Stumbled across a link to the official website of the Buffalo City Tower over on the skyscraperpage.com forums.

Fantastic website. Especially for something that in all likely-hood will not get built.

Looking at new images, they spruced up the design of the building and added a big pole to the top for accent. It looks great. The descriptions of the inside suggest it would be quite the classy experience whether you lived, worked, or visited in that building.

I do believe there is a legitimate market for this tower but after seeing how the Statler Renovation has unfolded in regards to the pace of work and the severe union issues-I would be genuinely shocked if this actually got built.

The building design won an honorable mention for best designed buildings not built. Lolz.

Its my first day back in Buffalo and I’m greeted with the news that Bashar Issa will in all likely hood not build the City Tower due to his construction workers becoming unionized. Newell who apparently is Bashar’s appointed and/or self-appointed hype-man makes this out to be a situation in which unions are holding back Buffalo and poor Bashar, losing lots of money in court to try to sway the pendulum his way-money that could have been spent on his skyscraper.

I’d have to disagree. I saw a bunch of the construction workers hanging outside the Statler a month ago and for the 1st time in my life I thought to myself…”Are these people SERIOUSLY working construction?!?!” Kids my age, younger than me, people who look like they have no clue what they are doing…I was even thinking of working for them after seeing such a sight. He came into town saying promoting the fact that the BSC Group has their own construction company-making it easier to get projects done when it fact it meant he has lots of really cheap, unskilled workers.

If unions are the real reason Bashar can’t do the City Tower then he is clearly a liar in regard to his personal wealth.

And as I’ve said in previous posts-the BSC Group moves as slow as molasses to do any of their proposed projects with only a few being completed in Manchester as of today.

So finish the Statler and accept the fact that in Buffalo, construction workers are unionized-and usually for a reason. If you can accept that, build the City Tower. If not-go back to Manchester and don’t come back.

Hooray for adding some more infamous people/projects to the post-modern history of downtown Buffalo.

Welcome back indeed.

Channel 2 interviewed Bashar Issa and got a sneak peak at the Statler.

I think for any typical person in Buffalo who doesn’t follow development closely or read blogs-this video makes it official that the Stater REALLY is being renovated and REALLY will be brought back to glory.

He was asked about City Tower..

If completed, it would be Buffalo’s tallest building: forty stories of retail and office space.

“On a scale from one to ten with ten being, for sure this is going to happen, we’re going to pour the foundation, to one being no way, where are you on this project,” Boose asked.

“A six,” Issa replied.

Issa says talks are in the works for an anchor tenant. The price tag for the skyscraper; $400 million! Add that to the $100 million to redo the Statler.

He didn’t say 9 or 10 which makes me think he really is being honest about this project. If we wasn’t serious he wouldn’t have purchased the lot and bothered with a 3-D video of the building and a masterplan for the area around it.

Although we are well behind Pittsburgh and Cleveland when it comes to having healthy and vibrant downtowns (yes I said well behind Pittsburgh and Cleveland) we’re getting there. With the City Tower-the potential of our downtown will be well known.

Listening to Bashar Issa makes my heart melt inside. I keep telling myself not to believe what he says because honestly, its like a dream came true-an outside developer comes here to
1. renovate an iconic downtown building
2. build the city’s tallest skyscraper
3. put more than enough thought into urban design and a careful respect for its surroundings

Now that the elevators in the Statler are being fixed and he is having a suite built inside for his own use whenever he’s in town leads me to believe the Statler project is for real but I refuse to let myself embrace the thought of having a real, new, and very tall skyscraper.

He talks the talk and in Manchester he kind of delivers…but delivers verrrrry slowwwwwly. But that can work easily here. Everything in Buffalo is slow, thats not a compliment at all but at least when we wait for the City Tower we can just remind ourselves of the wait for Bass Pro and it won’t seem so bad.

Slowly (very slowly)but surely, Issa’s “City Tower” is getting closer to becoming a reality. The planning board is looking at it and of course, someone on the board actually objected to it…saying it was too big. Nice.
If Issa can pull off 40 then goshdarnit, let him pull off 40. I’m a bit impatient though and would like to see beams in the ground by 2010. So I wouldn’t mind seeing it go down to 35 or 36…but this building is more important than just its function. It’s a statement about our city…by being the tallest it says that it’s the dawn of a new era for the city and that the past will not continue to tie us down. Buffalo is notorious for settling for less though, still…anything over 30 stories in Buffalo is huge.

Correction: Anything over 5 stories is huge in Buffalo.

There it is! Looks like a transparent HSBC Tower from that angle to be honest with you.
But anyways, its 40 stories, becoming the tallest in Buffalo, with a mix of office, hotel, and condos. Issa apparently will start construction when 40% of the office space is filled.
There are two things that could happen as a result of this building
1. The building draws new tennants from outside of downtown…reaching NYC and Toronto companies…therefore adding new jobs to the area.
2. It completley kills the market for office space in Buffalo, leaving those pesky surface lots to remain for a generation to come

I like the building up close, its materials and initial floors remind me of the new World Bank building in Washington DC.

But in a way it looks like a cross between the Bank of America building that is being built in NYC, and the Erastus Corning Tower in Albany

Reflects the courhouse perfectly though.

This building represents the future of Buffalo…if it gets built, and succeeds, then the psyche of Buffalo can really start to change for the better

If it doesn’t get built then it’s a statement that nothing has changed in Buffalo and we’re doomed to our fate like we always have been.

Issa…don’t fuck up. This is huge. Like…4 super bowl losses-no goal-adelphia communications tower-crawdaddy tower-new peace bridge-UB downtown campus huge.

*Photos from BuffaloRising…always go to them for new development news before me.