Construction along the inner harbor will begin in one month. The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation voted Monday to start phase one of the building project.
Canals, bridges and towpaths are part of the first phase of the project and will be built where the former Memorial Auditorium once stood.
The master plan has yet to be finalized. It could include a proposed public food market, a center to teach visitors about Buffalo and a Children's Experience Museum.
Harbor development president Thomas Dee said he believes the plans will bring tourists into Buffalo.
"We'll have pockets of areas that will be filled with culturals, filled with events, filled with performers and just give the people of Buffalo something to do which is what everybody is crying for," said Dee.
Western New York Congressman Brian Higgins said he believes this entire project will ignite private sector investment in city.
" This is a very, very big deal. This is a big project that is started. It will continue, it will require more funding moving forward and we anticipate that some of that Billion dollars that the Governor had announced for Western New York will be coming to Canalside," said Higgins.
The project is expected to cost 23-million dollars and will include a refrigeration system to be built inside the canal. It will freeze the canal for ice skating in the winter.