erie county real estate transactions john regdos

The city’s tallest building is 95 percent vacant and in the midst of foreclosure proceedings after its biggest tenants left. Hotung vied unsuccessfully to attract the IBM project to his building.ĭelaware North had occupied space in the Key Center under tax breaks granted by the Erie County Industrial Development Agency in 2000.Īlso hanging over the arrival is the giant shadow of One Seneca Tower. “I don’t see how substituting one heavily subsidized tenant, Delaware North, with another heavily subsidized tenant, IBM, in Key Center will have much of an impact on the rest of Main Street or downtown,” said Patrick Hotung, whose Main Place Liberty Group owns the Main Place Mall. The state will buy and own the real estate and the technology equipment that IBM and other tenants in the “hub” will pay rent to use. Skeptics who have seen decades of malaise and decline in Buffalo remain doubtful of change, saying it’s too soon to proclaim “mission accomplished.”Ĭritics note that IBM’s new facility is heavily subsidized by the state – through the intervention of a governor running for re-election – rather than being a completely private-sector investment. Of course, not everyone is so enthusiastic, optimistic or even positive about the news.

That alone just gives automatic credibility when you drive into a city and see something like that.” “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a blue-chip company that’s going to adorn the skyline in Buffalo,” he said. McDonnell, vice president of sales and leasing for Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., one of the area’s biggest developers, and the leasing agent for the Key Center’s New York City-based owner. “IBM coming into the city of Buffalo and locating in the Main Street area is a game-changer,” said Robert G. IBM’s willingness and decision to set up shop in downtown Buffalo represents an endorsement that community leaders hope will prompt others to sit up and take notice – especially since IBM’s name will adorn the building. “People want to be where other people are, and companies want to be close to other companies.” “The more new people we get down here, the better it becomes and the more people it attracts,” said David Sweet, who owns the Rand, Main-Seneca, Main Court and two other Main Street office buildings. And businesses in the suburbs or other parts of the city are calling downtown landlords and brokers to ask about moving downtown.įinally, there is a perception that the presence of a blue-chip company like IBM, with its global reputation, will attract other technology companies and young job-seekers to Buffalo, particularly to what the city dubs its “knowledge corridor.” “Our Main Street is coming back.”Īlready, long-neglected city blocks, such as the 500 block of Main Street, have seen the renovation and reuse of one building after another with new residents, office tenants, restaurants and stores.

“It just adds energy, and downtowns are about positive energy, and we have a lot of positive energy going on in downtown Buffalo these days,” said Michael Schmand, executive director of Buffalo Place, the nonprofit downtown business improvement organization. That gives landlords, developers and businesspeople – who may be contemplating more investment downtown – more confidence to follow through. There also is talk of the benefits of those well-paid workers living and spending money and time downtown, driving more demand for store owners, ancillary services and housing. Then there are the 500 new jobs with a Fortune 500 company coming to downtown as part of a new technology “hub.” “We’re absolutely elated,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron W. comes to the heart of the central business district.įirst, there is the stabilizing factor that IBM will bring to the Key Center building, filling space being vacated by Delaware North Companies. As downtown Buffalo rolls out the red carpet to welcome Big Blue to Fountain Plaza, many of the city’s real estate, business and political leaders are touting the spinoff benefits they expect all along Main Street when IBM Corp.

Erie county real estate transactions john regdos