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New York Main Street grants have helped some businesses improve their buildings.
Buffalo Place, the nonprofit business improvement district for downtown Buffalo, has won another $300,000 state grant to support revitalization of buildings and facades on Main Street.
The newest Buffalo Main Streets initiative funding through the Better Buffalo Fund will be used to help property owners along the stretch of Main between Mohawk and Swan streets, covering an area that has not yet been touched by the Cars Sharing Main Street effort to restore automobile traffic alongside pedestrians. Buffalo Place officials said that they will start reaching out to property owners soon to promote the opportunity.
The goal is to spur economic growth and development by bringing more investment into downtown Buffalo – including in its streetscape and other infrastructure – so that businesses and people want to be there.
With the group still finishing up its current allotment of funds, that brings the total funding that Buffalo Place has obtained for downtown to $2.4 million in six grants in the last few years, enabling renovations or rehabs to 44 buildings.
"We continue to receive a great deal of money every year that is being leveraged for a large amount of private investment by property owners," said Steven Carmina, an architect and Buffalo Place board member.
Under the current round of funding, one project is already finished, while another is nearly done and three are out for construction bids. The remaining projects are under state review, but must be completed by December under the terms of the grant.
Buffalo Place is also administering another grant under a separate statewide program, the New York Main Street grant, with two projects remaining at 300 and 639 Main, where the roof and windows are being replaced, respectively.
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Also downtown, two new stores opened in the Pierce Building at 653 Main – which itself was just acquired by Anthony Trusso's Tru Commercial Development from Plaza Group, for $1.4 million. Houndstooth Costumer Collective, a costume shop and workspace, serves the theatre and film-making communities, while Seven One Six Wood Design – a custom woodworker that opened a production shop in Williamsville – is opening its first store in downtown Buffalo in July.
And the Cars Sharing Main Street project on lower Main at Canalside is now completed, except for installation of bicycle racks and decorative uplighting of the piers under the Thruway overpass, both of which have faced supply-chain delays. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority also has started its related reconstruction of the Canalside Metro Rail station, with temporary platforms going up, and the new stations set to be completed on both sides by December.
Must-read local business coverage that exposes the trends, connects the dots and contextualizes the impact to Buffalo's economy.
I've been a business reporter at The Buffalo News since 2004, now covering residential and commercial real estate and development amid WNY's resurgence. I'm an upstate native, proud to call Buffalo my home, and committed to covering it thoroughly.
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Officials are expecting to complete train control and signalization work by April 1, freeing up Lower Main to reopen shortly afterwards, Buffalo Place project planner Angela Keppel said.
The Hyatt Regency Buffalo will play host to a weeklong pop-up for the upcoming season, running from Small Business Saturday on Nov. 27 through the following Saturday, Dec. 4.
Such a move could greatly extend the nonprofit agency's scope – including property maintenance, security and marketing functions – to a much larger geographic area, incorporating many more buildings and landlords than it does now.
The "Roaming Gnome Festival" will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday in the reading park at the Central Library.
Contractors will start work July 6 on the remaining trackbed and rail work on the west side of Main, with completion expected in late summer, according to Debra Chernoff, manager of planning for Buffalo Place.
This is the fifth Main Street investment grant that Buffalo Place has received and administered to assist building owners in downtown Buffalo.
The city is also working to finalize plans for similar work in another section of downtown, dubbed the Ellicott Street Node.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic – with the initial construction shutdown, ongoing restrictions, and lingering health concerns – hampered half of the building owners from finishing on time.
New York Main Street grants have helped some businesses improve their buildings.
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