Cherish The Past, Adorn The Present, Construct For The Future
That’s the motto of new Buffalo hero, Bashar Issa, who is scheduled to unveil a major addition to the Buffalo skyline tomorrow morning at a press conference.
The downtown Buffalo landscape could see a dramatic change with the new owner of the Statler Towers proposing to construct a 48-story mixed-use tower along Elmwood Avenue.
Plans for the $361 million, privately-financed project are expected to be announced at a news conference, set for Wednesday morning. The tower will be the tallest in downtown both in terms of number of floors and square footage — potentially 1.3 million square feet.
48 stories? Privately financed? Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming!
For those of you not familiar with Issa, he has a track record of success in rehabilitating existing structures as well as building modern office/residential towers in Manchester and London in the UK.
BSC Group has a portfolio of over $400MM in mixed use and residential developments. They have the money and skillset necessary to make this project work.
The new tower will be a mixed use project that will feature 600,000 feet of sorely needed Class A office space and 700,000 square feet of hotel rooms and upscale condominiums. The building is already 17% leased and construction will begin once 40% of the building is leased to prospective tenants.
Who might those prospective tenants be?
George Hamberger, a broker with RealtyUSA Commercial Real Estate and Issa’s local real estate specialist, said he has tentative contracts for 100,000-square-feet of the proposed 600,000-square-feet of office space.
Hamberger said he will be reaching out to non-local firms to help fill the building’s tenant roster.
“Our focus is on new jobs and new tenants for Buffalo and not stealing tenants from other (downtown) buildings,” he said.
No, seriously…pinch me. WNYMedia will try and be at the press conference tomorrow to get audio, video, and stills of the event. Unfortunately, most of our “employees” have jobs…hopefully one of us will make it down there to cover the unveiling.
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Whoever makes it down there, repeatedly mumble and/or subtlecough the phrase “Central Terminal” over and over.
Once again, the unemployed hippies at BuffaloRising beat you to the punch:
http://www.buffalorising.com/city/archives/2006/10/buffalo_city_tower_1.php#more
You guys are getting your asses handed to you as of late. Maybe it would help you get story leads if you wrote uncritical reviews of restaurants, businesses, and generally throated the hog of elected officials in the city. Until then, everyone will call Newell and his band of pollyannas first.
Hope this helps.
Love,
Salesman
Unemployed hippies? lol
What do you “sell”, btw? Shoes at payless?
I sell financial services to private banking customers at a major financial institution.
Yes, you guys are unemployed hippies. I’ve seen you all hanging out at Cafe 59 and around the Elmwood strip during the workday. What do you do for a living besides writing posts for a bankrupt local blog?
Ahh, financial services. Do you do those infomercials where they show you how to make millions from the comfort of your own home?
For some reason, I’ve got my Irish up today.
There is a big difference between the realism displayed on the pages of wnymedia as opposed to buffalo rising. I think it has a lot to do with the overall educational and professional level of the writers here. Pundit, Geek, and Hodgepodge are all highly educated and accomplished professionals and homeowners.
Whereas the guys at buffalo rising (aside from Figmo) are hipsters with useless degrees in english, urban planning, sociology, and other liberal arts. I’d also be willing to go out on a limb and guess that maybe one or two of you actually own homes in the area. Owning a home, paying taxes, and raising a family gives one a very different perspective than hanging out in coffee shops, going to Soundlab, riding european scooters, and renting a flat in Elmwood Village.
Being fully invested as a taxpayer in the area gives one the ability to recognize the real problems rather than thinking Christmas Tree lightpoles on Main Street will make fuckall difference in our moribound downtown retail district. It’s the taxes, the politicians, and an intransient state government that heaps enormous mounds of unfunded mandates upon the region. It has nothing to do with restaurants and hipster bullshit.
When you grow up, get a real job, and own a home, you’ll probably figure that out.
Paul, I sell estate and tax planning services to rich people.
And perhaps you should ease up on the caffeine.
The views of BuffaloSalesman do not represent those of WNYMedia.net, BuffaloGeek.com, or anyone else.
Thank you for reading.
“Yes, you guys are unemployed hippies. I’ve seen you all hanging out at Cafe 59 and around the Elmwood strip during the workday.”
Sheeesh- In my dreams!
How can he sell estate planning to the rich if he’s out spying on the hippies at Cafe 59?
I do go to lunch every day and I regularly go to Colter Bay, Cafe 59, Quaker Bonnet, and other establishments in the downtown/allentown area.
wcp, I guess you’re the guy who lives out of town?