Buffalo Rising Online

Its beautiful isnt it??!! Its called NEW DEVELOPMENT!!!! Now if we could only reduce parts of the 190 into a blvd, then we REALLY have something!!!

Again... closed sales or reservations?

Sully or Sulley....what does it matter? Seeing that the building is still one year from completion I imagine committed with a deposit. Therefore off the market or SOLD.

The units aren't sold until reservations held with a deposit are converted into hard contracts and closed.

At least that's how it works in normal cities.

Well if I were them I would start pre-sales on the next tower and make that 15 stories or 20 stories. Maybe Im superstitious but I dont like 13 story buildings. Nevertheless, once this tower is sold I would start presales on Tower#2.....how nice it would be to drive along I190 and see high rise office buildings and residential towers.

Still makes me wonder when development will cross I190?

It would help if they got rid of the city court parking lot and reopened Genesee Street...and extended Genessee Street under I190 to Lakefront Boulevard.

It will be nice to see a tower constructed!

I agree with Chris69. Buffalo needs to capitalize on its proximity to Lake Erie and don't think it has been.

that should read "I don't think it has been"

but skarnath politicians are too infatuated with what they can get done NOW before their election cycle is over, it doesn't matter what is best for the city or our long term vision... While I am not opposed to this tower or project, it does shed light on how much BETTER our city could be if we had forward thinking politicians.. Take this as a note for everyone to go VOTE because while we like to complain about politicians in the end we only have ourselves to blame for our apathy and voter turnout.

everything looks nice but was it really necessary to grant this developer -- and the new owners -- tax credits which will allow them to pay far less city property taxes on a $500K house than what I pay for my little old house? gee, thought paladino didn't believe in public handouts?

"The units aren't sold until reservations held with a deposit are converted into hard contracts and closed. At least that's how it works in normal cities."

OK Sully are you serious? First of all it has nothing to do with what city it's in real estate closings are the same everywhere in New York state. You CAN'T close on a new construction condo unit until the construction of at least the unit is completed, sometimes until the whole project is completed depending on the loan program you have with the lender. A sold unit the developer refers to is a unit under contract that most likely has a 10% deposit down.

Sold to me (and others outside of New York State) means that the unit is actually sold -- not held with a deposit.

Many buyers who put down refundable deposits for units actually back out of the deal. That's commonplace anywhere. I would say that half of the reserved units at this point will be converted to actual contracts.

So, In this case, around 50% of the units are "reserved."

Sulley, Before you blather on any further do you know that the deposits are refundable? In most cases they are not. If the developer has approval of the condo offering he can take non refundable deposits which is what the bank would have asked for before providing funding. That means he has a pending contract which is the same as any pending contract for the sale of any house or condo. That does not mean you can not back out. Anyone can back out of any deal anywhere if they are willing to forgo their deposit. (something which has become common place in Miami the last few months). So Sulley where is this mystical place that you live in that people get their deposits back?

When I agreed to purchase a condo in 2005 before moving to Buffalo, I reserved a condo with a refundable $5,000.00 deposit, paid with an official bank cheque. When I did move, it was before the period in which reservations had been converted to contracts, so the money was refunded with another bank cheque.

Between the 190, Blue Cross, this privatized waterfront condo area, rail lines and all the other obstructions (city hall ramp, convention center, hyatt....I've put the genesee-waterfront connection on the backburner. Right now, the better solution for connecting downtown to the water appears to be pearl and erie streets. Pearl will run directly into the inner harbor and Erie can be reconfigured easily to actually be a prime bridge location to the outer harbor. I'm pretty sure the Erie St. connection has been studied briefly in the past, and I know its being looked at in greater depth now. Because of all the privatized residences, even if Genesee is extended to the water, there will be little opportunity for public access and development.

Well Sulley then Buffalo must be special in that developers can get construction loans without any guaranty of being able to close on any contracts (which can not be done until the project is finished in any city). Other than that I am not sure what you point is. He is building the project and has commitments for half of the project before the 3rd floor has been started.

Wow... are you haters upset because someone did something with some of our waterfront?? Notice I said some of our waterfront, not all, in fact its a very small part of the bigger picture and the total land mass we have to develop here... get over it... so what if its a gated community..thats what rich people do.

Townline... I agree... don't see a new Genessee any time soon... traffic on Main will come first.

Distas... it would do wonders for this development and any others if the skyway and the 190 were walkable... the whole thing doesn't even need to be lowered... if I had to guess I'd say 40% of it.. another wishh lol

vgs; it's not all paladino's money--some of it is ours (the taxpayers' money). see my ealier post Uhuge tax credits/breaks to the owners). wish it was true that "it's Paladino's money not yours"

No hate here, though I wish the waterfront was a bit more open to the rest of the city and wasn't like some closed off subdivision. Can't have it all, though.

It just annoys me when people say a development is "sold out" or almost sold, when it fact it's just reserved. I find it even funnier after the building is completed that the developer has units on the market because people have backed out of their reservations. I'm sure Paladino will have quite a few units listed on the MLS when it's finished too, just like many other developments.

Sulley, the only thing that matters is that there are cranes in the air and the building is going up. To me, whether it is 'sold out' already or if it takes a month or two after completion to sell every unit is pretty irrelevant. Not sure where you're trying to take this conversation or what your point is.

JOBS JOBS JOBS! That's what development means to me! Keep the it coming... and keep the hard woking people of Buffalo... working! Anyone know much about the contractors on projects like this? Even if they aren't all local atleast they are spending some of their money in Buffalo. Congrats to the downtown restaurants who I'm sure are enjoying the runoff from all this development.

RonR, my friend -- a tax credit may not be my money but, to me, there is something wrong when an owner of a $400,000 home pays less taxes than an owner of, let's say, a $200,000 home. no? a previous post about a similar topic suggested that many BRO readers do not understand market-forces. would market forces have prevented this project if paladino did not receive such credits? and, by the by, why after 10 years do u believe that these homes will pay "more" than their fair share? aren't taxes based in large part on property values? what gives?

I can see how a current resident of the waterfront villiage can be put off by the tax credit. I wonder if they considered an "area discount" to benefit all of those who have invested in waterfront villiage. I am not complaining though, I think this tower is going be great for area. Every development like this leads to more attractive, profitable waterfront. I want to throw a spin on the 13 floor worries. I would call Buffalo "America's unlickiest city" so I think the 13 floor building suits it well.

**unluckiest**....there is pleanty of lick around here...

The 10-year tax abatement has done wonders here in Philly, it has rejuvinated Center City and created much development that would not have happen but for the abatement. Clearly it is better to not give tax abatements where the market will build new structures, but clearly any incentives that can spur development should be utilized.

skarnath has said it much better than me. was this open to competition for other developers? If so, the credits are more palatable. if no other developers were given a shot, or if paladino was given preferrential treatment by the former mayor (my hunch), then the credits really piss me off. by the by, when will the City allow the marine drive apartments to be sold and put on the tax rolls?

I agree with Ron R on the abatements. If you want people to take initial risks and develop property that will produce income down the road instead of not being there at all they are needed. If the market catches up in desirability subsequent ones may be able to suceed without the tax perks.

I think itd be funny if they built 3 towers, the one in the middle higher than the other 2, like a middle finger right at Canada! lol