The John W. Danforth Company is buying a parcel of land in Buffalo's RiverBend section with the intent to build a new 50,000 square foot operations hub on the site.
The parcel is located at 1176 South Park Avenue, with its north end along the Buffalo River and its south side located across the street from the massive SolarCity facility now under construction. It's only existing next-door neighbor at this time is the British food maker and retailer English Pork Pie Company.
More than a century old, Danforth is known for heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing systems. Its many local clients include the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and First Niagara Center. The company, which is headquartered in the Town of Tonawanda, also has offices in Rochester and recently expanded into Albany.
"This is an effort for them to come back into the city, and also help them create a hub to help them with all the work they're doing in the city," said Tim Vaeth, founder of development company JT Vaeth LLC and Danforth's point man for the project.
The company's headquarters will remain in Tonawanda.
The new center, when finished, is expected to create up to 175 new jobs over the next two years. Vaeth said the hope is to have the center under construction by late summer and a building open by next spring, but that would depend on the first phase, inspecting the ground for what they anticipate will require some brownfield cleanup.
Vaeth pointed out that the company's president since 2011, Patrick Reilly, envisioned making Danforth a part of Buffalo's economic renaissance. Reilly passed away in late May after a brief illness. Vaeth says some form of memorial to Reilly will be set up on the grounds of the company's new operations hub when finished.
