased two properties at 1488 and 1500 Hertel, previously occupied by Martino’s TV & Appliance. Family Video paid $537,500 for the one-story, 7,000 sq.ft. commercial building and adjacent parking lot. On September 11 of last year, Family Video was in front of the City Planning Board seeking approval to demolish Martino’s existing building and construct a smaller, 4,850 sq.ft. store with a re-worked 28-car parking lot. Family Video looked at renovating…
If you see a maroon Premium Landscape Services truck driving around today with a heap of brush in the back, no, it is not headed to the Earth Day parade. It is Dave Majewski looking for a solution. There have been recent cries for a green waste recycling program in the city. Rolling out a comprehensive curbside program is a significant, potentially expensive undertaking. But why not start with the low-hanging recycling fanatics? There are likely more than a few residents with the will and means to drop-off green waste at a City-run compost facility or collection site if available.…