Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - In the years since COVID-19 changed the landscape of how businesses operate with their workforce, Downtown Buffalo has seen decline in vibrancy and viability with more people working from home, leaving office spaces vacant and empty.
However, the City of Buffalo got a jolt of good news on Monday with Ingram Micro announcing a move of its operations from its offices on Wehrle Drive in Williamsville to the Genesee Towers, the former Highmark building downtown, at 257 West Genesee Street.
About 1,300 employees will take occupancy in the entire six-story North building, which is about 160,000 square feet of space. Ingram Micro expects to start moving in to the building in July, and complete its move-in by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, 255,000 square feet of space is still available in the eight-story South tower of the Genesee Towers.
The building has been complete unoccupied since August 2024 when Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York completed its move to Seneca One Tower.
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Local real estate experts were pleasantly surprised by the move of a company like Ingram Micro to Downtown Buffalo, especially to a space like the Genesee Towers.
"It is certainly a significant move for them to move downtown," said Bill Heussler from Hanna Commercial Real Estate. "And great to see that building, which was empty, to, at least, start filling it up. ... I think it's a great move for Downtown Buffalo."
Peter Hunt from Hunt Real Estate knows how big of a get this is for Downtown Buffalo.
"To have that number of employees moving in-and-around the central part of our city is a good thing," said Hunt in an interview with WBEN. "We need the vitality. We need people moving around, using the amenities of the city. That could only help us in the city itself. No question about it, it's a good thing."
Heussler agrees that the City of Buffalo needs more vibrancy, especially downtown.
"It is still a little bit on the outskirts of the central business district, but I think it will help bring people downtown," Heussler said with WBEN. "Two significant things, though: Are people going to be moving downtown? