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Brownfields present development opportunities
by chocieniThe talk around here when it comes
to viable development focuses on the 384-acre Outer Harbor, which fronts Lake
Erie.
At issue is who will end up with
control of the prime waterfront property that the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Niagara Frontier
Transportation AuthorityLatest from The Business JournalsPut Outer Harbor in
right handsEC Leg supports
waterfront land transferBuffalo Niagara airport
to add 1,000 parking spotsFollow this company doesn't want in its portfolio. Many suspect it will end up
under the domain of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., not the City of
Buffalo.
But that doesn't mean the city is
being frozen out of a vast development opportunity.
Falling under the radar of many is
an ongoing study by Buffalo Urban Development Corp. - the city's primary
economic development arm - that focuses on three Brownfield Opportunities
Areas, or BOAs.
They encompass a combined 2,500
acres of land and nearly 1,700 parcels. By anyone's count, that's a lot of real
estate.
One BOA covers a large chunk of the
Tonawanda Street/lower Hertel Avenue neighborhood, which has a deep industrial
past. Another stretches along the Buffalo River and includes the Riverbend
development area.
The third is the Buffalo Harbor
area, which also navigates its way from downtown along the Buffalo River.
"I would think the goal is to
develop a long-term strategy and bring all these lands back to life," said Mark Reid,
a partner in Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto.
His company was awarded a bid by
Buffalo Urban Development to devise a BOA development strategy.
Fortunately, staff and directors of
the local development corporation agree with Reid's assessment. They didn't
bring him to Buffalo to talk about the Maple Leafs.
"This is about building in the city,
not building outside of it," Reid said. "In other words, smart growth."
Buffalo Urban Development, working
with Urban Strategies, will hold a series of public meetings about the three
BOAs, beginning June 25. Input from the meetings will be part of a final
recommendation that Reid hopes to deliver by November.
He said the BOA development strategy
is a huge opportunity for Buffalo. A project in a designated
brownfield-development area is eligible for all sorts of public-sector
incentives. By virtue of their brownfield designation, some of the properties
and parcels come with more environmental cleanup issues than other sites.
That's one reason why incentives are increased.
Each of the BOAs have their own
attributes and issues. Most of the issues are environmental in nature and not
insurmountable. If the Union Ship Canal can go from an industrial wasteland to
the vibrant Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park in less than seven years, anything
is possible.
According to Reid, the Tonawanda BOA
is attractive because of rail access, including the International Railroad
Bridge that connects Buffalo to Fort Erie - that is, the United States to
Canada.
"But it is also a very blue-collar
neighborhood," he said.
While there may be more
environmental-cleanup issues along the Buffalo River and Buffalo Harbor BOAs,
they are equally attractive given development downtown and in Buffalo Lakeside
Commerce Park, as well as the pending fate of the Outer Harbor.
"The best thing is that all of these are grounded in reality and they can be very real, if you let them," Reid said.
Andrew Rudnick,
meanwhile, said a side benefit of Reid's work could be a development template
for the Outer Harbor. Rudnick is Buffalo Niagara Partnership Buffalo Niagara
PartnershipLatest
from The Business JournalsQuestions tower over
HSBC CenterBPO report puts
orchestra's impact at M Power windfall
generates opportunitiesFollow this company president and CEO and also a director of Buffalo Urban
Development Corp.
"It could the guide," he said.
That's why what happens at meetings
in the coming months is so important.
"This is the place and the time to
talk about Buffalo's future," Reid said.
Staying
local
Count the mayor as one happy person
now that Louis Ciminelli,
through a special company, has acquired the vacant Central Park Plaza.
Byron Brown
is even happier that the developer will demolish the existing buildings as he
considers options for the property. In essence, it crosses an urban headache
off Brown's "to do" list.
"First of all, it gives me a great
level of comfort that it is in the hands of a local developer and someone I
call instantly, if I need to," he said.
But there's more.
"The Ciminelli family has the resources to make something happen there and to make it maybe into something special," Brown said. "I am excited about that prospect."