There is a tower being constructed down there right now but a few more would be cool as long as they had some worth while retail space in them. Then more people would be drawn to the area and hopefully that would encourage waterfront development to speed up. At the least a few more towers would be nice to look at.
There is a reason why the Park Lane condo is not being built here, lack of a neighborhood. Canal village would be wonderful but you cant just build a neighborhood, no developer can build an elmwood or hertel (someone else said this before/cant take credit). Wait for the supermarket, retail, more housing, office buildings to be built and then condos will be built here. Park Lane has great neighborhoods of delaware avenue, delaware park and elmwood. I firmly believe that someday high rise condos will grace our waterfront but not anytime soon.
All of you guys are 100% correct about some new high-rise construction on the downtown waterfront. We have more than enough low-rise townhouses cluttering our waterfront. The Buffalo skyline is probably the most stagnant in the country thanks to our depressed economy, poor business climate, high taxes, and the persistant problems with NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). I also strongly agree with the idea of some good quality street side retail to service the waterfront population and to attract visitors. However, the new high rises need to be very carefully designed so that they will be aesthetically beautiful and add positivily to the surrounding cityscape. Lets avoid the horrible high-rise design disasters like the senior citizen high-rise at the foot of Hertel Avenue, The Baptist Manor on Linwood near West Utica Street, and the now demolished Medical Towers at 50 High Street. The LaRiviere land parcel would be absolutely perfect for a mixed use high-rise between 20 and 30 stories. The Lakefront Blvd. land parcel is somewhat more problematic to develop. I think that the LaRiviere land parcel should be developed first with a mixed use skyscraper and then depending on market demand, the Lakefront Blvd. land parcel could possibly be developed later on.
Texpat10, I lived in Austin, Texas between 1993 and 2001 and as far as I am concerned you can have Austin. It is one of the most horribly overrated cities in the country. Granted taxes are low and the business climate is good but that is about all Austin has going in its favor. Otherwise Austin is an extremely unfriendly city with high housing costs, inadequate infrastructure, and massive traffic problems. Its summers are very torrid with extremely high heat and humidity. Most people in Austin are arrogant with their noses up in the air acting like they are too good for the rest of the world. Most of Austin is architecturally and aesthetically ugly due to its suburban style sprawl and haphazard, rapid growth. Lamar Blvd. is probably one of the most hideous urban thoroughfares in the country and other Austin traffic arteries- Guadalupe St, Congress Av, Anderson Ln, Burnet Rd, MLKing Blvd and several other major arteries in Austin are not much better. Despite its serious problems with high taxes, a stagnant economy, a dormant downtown, incompetant politicians, and those NIMBY groups Buffalo is still a much better and more pleasant city than Austin. I am getting sick and damned tired of criticism of Buffalo's weather. Our weather is among the best in the nation and it is much better than Austin's weather. At least we dont have to worry about tornadoes, floods, and droughts along with consistant 100 degree plus heat. People in Buffalo are friendly and generally laid back. Our cityscape is rich in architectural diversity and our park system is one of the best in the nation. We do not have the horrendous, third world style traffic problems that plague Austin and the rest of the sunbelt. Our housing costs are not astronomical like they are in Austin. I am very thankful to be back in a real city like Buffalo. Austin just stinks.
Tightknit: by "privatized" do you happen to mean "put to some beneficial use"? Parks are nice, but they arent the answer to urban vitality.
Furthermore, I would be shocked if NYS didn't have some law guaranteeing public access to all waterfronts, most states bordering on the ocean do.
How about HIGH RISE buildings with living, work and retail spaces?????? This is a city, isn't it? Make it look like one for a change.
Next RFP: The parking lots surrounding the office buildings. Build a parking ramp and get something built on these lots fronting the drive into the marina: Small hotel, condos, and how about some market rate rental units into the mix down there? Not sure how convenience retail would work- is 300 units enough to support a dry cleaners, deli, coffee shop, hair salon, etc?
I agree... a couple more high rises would be nice!!! Can definitely see that happening with the sales they've had already.... in need of some street side retail also.... where do these ppl buy their goods???
I couldn't see paying this much for a condo. and having to drive all the way to amherst to buy groceries.... I could definitely envision a boutique-ish.. grocercy store here.
Love the firrst picture... it really shows how the skyways and the 400 really need to be dealt with...lowered, buried, or boulevarded.
