Buffalo Rising Online

Great renovation, great news for downtown. What a nice addition to a highly visible location. Now if only we could consolidate the parking in that area into a ramp so there could be some land opened up for new builds.

There will be no problem renting the 5 apartments with the 1,000 new employees working right down the street at the casino/hotel. It would be an ideal place to live for a person working at the new $33 million casino/hotel that will also include a 3-acre public park located in the northwest corner of the site.

That is great news that this business is moving downtown. Things are starting to take shape slowly but surely. I am sure that will help WJ Morrissey's lunch crowd and happy hour crowd.

agreed 70 new employees means they need a place to eat, shop, drink and live. Hopefully this is the start of a trend.

with this project going from all residential, to 1 floor residential to half a floor residential...i hope paladino sees this as a reason to get going on his fairmont creamery project. people want to live downtown and the cobblestone district.

To go from one employee just a few years ago to 70, their doing something right. It's encouraging that a management group that's made good decisions sees moving into Buffalo as a wise move.

A whole 70 more jobs for downtown? What about the thousands that have left? Are we really at the point where 70 jobs seems like a win?

These are 70 white collar jobs, not coffee-serving-burger-flipping jobs. Centrallizing a number of architectural firms downtown (more than people might realize) strengthens the group, and makes it better able to compete with firms from other cities.

Saying that this type of company will locate downtown is one thing. Seeing them actually perform due dilligence, and come up with this as the best location, bodes well for other firms to do the same research, and reach the same conclusion.

70 is always a win for downtown.. the 1,000 of people that left are estimates based on births, deaths, and domestic and international migration. Nothing very precise as people moving around or between cities isn't something the government keeps a good tab on. Unlike in Germany where you have to register in your new town and (un)register from where you left. We just up and go, maybe someone notices maybe someone doesn't. I don't put a lot of faith in anything between the decennial censuses.

12 buisnesses with 70 jobs each are a lot more stable than one large one with 850. As nice as it is to get 1,000 in one shot, its just as easily lost in one shot in mergers, bankrupcies etc. Diversity is good and a solid way to start building the area up again.

BuffaloBrownfields - of course 70 jobs is a win. It certainly isn't a loss.

Even incremental progress is progress. It is great to see that Buffalo is now able to target some development, with areas like the Medical Campus and Cobblestone District. We can't do anything about the jobs that have left downtown at this point, we just have to look forward and try to attract jobs to come to downtown.

Also, while it is great news to have an Ahmherst company move downtown, it is still a shift when you look at the regional economy. The real trick is trying to get new regional businesses (like what happened with Geico) to choose downtown.

buffalobrownfields: Shame on you. 70 jobs is pretty significant for any area. Especially the Cobblestone District that has seen nothing but emptiness for decades. 70 jobs can easily sustain a small cafe or deli. Also, thousands of jobs have not left downtown in recent years. In fact downtown has added thousands of jobs between the financial, medical, and legal sectors. Check your facts and drop the inferiority complex.

On a side note, it's good to see that this project is finally attracting private sector tenants. Originally just government subsidiary agencies were its tenants - which speaks nothing for the market.

The major shortcoming of this project is the continued scale back of residential. Without a firm residential component to this block, we will never achieve the mixed-use 24/7 district we are aiming for.

Again, good job Savarino, Avalon!

they're not 1500 jobs if the haven't been create yet

plus think of the 1500 jobs downtown that will be saved blocking the casino

If you read the story, it's 70 now and STILL GROWING. Named the 24th. Fastest Growing Company. And the way the Seneca's are fighting, I do believe they will WIN thier case and be able to provide the 1,000+ jobs soon.

If you read the story, it's 70 now and STILL GROWING. Named the 24th. Fastest Growing Company. And the way the Seneca's are fighting, I do believe they will WIN thier case and be able to provide the 1,000+ jobs soon.

The Watts people are the good guys - a great fit to locate near the uber good guys at Savarino. I understand they'll be working with Savarino on the Livery, and they were also involved with Buffalo Homecoming. One of their particular areas of expertise is renovation of older buildings - in fact, they did work on the Darwin Martin House project. I hope they'll be very successful in the city - they'll find plenty to keep them busy.

This is great news. ^^ I hope that's true too

VB- Yes. From a press release from Watts this afternoon:

"Watts, which also operates a satellite office in Alexandria, Virginia has its current office at 3826 Main Street up for sale." Contact number: 716.836.1540

A few other notable quotes:

“We looked at several places, but the city site turned out to be the most attractive location. We like the developer’s vision for the building and the neighborhood,” Watts said. As we were evaluating new locations, finding a building that had a similar image to the fire hall was always in the back of our minds – the resurgence of the Cobblestone District and the re-use of the warehouse site definitely speaks to the future of this community and we are proud to be a part of it.“

Who was the tenant that committed and then pulled out? ECIDA? Did that space get filled?

awesome news!....keep em coming.

WCP, that's an interesting quote reflecting the role of "vision" in decisions about real estate purchases and relocations. Clearly, business people don't become or stay successful without focusing on dollars and cents - sometimes, of necessity, to the exclusion of all else - yet I often get the sense that the role of "vision" is underestimated. To a degree that's natural, as it's largely an intangible and difficult to quantify, and can relate more to intuition and an organization's mission.

In my mind, this also relates to recent discussions on BRO about Main Street: lack of programming to give a sense of life and activity, and ongoing prevalence of vacant storefronts. Although an observer from a distance, my sense is that largely - although as stated, it's difficult to quantify - lack of an overall "vision" for Main Street is a significant factor in holding back Main Street's potential. If such a vision was developed, embraced, and promoted, it could go a long way toward overcoming any inherent disadvantages resulting from past disinvestment, bad planning decisions, and MetroRail configuration.

Recent redevelopment efforts such as Cobblestone and Larkin show clearly that "vision" can play a major role in getting buy-in and building critical mass. Could Buffalo Place advance Main Street by stealing from the playbooks of these ventures and building on what's there - rather than waiting for things like Metro Rail reconfiguration and AM&A redevelopment--?

Casino will not get built, too much local influence around here....

It's only a small group trying to stop the Casino and when you have The Mayor, County Executives and State Leaders trying to fight to save the Casino project, I wouldn't worry too much. The Seneca's can do what they want on their land, they were here first (before the white settlers).

So anyways, the Indians were here first and had their own way of life way before the Euro settlers came in and took it all away from them.