In the short term, the vacant Braymiller building will serve as the temporary home for Buffalo’s B District police station. The current station located on Main Street and Tupper Street needs a series of upgrades that by all accounts are long overdue.
Braymiller owner Stuart Green agreed to “lease” the market building to Buffalo for $1 while Green tries to find either a new owner or tenant.
However, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon says he would love to see another supermarket move into the building. In fact, he remains optimistic it could happen.
“I don’t think it’s just in Urban planning where maybe the first time is a swing and a miss, we’re going to go back to the drawing board and try and make it work,” Scanlon said. “You’re talking about other things that have taken place in the City of Buffalo where maybe the first try didn’t work and you have to go back and adjust parameters, whatever it might be to make sure it’s more successful, and we’ll continue to do that, as long as I’m Mayor I’ll continue to do that to make sure we have healthy food options and a grocery store in downtown Buffalo.”
Downtown leaders say the notion of bringing a supermarket into downtown is not all that far-fetched. The reasons why the Braymiller urban planning gamble didn’t pay off were rooted more in the COVID-19 pandemic fallout than anything else. Some of those conditions such as fewer downtown workers and stalled residential-anchored projects are changing.
So, hope runs deep, according to Scanlon
“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do as a municipality to make it work,” Scanlon said.
Efforts to revive the downtown market concept remain a top economic priority. It’s not over, officials say.
