Buffalo Rising Online

I think the higher purchase price alone should give this deal to Ciminelli. We're SELLING a piece of land after all.

WAKE UP BUFFALO, ,,,,It's all because PITTS was involved in the winning proposal. City Hall is sooo corupted

I think it's politics at it's "finest". If the proposal stands as is, and mr. ciminelli or mr. Hamister are reading this, don't despair, perhaps Canalside is a better venue for your gem of a project.

It's a no-brainer to ANYONE who either views the renderings or LOOKS AT THE NUMBERS. Insanity. Typical Buffalo politics. BRING ON Ciminello.............it's by far the better choice!

Another typical example by BB, , VERIFYING his opinion that the voters and citizens of Buffalo are really stupid, given that he would try to brazenly pull this deal off with political crony Pitts. Look at the FACTS of each deal, the number$ alone ,show that the logical choice is Ciminelli's proposal. How dare Brown insult the intelligence of Buffalo....what a sham. BUFFALO POLITICS ..again at it's finest!

Now call or email and thank Franczyk! Make sure he knows that he has your support. If he hears concretely from the people that this is big, he'll be less inclined to drop this issue.

David Franczyk Phone: 716-851-4138 ♦ Fax: (716)851-4869 E-mail: dfranczyk@city-buffalo.com

I will say I love the backdrop of the Motel 6 design. I can just imagine sitting at the outdoor patio at Crawdaddy's sipping a cold cocktail in the warm sun, nice Lake breeze coming in and the sounds of rigging and sails floating around.

What do to next, well maybe I'll head over to the Hatch for a hotdog, or slip in for a few hours rest for under $45. Imagine the possibilities people.

This will fry what little career Brown had left. The numbers alone show this is a "god ole boys club" shady under the table deal. The fact that the Mayor would consider 1.1 million less for a plot of land in a struggling city, for a cheesy motel that wants public funds to build, compared to a private devoloper with better plans and more money only magnify's his stupidity.

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Magnum and Chris, great comments - perhaps the BURA proposal should be christened FAILGATE.

and they want Brown to be given the Senate job???

The RFP was poorly planned and against the city plans to begin with and therefore should be considered null and void. But of course no one did their homework upfront so this leads us to a poor design being the ONLY legal option.. They basically set the site up to fail! They tell Ciminelli to be creative, then say woops... but the RFP says this.. so me and my hand picked croonies just HAVE to vote for the legal project... which just so happens to be a former prominent politician's pet project.

Sound about right? sigh... The RFP should be considered illegal because it doesn't follow the city's own master planning principles for this site... Sorry guys but Ciminelli seems to know your own plans and vision more than you. That is the saddest part about this whole fiasco.

Boy, what a setting!?? Picture the beautiful stylings of a highway motel right beside 2 office buildings that look like they belong in a suburban office park - - right in the heart of Buffalo's waterfront!!! BURA should be embarrased by their decision to settle for anything less than fitting and ideal for such a critical spot on the Erei Basin Marina. It's not like they only had one proposal in hand with no other interested parties to choose from. Doesn't anyone ever travel outside of Western NY to see what other cities are doing with their waterfronts!??? Not only is the Ciminelli/Hamister proposal far more desirable and fitting for that spot, but the mixed use nature of the proposal and the designation of the Hilton Garden Inn is a no brainer. In fact, the Hilton Garden Inn chain has developed many very nice "custome-designed" hotels in some pretty risky areas over the past few years, including the beautiful new Downtown Ithaca location, which has helped to pump new life into Ithaca's redevelopment opportunities.

Oh well, let's hope that Francyk has enough clout to change this decision and start a new trend upwards on the waterfront.

Among the other 6 council members, hopefully at least 2 will join these 3 so the Pitts-Savarino plan is blocked for now. Blocking needs 5 votes in the 9-member council. The other 6 potential votes are Golombek, Rivera, Fontana, Russell, Smith, and Davis. Also, hopefully Ciminelli stays interested in the project despite all the politics.

Then the question would become the next step. Brown still controls the majority of the BURA board. Despite what most blog readers might think, he's likely to be mayor many more years if he wants to be. There'd be a stalemate if BURA digs in their heels and won't budge about their decision.

Legal question - Does the Common Council have the authority to just bypass BURA and vote to sell this city-owned parcel to Ciminelli? If they do, that might be the smartest move after a little more due diligence to confirm Ciminelli's proposal. What a mess though.

David Rivera is a great councilman and usually votes with Franczyk/Locurto/Kearns. Rich Fontana often votes with that bloc, as well. Has anyone seen why these two sided with Brown this time?

Colin: Franczyk, LoCurto, and Kearns are the only three councilmembers on BURA (unless there are more who were not at the meeting) -- one of the earlier BRO articles gives the names of all the BURA members who voted, if you want to check that out.

