Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Despite the worksite being inactive in Downtown Buffalo for more than a year, the lead developer for the Heritage Point project at Canalside is adamant that progress on site will soon continue, and the project will eventually be completed.
"We'll get Heritage Point done," said Nick Sinatra, founder and CEO of Sinatra & Company Real Estate.
Sinatra says his company has a proud track record of success with projects across the region for 15 years. He expressed his frustration over the project in an exchange with reporters on Wednesday when asked about progress.
"There's not any work going on there right now, and there hasn't been in a while," Sinatra said.
"We're going to finish the project."
Sinatra says construction on the project will remobilize this summer, but did not go into any detail on an exact timeline of when crews will continue work in the South Aud Block.
Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski says he'll take Sinatra for his word, and trust that construction at Heritage Point will resume at some point this summer.
"Heritage Point is an incredibly important turning point for Canalside. It's a large scale development that'll bring more residential density to Canalside, but it ultimately plays to the socioeconomic diversity that we need down at Canalside in order for it to thrive," said Nowakowski in an interview with WBEN.
"They want to live on our waterfront, and we know that if we're going to have a successful downtown and waterfront and urban core, we need to have a strong residential component," Nowakowski said. "The State of New York knew that seven years ago, and has provided the developer resources and time to be able to get this up and going."
While the project remains inactive, for now, Nowakowski wants to stay confident for taking Sinatra for his word after negotiations that happened between his company and the state to be able to provide a $4 million loan in order to secure other funding to close the project.
"We need to get this done together," Nowakowski said.
Meanwhile, New York State, the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC) and Sinatra & Company have a written agreement that if the developer does not meet certain benchmarks, the structure and the project can then revert back to the state for them to then find a new developer.
While Nowakowski understands the frustrations with this project remaining at a standstill, he knows pulling a developer out of a project will only delay it even further.
"That breakup would just delay this construction timeline longer, and then ultimately, what other developer would we find that will want to take a project that's half done?" he said. "We really need to stick behind this developer to get this done, and just make sure that we're holding everyone accountable, that if the timeline is the end of June, into July, that it is, because I think this is the last hurdle before others have to come back to the table and figure out who can get this project done."
Progress for the project shut down back in March of 2024 due to a lack of resources and unanticipated expenses that made the project more costly. The original target date for substantial completion of each tower for the project was the summer of 2024.
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