Larkin District

Buffalo Pro Soccer Keeps Momentum with Elk St. Stadium Location

Chris Ostrander1 Comment

We know the location that Buffalo’s USL club will call home after Buffalo Pro Soccer announced plans to build a 7,600 seat stadium at Elk and Lee Street. 

The announcement is a major benchmark in the process to bring a premier professional soccer franchise to Buffalo. Buffalo Pro Soccer President Peter Marlette Jr. has been consistent in his plan to launch the team for the 2026 season and finalizing a stadium site was vital if that timeline is to be met. 

This is the second site to be connected to the team, as a preferred site in the Cobblestone District on the HSBC Artium lot owned by Douglas Jemal was previously announced. That site would have required a public investment of about $20 million per reports. Although the downtown site was far and away the best location for the stadium, if the public funding wasn’t going to be available, there isn’t much more to say about shifting away from the Cobblestone site. 

Make no mistake, the downtown site would have been a home run. It says a lot that The Buffalo News reported that the city was encouraging Marlette and the club to look at the site. So it’s unfortunate the stars didn’t align on the public funding to make it work. But the inability to secure public funding leaves that site dead in the water and out of the club’s control. 

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Food Truck Tuesday Needs more Space

Chris Ostrander2 Comments

Food Truck Tuesday is awesome.

Food Truck Tuesday is awesome.

Food Truck Tuesday is awesome.

Food Truck Tuesday really is awesome. It’s one of the coolest things Buffalo has going on in the summertime. However, it’s quickly outgrown the space it occupies in Larkin Square and I wonder what the result will be if something isn’t done to address the layout of the weekly event.

The sole issue at hand is simply that too many people want to be down in Larkinville to enjoy great food and sunny Tuesday evenings in the summer. But the popularity has resulted in massive crowds that not only create massive lines at many trucks but also a sardine-like experience in every other portion of the square. Next summer’s iteration will need to find some sort of plan to help disperse the crowd. Continue reading →

Flying Bison’s move would have been a steal for Canalside

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For as much good is done at Canalside, it always feels like they’re missing out on the big score. Yet another piece of development news broke today regarding a project that should have been tailor made for Canalside.

As Jim Fink reports in Business First, Flying Bison is exploring a move to a new property in Larkinville in an effort to expand their burgeoning business. According to the report, Flying Bison is eyeing a 12,500 square foot building on Seneca Street for their new home. Here’s more from Fink:

Flying Bison plans on moving by March 2014 from its original home on Ontario Street to the new site. Since its 2000 inception, Flying Bison has leased its Ontario Street site and the building’s owner, DiVal Safety Equipment now needs the building for its own expansion needs.

Herzog said Flying Bison had pinpointed a pair of Michigan Avenue buildings, but those deals could not be completed.

The new building will allow Flying Bison to increase its output and also develop an indoor beer garden/tasting room as part of the tours that regularly take place at the brewery.

Sure 12,500 square feet is big. But would a brewery have not been a killer attraction for Canalside? Think of having Flying Bison’s new brewery (and restaurant?) situated on the Northwest corner of the Aud Block overlooking the recreated canals and facing towards the river, Arena and the rest of Canalside. Instead we continue to wait on the faux historically aligned canals to be completed let alone see any sort of significant construction towards attracting additional tenants to the district. Note: One Canalside and HARBORcenter are both tremendous projects that show how vitally important private interest and investment in the area will be. Continuing to miss out on these types of opportunities is the issue at hand. Continue reading →

Is Buffalo seriously this cursed?

Chris Ostrander1 Comment

I was driving through downtown today when I realized; Buffalo has been treading water for the past 10+ years.

There is so much potential for new development and exciting new projects, yet nothing ever gets off the ground. Start in 1997 when the new Peace Bridge was supposed to go up – hope nobody is still holding their breath on that one. Better yet, 2001, Bass Pro signaled that they wanted an anchor store in Buffalo, a short time later they earmarked The Aud as their ideal location. Today, Bass Pro has opened a gazillion (probably more like 10) new stores all over North America. WTF. Continue reading →