Current News

ECIDA may buy Red Cross building on Delaware Ave. for use by nonprofits BY: David Robinson (mailto:drobinson@buffnews.com) The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is considering a purchase of the American Red Cross headquarters building on Delaware Avenue, with the idea of turning it into shared office space for local nonprofits, including the Red Cross.

Calling it "a major milestone" for the entire community, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said he was glad to see his fellow Erie County Industrial Development Agency directors unanimously approve sales tax breaks for Krog Corp. to begin its $90 million makeover of the former Trico Products plant.

The $90.5 million conversion of the former Trico Products Corp. windshield wiper plant into a complex with a hotel, cooking school and apartments cleared one of its final hurdles on Wednesday when the Erie County Industrial Development Agency approved $3.6 million in tax breaks for the long-awaited project.

Listen to ECIDA President & CEO Steve Weathers on WBEN-930 AM's "Buffalo Means Business" show. Steve talks about the ECIDA's loan program, administered through the ECIDA's lending arm, the Regional Development Corporation.

For years, remnant structures from Buffalo's past have haunted the streets and neighborhoods of its present. But thanks, in part, to the Erie County Industrial Development Agency's adaptive reuse program, that's changing for many neighborhoods.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is moving forward with plans to put a $25 million "netzero" manufacturing and commercial office building in Lackawanna that could start generating its own energy and hosting tenants in July 2018.

Upstate Pharmacy's new home in West Seneca is getting an extra $27,125 in sales tax breaks through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

Three initiatives, all tied into a more macro regional development strategy, are likely to be funded by the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

ECIDA Board tables votes for special projects due to lack of quorum

To the directors of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, the payback from its Gemcor investment was nice but even better is a job-retention clause that may serve as a new benchmark for future deals.

Gordon Food Service is poised to construct a 40,000-square-foot North Buffalo distribution center with work to begin in the next few weeks.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is moving forward with plans to build a manufacturing facility that produces as much energy as it consumes.

A new New York state mandate that all 109 industrial development agencies add a clawback provision before approving tax breaks or incentives may be redundant to what already exists here.

The pending sale of Gemcor to a similar California-based aviation industries company has evolved into a job retention — and possible job creation — benchmark for the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

When the Erie County Industrial Development Agency reinstated its venture capital activities in recent years and allocated $1 million toward that end, it sparked hopes that the ECIDA would be another source of capital for scalable technology startups.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency's Board of Directors approved approximately $590,000 in incentives for two projects, generating $9.5 million in private investment in Erie County.

It's as if the whole national debate about inequality bypassed Erie County's business community. There's no other explanation for the criticism of County Executive Mark Poloncarz' plan to make sure the "job creators" are helping curb poverty by paying women fairly in exchange for companies' endless series of taxpayer subsidies.

The Seneca Street corridor linking Larkinville with downtown Buffalo is in line for a series of streetscape improvements aimed at sprucing up the neighborhood around one of the city's fastest­growing districts.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency's Board of Directors revisted a vote on incentives for Ellicott Development's adaptive reuse project at 722 West Delavan Wednesday, approving the project with eleven votes, one more than the required ten votes to approve incentives. Two Board members, NAACP Buffalo President Frank Mesiah, and Harper International Business Development Director Chris Johnston dissented.

A plan to construct a 40-unit senior apartment complex received a series of development-related tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, with unanimous approval no less. But, what made the nearly $5 million project — slated for a former brownfield site along Kensington Avenue — was the fact it was the first application to the county agency since a more stringent set of requirements governing senior housing developments was approved this past summer.

The growth of a local pharmaceutical firm is about to translate into a financial windfall for one of the region's economic development agencies.

Despite having an aggressive and incentive-laden pitch from the state of Maryland, Sodexo Inc. will build its regional service center in Cheektowaga.

Ellicott Development is proceeding with its conversion of the former School 56 on West Delavan Avenue into a new apartment building, and plans to seek tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, after the Buffalo Planning Board gave its assent to the project this week.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday awarded $5.2 million in tax breaks for two projects that will see more than 150,000 square feet of office and warehouse space built in Tonawanda and Cheektowaga.

The policy requires that an applicant currently comply with all equal pay laws, and certify they have not been the subject of an adverse finding under equal pay laws within the previous five years, and may subject an applicant to a random audit.

Beginning this fall, companies getting tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency will be required to prove that they pay their women employees just as much as they do male workers doing the same job.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency has approved a mandate requiring any company that receives tax breaks or incentives must pay female employees equal rates as their male counterparts, if both are doing the same job or holding the same position.

Upstate Pharmacy is anticipating a growth in its business serving patients who need medications and pharmaceutical supplies delivered to their homes.

When American Axle & Manufacturing shut its East Side plant more than seven years ago, the outlook was bleak. The plant had operated, under different identities, in the Delavan-Grider neighborhood for about 85 years. Good jobs vanished with the closing. And with American Axle gone, who would need a manufacturing complex with more than 1 million square feet?

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency's Board of Directors approved a new policy narrowing the scope of broader State law that allows IDA's to offer tax incentives to developers for market rate senior housing projects.

A pair of Buffalo projects that would turn abandoned school buildings into a 53 market-rate apartments are getting tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency's Board of Directors approved incentives for two projects Wednesday, and agreed to refinance bonds for the Joint Schools Construction Board, saving the Buffalo School District nearly $30 million in financing costs.

A recent editorial and letter about the Erie County Industrial Development Agency's proposed policy to limit incentives on market rate senior housing did not accurately reflect the facts.

ECIDA Board approves $3.2 million in tax savings for four projects, generating $29.3 million in private investment, $250,000 loan for Niagara Lubricant project also approved

A trio of residential-based developments, two of which are in downtown Buffalo and the other in a fast-emerging part of the city, received a series of incentives that are critical for each to advance.

Directors of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday approved nearly $2 million in tax breaks for four development projects in Buffalo and Cheektowaga. The approvals support building re-use efforts by Ellicott Development Co., Nick Sinatra and Paul Kolkmeyer and two new industrial buildings by Benderson Development Co.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency is providing $200,000 to Launch NY to pay for programs and services meant to boost startup companies in Erie County.

The Erie County Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval to a new county-wide policy that would place additional restrictions on tax breaks for senior housing projects, especially those that would build market-rate apartments aimed at middle- and upper-class seniors.

ECIDA Board approves first step in creating new policy limiting tax incentives for market-rate senior housing Board also approved $2 million loan to help manufacturer stay in WNY, saving 124 jobs