As expected, this happened…

Craig at Northcoast sums it up perfectly…

This “suburbanization” thing is a complete myth. Every building is going to be built right up to the sidewalk. EVERY SINGLE ONE. The parking garages (at least one of them) is going to have 1st floor retail. From what I’ve heard, the Aud Parking Ramp could have a residential component.

When you look at the Canal Side plan, and the entire waterfront, Bass Pro doesn’t dominate the waterfront at all. It’s what we call “an anchor”. A big retailer that attracts smaller retailers around it. Without an anchor, smaller stores simply won’t come to the Inner Harbor and take the risk, it has to be a shopping destination to work. Not a park with some little mom and pop shops.

The cobblestone streets will still be there, the sidewalks will still be there, urban design and a respect for the architecture of the time it is recreating will be respected in accordance with the Canal Side plan.

I won’t yell at preservationists as a whole because its people like them who are the only reason today why we still have the Guaranty Building, Shea’s, and the emerging commercial slip and 1800’s ruins at the Inner Harbor.

But this is Elmwood Hotel type stuff right here. A fear of big change. A fear of the mainstream coming into town and adding a certain element of life that we’re just not used to in this city. Perhaps its a self-fulfilling prophecy…of never evolving and maintaining our national reputation of being a boring dump of a city (and yes, most people who actually visit Buffalo feel that way).

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bass Pro get annoyed with the lawsuit and just bailout. Leaving Benderson with a devil of a time to recruit attractive retailers.

The current Canal Side plan is impressive and thorough and could put Baltimore’s watefront to shame…yeah its that good.

We’ll see how this works out, but based on history I don’t see this looking so good for progress on Buffalo’s waterfront but hey…at least we’ll have another really nice greenspace on the waterfront that could maybe have like…people…and like…some local art events and like…maybe a summer concert…

Ah yes, life in the ol’ time capsule we call Buffalo, New York.

This Canal Side presentation makes me innapropriately excited. Ohmygod. I am dying to see this completed in 3-4 years. I think I’d literally freeze and then faint upon seeing this project complete.

w0000000t! Construction has begun on the eternally vacant lot next to Admiral Place. I believe it is just the townhouses being constructed now with the tower being constructed later in the summer.

Good to see development picking up some steam after a bit of a drought.

Bass Pro deal will be OFFICIAL tomorrow. Mayor Brown said “this new plan is more exciting than the one announced three years ago”. Brian Higgins said that it will include an aquarium and a Great Lakes Museum.
The store will have an 1800’s design to reflect the original buildings of the central wharf and will be 4-5 acres. Space around the project for other retail that Benderson is going after as we speak apparently.

More info tomorrow and I haven’t looked forward to photographing a development project downtown this much…ever…except for maybe the Issa tower.

This is the first time I’ve seen the harbor since they put in the pedestrian bridge. Honestly, its beautiful. I love the whole project so much and I can’t wait to see it completed on one of those amazing Buffalo summer evenings…Buffalo is getting the Inner Harbor it deserves.

Newell and crew at BrO have gone the extra mile to turn an idea thrown around on the internets into a more than realistic possibility.
The DL&W was discussed by the common council members as the location for the “Harborfront Market” that is a component of the “Canal Side” plan.
It’s a pretty interesting concept. Obviously the space on the 2nd floor (indoor and outdoor) holds endless possibilities and a market makes sense but there are some issues.
1. Broadway Market. It struggles enough. With downtown as a more pleasant place to be, people who have a choice between the two will choose the new one in a better area.
2. Location. Hidden behind the Arena in an quiet/isolated part of the city…will people notice it? That can be solved easily with the planning of the Canal Side area. Good signange, a metro station at the terminal, and improved landscaping will encourage foot/train/car traffic to it.
3. General demand. What is the demand for a market downtown? I can see it being crowded on weekends in the summer and during the holidays but what about a Tuesday afternoon in January?

I’m not so certain that that location will work unless the Cobblestone District along with the Waterfront and the rest of Downtown attain good density. A new building on the central wharf area like previously discussed by the ECHRC would be more successful at this point in time due to its visibility in a place that people will visit even without a market being there.

That’s my opinion. What do you think?

The 1st stage of Canal Side is getting a bit closer to completion. The pedestrian bridge is coming in piece by piece as are the windows on the new museum.

Looks like Waterfront Village is finally ready to grow as planned before I even knew how to count.



*Thanks to WCP for all the pics

Another one of those infamous BR comment battles is taking place as we speak. Some say the design sucks (I agree), some say that those people should shut their mouth because any development is good development, and a bunch of other remixes of those opinions are thrown in there as well.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you think but it’s obvious that Ellicott Development planned this place in the 80’s and wanted to market itself to people who would perfer to live in Clarence or OP, isolated from society and noise except Clarence and OP don’t have a waterfront.

So it’s good that we get some land to market ourselves to a wealthy clientele that otherwise wouldn’t live near downtown. That’s great. Problem is that as Waterfront Village continues to come through with its vision we will look back one day and say “Wow, our waterfront outside of ‘Canal Side’ is a pain to get to from downtown, has nothing, and is exclusive to its residents.” Right now that isn’t much of a problem because it’s great to see some new development on the waterfront, but if our waterfront/downtown/city ever become a thriving place we will regret the way this place was planned.

And that’s just the planning. The architecture? Not so great. Ellicott Devel. isn’t really known for having awesome looking structures, but they always fit their clients well. It looks like a generic condo tower. Could be a seaside condo in Florida, or just another condo to add to the new cluster of them on Rockville Pike in suburban Maryland. Vernacular architecture is clearly not on the agenda here.

Some say “Well if you don’t like it…don’t live there.” I won’t live there, but everytime I’m downtown, or see pictures of downtown anywhere, this 13 story structure to go along with the Admiral’s Walk tower will be predominant because it’s right on the waterfront…a photographic gateway of sorts to the rest of the city…everytime you watch Channel 4 news-thats the picture you see.

We have some beautiful tall buildings in the CBD, why not on the waterfront too?

It’s not even like these plans are amazing its just that after all these years…something really good is going to happen on the waterfront. This “Canal Side” plan is just perfect.
1. Removal of an ugly office buildng
2. Removal of surface lots (thats multiple)
3. Mixed use buildings
4. Retail downtown
5. Most of it is ALREADY FINANCED !$!$!

I know a lot of the older Buffalonians can easily look at this and be like “Oh its just another waterfront plan. This is Buffalo, things don’t get done.”
But it’s different this time. The money is in place, the developer is in place, every aspect of this plan is thorough. In 2010 we should see a lot less surface lots by the HSBC Arena, a nice new metro station that replaces the current one by the Aud and the “Special Events” one as well, nice retail and residential options all around our historic Inner Harbor.
And the best part about this is that a lot of downtown is growing already…with or without this plan which means that all these pieces of the downtwon puzzle are going to come together to form a place where everyone will want to visit, work, live, hangout, whatever.

The momentum thats occuring is amazing. I know a lot of this Canal Side project is public money but unlike the outer harbor plan, this part of downtown is extremely accessible and already has some good things around it, meaning the private investment shouldn’t be to far behind.

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago but there hasn’t been much visible difference since then…

The first component of the pedestrian bridge is in, the new museum is really taking shape and this whole part of the Inner Harbor will be done in the summer…it’s definitley gonna be a cool place in downtown