Brian Higgins of Shea’s Buffalo makes a point during Tuesday’s event. Photo by Joshua Thermidor.

Downtown Buffalo’s big problem — including its Theatre District — is evident: It needs more people.

Leaders of the 600 block of Main Street — home to Shea’s Performing Arts Center, the Town Ballroom and more — say they’re doing their share by hosting events on as many days as they can. 

But they’re up against a hard reality: Post pandemic, 20,000 fewer people work downtown on a daily basis, largely the result of remote work instituted during the outbreak of Covid-19. That’s had a ripple effect throughout downtown that’s led to businesses struggling or closing. 

The question is how to get thousands of people back downtown. It’s something those who operate Main Street music venues, theaters and restaurants are thinking a lot about.

“A lot of what we do is not only about what happens in our venues, but what happens outside of the venues. Toward what goal? To increase pedestrian density, whether you live here or you visit here,” said Brian Higgins, the former congressman and current president and CEO of Shea’s. 

Higgins’s comments came Tuesday evening during The State of the Theater District, a forum sponsored by Investigative Post at Shea’s Smith Theatre. The panel discussion, moderated by Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney, aimed to advance a public conversation with key stakeholders and interested members of the public focused on how to revitalize the Theatre District.  

In addition to Higgins, speakers included:

• Donny Kutzbach, co-owner of Town Ballroom.
• Kristin Bentley, executive director of Second Generation Theatre.
• Randy Kramer, founder and executive director of MusicalFare theatre.
• John Cimperman, owner of 42 North Brewing.

One solution, according to Cimperman: better branding.

“We have a branding problem downtown,” he said. “The perception is, if there’s not a show, if there’s not a concert, there’s nothing to do. That’s what we have to change.”

The area needs to be marketed as both an entertainment and theater district, he said.

Another solution: more housing.

One prominent developer pinned the need at 10,000 new units. Panelists agreed that more residents downtown would be a big boost. Kutzbach said that’s the best way to make downtown a 24/7 destination that could attract visitors to the Theatre District beyond just nights and weekends.

“I think the only thing that’s really going to change that is having residential downtown, having more people actually living close enough where they can walk here,” he said. “When there are people here, they’re going to want things to do.”

Steven Carmina, president and CEO of Carmina Wood Design and the chairman of the downtown group Buffalo Place, agreed that “residential will help.”

But, he added: “10,000 units? In my dreams. That would be great. I’m 70 years old. I’m not sure it’ll happen in my lifetime,” he said. “But if we get 100, 200, 300? That’s the important step.”

What City Hall can do

Kutzbach, of Town Ballroom, said City Hall moves too slowly when it comes to downtown. That includes master plans, infrastructure projects, rehabilitation of city-owned properties and letting buildings sit vacant for decades. 

“Under the weight of that lack of speed, you see things kind of wither,” Kutzbach said. “I think our biggest threat is apathy. I think if we don’t see more action or if we continue to see inaction, especially coming from the powers that be … that’s going to be the biggest threat.”

Higgins said the city has lacked vision and leadership for years.

“I learned a lesson a long time ago, and that is: Buffalo doesn’t have a problem getting the big projects finished. Buffalo has a big problem getting the big projects started,” he said. “When they start, they finish. And it just requires leadership, you know?”

Panelists, along with the audience, expressed optimism that Mayor Sean Ryan’s administration will provide vision and bureaucratic support — and possibly assist with funding — to help launch projects. With a strong vision comes public support, Higgins said.

“That’s how it works,” he said. “I think that it’s going to happen when people see the construction activity, when they see additional people on the streets.”

More than 100 people attended Tuesday’s event at Shea’s Smith Theatre. Photo by Joshua Thermidor.

Higgins added that pots of state money exist for downtown revitalization projects that Buffalo has failed to tap into. He said he met recently with a deputy commissioner of the state’s Homes and Community Renewal office about securing state funding to build four stories of residential units on top of Shea’s Smith Theatre. The official, Higgins said, noted the agency is spending a lot of money in Rochester and Syracuse, but not Buffalo.

“There is more state money today than there ever has been,” Higgins said. “You have vacancy, you have a demand, you have a need.”

“Now think about it. Let’s say you put 150 people here, and you put another 60, 70 people across the street. You know what they are in the end? They’re consumers creating demand for the shops that we don’t see here.”

City Hall may also be able to assist in the construction of affordable housing, not just market-rate units, speakers said. Bentley, of Second Generation Theater, said that while new housing could help downtown, she worries developers would build high-rent units instead of more affordable apartments.

“There are a lot of developers who develop these buildings and the apartments that they’re creating are for the doctors and the lawyers, not for the young creatives or the people that maybe do want to see all of what [an] entertainment district would have to offer,” she said.

Audience member Sonia Clark, a producer of street theater performances, agreed and said the city should take on a role of supporting artists. Perhaps the city, she said, could sponsor housing for artists or include them temporarily in health insurance plans.

“A lot of us independent artists are really good about procuring funding for our individual projects,” she said. “What we’re not good about, is [finding funds for] rent and health insurance.”

Adjusting attitudes and perceptions

Higgins said revitalization efforts require optimism. He noted the city’s “inferiority complex” when he was elected to Congress in 2005.

“It believed that its fate was determined by external forces over which it had no control,” he said.

He said winning $300 million from the New York Power Authority to redevelop the waterfront provided a win that gave residents some hope. 

“Whether you’re trying to develop a waterfront or trying to develop a Theatre District, the same mentality applies. If you have no confidence, you retreat into yourself, you become bitter, and bitch about everything, nothing’s going to happen,” he said.

“If you stand up, and you’re willing to challenge the limits of what is possible, the limits are endless.”

Such an attitude change could spark new events and new reasons for people to come downtown, panelists said. And that could draw in the suburbanites, said Kramer, of MusicalFare, which operates out of 710 Main St., the former Studio Arena theater.

“People aren’t scared to come downtown if you give them a reason for being here. They can’t get [this] experience in the ‘burbs,’ he said. “When it comes to the Theatre District, we just have to figure out what those kinds of events are.”

Kristin Bentley of Second Generation Theater. Photo by Joshua Thermidor.

Panelists said the Theatre District is working on small-scale projects — like lighting walkways between parking lots and Main Street — to attract more people to downtown.

But once motorists come into the city, panelists said, they run into another problem: expensive parking.

“The parking experience downtown is very challenging,” Bentley said.

She said parking lot owners don’t have “skin in the game” and don’t pay taxes to the extent neighboring businesses do.

“The opportunity is to continue to band together and put pressure on the areas where we can come up with creative solutions,” she said. “But the threat is, I think, a lot of the individuals who own some of these lots have no stake in the game to do anything about that.”