The first phase of redeveloping one Buffalo's most iconic structures is complete. State and local officials helped cut the ribbon Thursday on the Richardson Olmsted Campus.
The 140-year-old former state hospital facility on Forest Avenue, near Elmwood Ave., was designed by architect H.H. Richardson. Empire State Development President and CEO Howard Zemsky says the project fits Albany's strategy of investing in tourism assets.
"If you think about Buffalo and Western New York and the cultural tourism that we drive, the historic tourism, this is a central component of that," Zemsky said.
The Towers Building will open next month as the 88-room Hotel Henry with a restaurant and 500-person event center. Later this year the Buffalo Architectural Center is slated to open. State taxpayers funded about three quarters of the $102 million cost of the project.