Ricky - Those town houses look more 'in' place in the city than they do in the suburbs... I would rather have the town houses than the vinyl sided sfhs that they built on sycamore.
If there is demand for retail or high rises I am sure that they will get built. The market will dictate what gets built and not the other way around.
I wish that the city had tried harder to get Geico to build there. I really think that they missed the ball. This space would have provided access to workers, transportation and great free advertising the form of the tens of thousands of cars that pass the site every day. The plot is large enough for them to have had the suburban style building that they wanted.
I am also thinking to the great conceptual drawings of the Canal Village done by Dan Leonard, I think. They posted a few weeks back. They were great and I'd love to see the area actually look like that. The problem is who is going to take the space in those buildings? The demand for some residential development has been proven but the absorption of retail and office space just hasn't been there. Buffalo isn't attracting the business needed to reverse population decline and absorb new office space. Even with housing, I suspect, this is a zero sum game. The market is being reshuffled but not added to. The tenants in this space, residential or commercial, are coming from elsewhere in the market.
For a contrast consider Austin, Texas. In 1990 Austin was approximately the size of metro Buffalo. Since then Austin, on average, has added 1,000 residents per week. 3,000 housing units are currently under construction in or around downtown Austin. Another 12,000 are in the approval process right now.
The reasons that Buffalo isn't Austin are myriad. Some, like weather we can't control. Taxes and efficient/effective government are two that we can control. Things have got to change.
I think that LaRiviere needs to be connected to Charles Street on the opposite side of the expressway
and I think that Geiorgia and Carolina need to be connected on the opposite side of the expressway...this former canal neighborhood needs tobe integrated with Niagara Street and the West Vilage.
WCP - informative article and great use of pictures and graphics.
Texpat - very well put. Best summary of all this I've seen anywhere in a long time:
The demand for some residential development has been proven but the absorption of retail and office space just hasn't been there. Buffalo isn't attracting the business needed to reverse population decline and absorb new office space. Even with housing, I suspect, this is a zero sum game. The market is being reshuffled but not added to. The tenants in this space, residential or commercial, are coming from elsewhere in the market. For a contrast consider Austin, Texas. In 1990 Austin was approximately the size of metro Buffalo. Since then Austin, on average, has added 1,000 residents per week. 3,000 housing units are currently under construction in or around downtown Austin. Another 12,000 are in the approval process right now. The reasons that Buffalo isn't Austin are myriad. Some, like weather we can't control. Taxes and efficient/effective government are two that we can control. Things have got to change.
However regarding the "have got to", I don't think those tax/govt policies will change in our lifetime. It's obvious from election blowouts that nowhere near enough of a portion of people around here agree with your philosophy. Many of those people who do agree have been the ones who moved away over the past couple decades. So whatever development does happen here it will need to be limited to what can work within what's pretty much a zero sum game as you described it. Of course, this doesn't mean nothing new will be built - just that much of it will be heavilly subsidied, and in general it will replace some of what's already here rather than being a sign of overall growth.
It appears that, clearly, the city is in need of another parking area, perhaps an indoor one... I mean, look at all those poor exposed cars in those obviously outdated lots!
I say, give it to the kids! Make it a lake front soccer or football park, with hockey in the winter! Keep it green!
Anything other than more suburban low rise townhouses would be nice. I'm so sick of hearing about suburban style development in this city as if it's so great. They all look boring and out of place. When I was at the Marina looking out from the light house a few years ago, I could notice just how out of place all those brown houses looked in front of the downtown skyline.
yeah, fill it in so that the biggest piece of the waterfront closest to any population density will be completely privatized and the public will have zero access
I also wish there was a request for proposals for all the parking for the office complex. A great waste of space. Long term planning should adress it.
As should it adress connecting church street into the development.
I'm curious to see what may be proposed. This will be contiguous to the erie canal terminous site and should take that into consideration for overall plans.
what i ment by privatized is that the water's edge will be totally fenced off as someone's backyard when it could be a promenade bordered by whatever size apartment units are built
Make no small plans here. Palace Pier in Toronto is an example of what you do with these parcels. Lakefront property in downtown can't be wasted on piffle.
According to Dr. Bob Shibley, award winning planner and creator of the Buffalo Hub plan, it takes 1500 residents to support a block of retail.
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