I agree with you about Rivera - I wish we had a councilmember like him in My Fair City.

^ Ahh, I thought I was missing something. Thanks!

Colin - I think those two haven't taken either side yet publicly, or at least the Buffalo News hasn't quoted them so far. The only council members I've see reported as taking a public stand so far are the 3 opposing Brown on this, the 3 on the BURA board.

The financial info reported in Saturday's BN, that the rejected Ciminelli plan would need less taxpayer subsidy than the chosen plan, makes the decision of the mayor and his appointees sound even more stupid, or more corrupt, or both.

And to think Mayor Brown grew up in NYC, you'd think he would know the difference between bad and good development, small vs. large, cheap vs. grand.....guess not.

InformedOne, dont you get it? Its not a City Hall problem! Its an incestuous political problem. Its an inside business deal between a politician and a former politician. Its an inside business deal between a minority african american mayor and a minority african american former common council member.

This isnt about what design is better! This isnt about whats best for Buffalo! Thats obvious the ciminelli design pays 10x the amount of money for the land and pays 10x the amount in annual property taxes than the Wingate. Further Ciminelli asks for no taxpayer subsidies but Wingate does.

There is no other scenario the Pitts - Wingate proposal is the superior choice except an inside racial, political business deal. Therefore, the Common Council must refuse put the city tax base and the city first by refusing Pitts-Wingate.

I urge everyone to contact their Council Member and the BURA Borad of directors to express you concerns. The only thing we can do at this point is make sure they know we are watching. I'm assuming most of them are not proactive enough to read our posts on BRO, so tale a minute and let them know what you think:

BURA Board of Direcor's Mayor Byron W. Brown, Chairman - MayorBrownWebMail@ch.ci.buffalo.ny.us Brian Reilly, Commissioner of Economic Development, Permit and Inspection Services - 716-851-5035 Drew Eszak, Director of Planning - (716) 851-5035 Janet Penksa, Commissioner of Administration, Finance, Policy and Urban Affairs - (716)-851-5922 Alisa Lukasiewicz, Corporation Counsel - (716)-851-4343 Council President David Franczyk - contact info below Councilmember Mike LoCurto - contact info below Councilmember Mike Kearns - contact info below Virginia Oehler

Council Members Brian Davis - Ellicott - 716-851-4980 - brdavis@city-buffalo.com Richard Fontana - Lovejoy - 716-851-5151 - rfontana@city-buffalo.com David A. Franczyk - Filmore - 716-851-4138 - dfranczyk@city-buffalo.com Joseph Golombek, Jr. - North - 716-851-5116 - jgolombek@city-buffalo.com Michael P. Kearns - South - 716-851-5169 - mkearns@city-buffalo.com Michael J. LoCurto - Delaware - 716-851-5155 - mlocurto@city-buffalo.com David A. Rivera - Niagara - 716-851-5125 - darivera@city-buffalo.com Bonnie E. Russell - University - 716-851-5165 - brussell@city-buffalo.com Demone A. Smith - Masten - 716-851-5145 - dsmith@city-buffalo.com

1. I did read the story. If you had read the story from the 6th, you'd have seen that the Ciminelli proposal didn't include calls for public subsidies, while the Pitts proposal required "Empire Zone benefits, tax-exempt financing and other city, state and federal incentives." So while it may be true that public subsidies to hotels don't make any sense, the Ciminelli project wasn't asking for them.

2. That said, I don't think the subsidy is what's getting people worked up. It's the fact that this looks like a classic case of cronyism, where an old insider gets approval despite the fact that his proposal is manifestly weaker than a competitor's.

Questions about the wisdom of new hotel construction are beside the point here. The question is why a weak bid was accepted over a stronger bid.

The subsidy is a big part of why I oppose the mayor's preferred plan, in addition to a few other factors discussed. As I commented in first BR post about this project, I'd like to see Buffalo end all tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies for any hotels, retail, and new residential. That won't happen because new buildings from all those let politicians appear to be making some growth happen, and because beneficiaries are big campaign contributors. If there were no tax dollars involved, the wisdom of more hotel rooms and how much occupancy is good or bad could all be left to the developers and hotels to decide.

bhorvath - it's been said a few times here and in linked reports that Hilton is involved with Ciminelli's proposal. The height limit and it's supposed year delay might be a bogus issue. Someone commented in an earlier thread that both proposals exceeded what might be a 3-story limit. Whether there's good reason for any height limit at that spot is also a question. Also, Ciminelli said in one of the linked articles they were directly encouraged by City Hall to propose what they thought best for the site.

You make some good points about this, but as time goes on they're getting more ranting. Some questions you raise have been mentioned in some way throughout the different comment threads on this topic.

go to NYPOST.com and see the VOTE for the next NYS Senator...Byron Brown has only 2.5% of the vote, lowest among 6 potential candidates...noone knows him or cares outside of this village of Buffalo...

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