By Maris Lambie
Bengal News West Reporter
For decades
the gritty, urban environment of Niagara Street has been the home of multiple old, run
down, abandoned buildings with little to look at. The small businesses that are
there are spread out, and the busy traffic makes pedestrian travel a bit
difficult.
However
things in the area are beginning to change as the revitalization of the street
continues.
Along with
reconstruction of the street, investors hope to revitalize the area by
renovating abandoned buildings into mixed-use projects featuring commercial
space and high-end apartments.
There are
several buildings being renovated as mix use projects in the neighborhood
including 1469 Niagara St., 1502 Niagara St and 960 Busti Ave. These three
buildings are all slated for completion this year.
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| Construction worker Dennis McCarthy at 960 Busti Ave. |
Niagara
Street has been considered a gateway to the Buffalo area for quite some time,
connecting traffic coming from the Interstate 90 to downtown and acting as a
gateway between the U.S. and Canadian borders.
Major efforts to renovate the area began in
2014 when the $16.3 million Niagara Street Gateway Construction Project first
began with the help of local government, the NFTA, neighborhood groups and
local businesses and residents.
“The city
is embarking on a whole new reconstruction of Niagara Street. We’re going to
see traffic-calming, it’s going to be more pedestrian friendly. There’s going
to be green infrastructure as part of the design to help control run offs so
that waste water doesn’t end up in the river,” Barbara Rowe, president of
Vision Niagara said.
Vision
Niagara is an organization of stakeholders, consisting of Niagara Street residents,
businesses, investors and organizations working to improve the quality of the
area by creating a mixed use environment.
“People are looking for opportunity,” said
Ellicott Development CEO Bill Paladino. There were plenty of opportunities here with
the old buildings, and these opportunities are scarce in the city.”
Paladino said
historic tax credits can be a driving force toward renovating the city’s old
buildings.
The building at 960 Busti Ave. had been vacant
for nearly 20 years until Ellicott Development purchased the building in 2008. Construction
on the building had begun in fall 2015 and is slated for completion in June
2016. Preleasing for the apartments has started.
While one
of the original ideas considered was to renovate the building into just
apartments, adding commercial space made the cost of the project a bit cheaper.
“Mixed-use
projects were a better alternative,” Paladino said.
The
first two floors of the renovated building will feature commercial space while
the other floors will consist of 18 higher end apartments, priced higher than
the typical market rate due to the apartment’s high quality features. Ellicott
Development is hoping to fill the commercial space with restaurants.
“These
apartments are being completed at a high level of quality,” Tom Fox,
development director of Ellicott Development said.”These apartments have
imported quartz tile counter tops, designer plumbing fixtures, spacious storage
areas, basement parking, and 24-hour security surveillance. It’s a very unique
space.”
The
finished apartments will also have views of the Peace Bridge, the Niagara River
and Canada, as well as a patio rooftop.
“It’s
comparable to what is being done in other areas, although our prices are a little
lower than some of them,” Paladino said. “It can be affordable and we hope that
entices people to come.”
Those
investing in apartments and other renovations on Niagara Street believe that
the new mix use spaces will bring a positive change to the neighborhood by
encouraging more businesses to open up.
“It will definitely help drive more
services. When people live here they
will be looking for places to get a bite to eat, to pick up a cup of coffee, to
buy groceries. We’ll see more of that in the area. It will make it a more fun
and attractive place to live,” Rowe said, “I don’t know if it will ever be like
the Elmwood village, which is kind of cute, this will always be urban, but I
think we’ll see a lot more foot traffic out here and less of the speedway that
we have now.”
