$15M PROJECT PLANNED IN NEXT PHASE OF NORTHLAND CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT

Story originally published February 2024 via Buffalo Business First

A workforce training center is just the start of plans to turn Buffalo’s Northland Corridor into a manufacturing hub.

The Buffalo Urban Development Corp. is preparing to begin work on the next phase of the project, which will focus on turning the steel shell of a long-vacant building into a site ready to be leased to commercial and industrial tenants.

“We get calls all the time from potential manufacturers who want to be near the training center, to take advantage of that workforce component,” said Rebecca Gandour, executive vice president at BUDC. “For us, we see there’s this sort of pent-up demand.”

The centerpiece of the corridor at 683 Northland Ave. is pretty much full, occupied by the Northland Workforce Training Center, Buffalo Manufacturing Works and several other tenants. Now BUDC is looking to keep the momentum moving with a $15 million renovation project at 547 E. Delavan Ave.

The manufacturing building at that site was dilapidated beyond repair when BUDC acquired it in 2014, and several years ago the corporation demolished most of the building, leaving only the metal frame.

The plan is to build a 44,000-square-foot building around that shell that could be occupied by commercial and light industrial tenants.

LaBella Associates is designing the project. The work will be funded in part by money earned in the federal Build Back Better grant competition.

BUDC also plans to build a solar farm on the site. The exact capacity has yet to be determined.

“Clean energy is an important focus for the Northland Workforce Training Center,” Gandour said.

This solar farm will feed into a nearby power substation owned by BUDC. It’s intended not for use by BUDC’s commercial and industrial tenants, but for nearby residents, who will be able to sign up for free solar energy — only paying transmission costs.

“They’re starting to see a tangible benefit to the Northland Development to their neighborhoods,” she said.

The substation will be upgraded to handle the new power source. Further updates may be necessary in the future depending on the power needs of future tenants as more buildings come online.

BUDC is also planning to renovate the northern half of 612 Northland Ave. Work on this building started several years ago — the southern half served as the temporary home of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum while the museum’s new space was under construction.

The planned work will complete the building and add about 10,000 square feet of leasable space.

All of this is part of Phase 3 of planned improvements to the Northland Corridor. The first phase was the renovation of 683 Northland Ave. The second was a variety of streetscape improvements and work on 612 Northland Ave.

Work was slowed by the pandemic, but the extra time was used to plan what’s next, Gandour said.

Preliminary planning is underway for Phase 4, which will be the renovation of a warehouse space at 631 Northland Ave.

BUDC owns two other buildings, but plans have yet to be finalized for 741 and 777 Northland Ave. These may be demolished or renovated depending on condition, demand and funding, Gandour said.

That will wrap up major work on the properties BUDC owns, but Gandour hopes it will spur a wave of private development in the neighborhood.

“There’s a tremendous amount of investment and momentum there, but what we’re doing, kind of in the public sector, is we’re trying to promote or kickstart other development in the Northland corridor,” she said.

There’s been a few steps in that direction, such as the 65-unit Mt. Olive Senior Manor senior housing property at 703 E. Delavan Ave. Other residential projects are in the planning stages, Gandour said.

“We are really trying to prime that pump,” she said. “You have that training, you have that innovation, you have those employment centers.”