After ultimatums, special meetings, and politicking, the Buffalo Common Council finally agreed to sell the Webster Block to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) Thursday night. ECHDC will acquire the property for $3.32 million if and when HSBC Bank chooses to relocate its nearly 4,000 employees to the site. The bank, whose lease for 650,000 sq.ft. of space in HSBC Center expires in 2013, is looking at its space options while also negotiating with current landlord Seneca One Realty LLC on a lease renewal. The new land transfer agreement was passed unanimously by the Common Council. The adopted agreement…
Author: WCPerspective
A vacant Elm Street warehouse is slated to become downtown’s newest residential project. Greenleaf & Co. is teaming up with former First Niagara Bank Chairman Paul J. Kolkmeyer to convert the former-Spaghetti Warehouse site at 141 Elm Street into 38 to 40 lofts. The team has the building under contract. “We are currently doing our due diligence,” says James Swiezy, Greenleaf’s General Manager. “We expect to close in late-September or early October.” “It is going to be a great project,” says Swiezy. “The units will be absolutely beautiful. There will be very unique layouts due to the building’s configuration.” Swiezy says…
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities (HKHC) is a local partnership funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) working to advance community-based solutions that will help reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. It focuses on changing policies and environments to support active living and healthy eating among children and families.To start HKHC want to hear from you – What can be done to help our community increase its overall health? What can we do to improve the health of our kids? Local youths, educators, parents and any other interested parties are invited to a series of three meetings to help answer the…
Mark your calendars, people. Today is a day that will go down in Buffalo food history! Next year, we will all wax nostalgic in memory of today–the day when Buffalo finally effing got around to offering REAL street food!Excuse my excitement, those of you who have been constant Buffalo Rising readers know that this is a subject near and dear to our hearts. Now, nothing says summer to me like a charbroiled hot dog, slathered in yellow mustard and eaten street side on the first mild day of spring, so I don’t want to hurt the feelings of our brave…
Last month we told you all of our plans for a Bufflao Rising Can You Can party. Despite a low comment count on the story, it was Facebook “shared” left and right, so we hope you all are looking forward to it as much as we are. The mere mention of it on my personal FB page had some of my favorite chefs throwing down the gauntlet. See below for sheer entertainment value (identities withheld to prevent any possible embarrassment to you, me and those involved). Needless to say, after this little tête à tête, I think we’ll have a…
One of the great assets we have here in Western New York is our close proximity to Canada. For cyclists this means access to over 85 miles (140 km) of recreational trails the stretches along the Niagara River and out to the Welland Canal along the Friendship Trail connecting us to Ontario’s urban areas, the Niagara Escarpment, wine country and beaches through the Greater Niagara Circle Route (www.regional.niagara.on.ca/gnrc). The challenge for us Buffalonians is often crossing the bridge as a cyclist – it is often confusing and challenging. As a start to alleviate this situation, the Public Bridge Authority launched…
No, there won’t be any vampires squeezing the peaches at today’s farmers market. And while some may disagree with my use of the word twilight here, it doesn’t detract from the fact that the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market’s decision to open for an evening run tonight is an interesting one. No doubt the market will be busy this morning since we are in the height of growing season and the neighborhood will be crawling with gardening fans taking in our lush and highly-maintained yards. I know I’ll be there with a few friends.Traditionally, Elmwood’s popular urban market operates from 8a.m. until…
Buffalo is the City of Good Neighbors. This concept manifests itself in many ways throughout the city, but I offer the suggestion that the sheer number of charity events hosted in Western New York is a good measure. Over the course of a year, the total number of hosted fundraisers has to be much greater than in many other cities our size. We know that Buffalo has a large number of not-for-profits per capita, so I suppose it makes sense that we also have such a wide range of events to choose from every year.Sadly, many of these fundraisers are…
Held at Rich’s Atrium, the annual Miles for Smiles wine tasting features hors d’oeuvres, live music and more. Tonight’s event is organized on behalf of the Cranio Facial Center of Western New York, at Women and Children’s hospital, whose program provides health care for children born with cleft lip and cleft palate.In its 7th year, this wine tasting raises money to assist those struggling with the financial impact of having a child born with this particular defect. As one mother associated with the program told Buffalo Rising, “This organization holds a special place in my heart as my son was…
A taste of Tuscany visited Buffalo last week in the form of chefs Carlo (right) and Romeo Innocenti (below). The father and son team were here to promote a AAA travel program which allows small, intimate groups of guests to visit Casa Innocenti, their family inn. The inn, a modest and quaint destination, sits in Arcidosso, Italy, surrounded by the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Visitors to Casa Innocenti learn to appreciate and replicate the flavors and lifestyle of this region through private tours of local vineyards, shopping at the markets and preparing meals at the inn alongside the Innocenti family.Carlo and…