National Grid is putting millions of dollars into a city program to renovate old buildings for new uses.
The cash from National Grid was announced during a news conference yesterday in the Genesee Gateway complex of mostly rehabbed-buildings.
Office space in the complex is gradually filling up and work on apartments is starting, more living space in a Downtown which seems able to absorb more and more residents.
Mayor Brown says the 1,000 housing units opened in very recent years are making Downtown the fastest growing neighborhood in the city.
Over the next three years, National Grid will put nearly $four million into helping finance renovations of buildings and the city will spend more than $11 million to fix up communities around the rehabbed buildings, like Genesee Street near Genesee Gateway.
"Government will make the investments that it is supposed to make as part of this partnership," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
"The public sector investment will be done in a way to stimulate and speed up private sector investment that we are seeing more and more of in downtown Buffalo.Real energy. Real buzz. Real excitement."
Often the city improvements are quality of life projects, like trees, park benches and bicycle racks as well as streets and sidewalks.
