The redevelopment of a city-owned parking lot into a downtown supermarket and mixed use space is in a potentially lengthy design phase. City of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown seems satisfied with its current progress.
Ciminelli Real Estate – the firm chosen by RFP to develop the site – laid out their vision for a mixed-use property on Thursday evening. The $100 million project will include 200 housing units and a Tops supermarket. Brown said he got an earlier chance to review the proposal, and he is pleased with it.
“I’m sure there will be some modifications as we go forward, but certainly it fits with the vision that I had as Mayor for mixed use, for residential housing, for condos, for retail, for a supermarket coming to that part of downtown Buffalo.”
Brown said the plan also meets the desire to maximize parking, with an 800-car parking facility.
Ciminelli Real Estate executives said the design phase could last anywhere from a period of months up to two years. Brown seems comfortable with that estimate.
“Our hope with economic development projects is for them to be thorough, for there to be significant public input so the public can weigh in and have the developer perfect their plans. But certainly we want to see these projects move as quickly as possible.”
Brown said Ciminelli is an experienced development firm, and the city is confident in their ability to move the project along as swiftly as possible.
As yet undetermined in the plan is whether the redevelopment will include affordable housing for the city’s low-income residents.
Common Council President Darius Pridgen called for the inclusion of affordable housing and, Brown said, with all the development taking place in Buffalo, it would be an important addition that he, too, would like to see.
“Ciminelli Real Estate is a very experienced development firm, and we believe that they will have the know-how, the ability, to include some affordable units in the overall development,” said Brown.
City Spokesman Mike DeGeorge noted on Friday that 201 Ellicott is the second city-owned parking lot to undergo development through an RFP process in recent years. The last site was what became Canalside’s HarborCenter.
