2. Achieving the Vision
Strategic Investment Areas
The vision for Downtown focuses attention and continued investment on five specific areas: the Waterfront and related Erie Canal Harbor developments, the Financial District and Government Center, the Theatre District, a new Downtown Education and Public Safety Campus, and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC). Work in each part of Downtown will provide benefits for the whole of Downtown and the inner ring of neighborhoods. Attention to the strategic investment areas also helps establish or reinforce related mixed-use residential communities and supportive retail activity.
The geography of the strategic investment areas builds on a series of investments, each building on the last. The work of the 1980s and 1990s created Fountain Plaza and reinvested in property a full block north on Main in the Theatre District and four blocks west on Chippewa Street as a reinvigorated core of Downtown. The work already slated for the decade of 2000 invests further north in the 700 and 800 blocks of Main and even more aggressively in the BNMC, taking Downtown reinvestment all the way to North Street.
From Fountain Plaza, moving south along Main Street, we can also already see new investments in commercial and some residential uses on the west side of the street and in the Electric District. This area has projects in play linking Lafayette Square to the developments to the north. Work on the Downtown Education and Public Safety Campus and on the Waterfront should improve the climate for investment in the areas between them, especially with infrastructure improvements on Church Street connecting the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center to Downtown along what should become one of Buffalo’s “great streets.” These investments will also reinforce the attractiveness of development options in the traditional retail core of the City surrounding Lafayette Square.
Erie Canal Harbor
The Erie Canal Harbor and Related Waterfront Developments will lay the foundation for a build-out of the cultural, maritime, residential, commercial, retail, sports and entertainment venues planned for the waterfront from Michigan Avenue to the Erie Basin Marina. Public investments in the Erie Canal Harbor, the HSBC Arena, a new intermodal transportation facility, parking capacity, and related infrastructure should leverage at least $100 million in additional private sector investment in the Memorial Auditorium and adjacent development parcels, and create a minimum of two thousand additional jobs. Heritage interpretation of the western gateway of the Erie Canal will complement other visitor attractions Downtown and add to the city’s draw as a tourism destination.
Education and Public Safety Campus
A New Downtown Education and Public Safety Campus anchored by Erie Community College, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and a proposed new Public Safety Campus will support Downtown’s role as a regional center and add to Downtown employment and patronage. It will be a catalyst for connecting new neighborhood developments on the southeast side of Downtown to the Downtown core. An estimated $30 million of public investment in the Education and Public Safety Campus should leverage as much as $50 million of private sector investment to create hundreds of new jobs to serve the larger student market for housing, retail, and services.
Financial District and Government Center
The Financial District and Government Center will continue to anchor the employment and tax base for Downtown, provide markets for emerging retail and service venues, and be the favored site for regional special events such as Thursday at the Square, the summer free concert series produced by Buffalo Place Inc. New public investments like the planned new Federal Court and the recently completed Family Court are also adding jobs to the core. A carefully rationalized system of parking and transit options and aggressive tenant retention programs will help assure we retain the existing base of office employees Downtown. A strategy to convert suitable class B and C office and light industrial buildings to residential use, or upgrade to class A status, will reduce vacancy rates and add twenty-four hour life to the central business district.
Theatre District
The Theatre District will continue to be the major regional venue for live theatre and mutually reinforce the entertainment district emerging on Chippewa, Pearl and Franklin Streets. After many investments over the last twenty-five years, the core of the Theatre District on Main Street is largely built out. Continued investments on Pearl, Franklin, Delaware, and Elmwood north of Chippewa should focus on reducing the large percentage of surface parking lots in favor of mixed-use commercial and residential development with parking integral to the new structures.
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and life sciences facilities, including the new Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and the Hauptman-Woodward Research Center will significantly reinforce the Fruit Belt and Home Ownership Zone neighborhoods even as it strengthens Main Street, Allentown, and Downtown. Well over $250 million were invested in campus facilities over the past decade. A like amount will be invested in the near term for research and development facilities, and may yield as many as three thousand new well-paying jobs in the area.
