The urban planning gamble of bringing a downtown supermarket into the central business district will officially end later next week when the Braymiller Market closes its doors for the last time.
The root of the closure?
Owner Stuart Green says the three-year-old market, at 201 Ellicott Street, will close after suffering from pandemic-driven losses.
“We certainly didn’t intend to have this result,” Green said. “A lot of people have poured a lot into this, and we take no joy in any of this, it’s a horrible situation.”
Green says his initial business plan was based on the growth of office workers and apartment dwellers downtown. But the business climate changed. Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon agrees
“I don’t think there are too many lessons to be learned, I think it was a worldwide pandemic and market conditions that led to the closure here,” Scanlon said.
Downtown has 30,000 fewer daily workers than it did five years ago, and some planned residential-anchored projects remain stalled or delayed. Taken together, Scanlon believes the market's business plan was thrown into flux.
“30,000 fewer people in Downtown Buffalo, people working remotely, but what we're trying to do at City Hall is lead by example. We’re bringing people back into City Hall and making sure everyone is working there every day, and we want our private sector partners to do the same.” Scanlon said.
In light of the market’s closing, the city will forgive a $561,000 loan made to Braymiller's last year and the building may be used to house a city agency.
As for Green, there have been a lot of sleepless nights.
“Well, it’s just horrible, I mean I've got all these employees that I have to displace and customers I have to displace, and vendors, farmers, and suppliers…” Green said.
Meanwhile, Braymiller's Hamburg location remains open and is not impacted by the downtown closing.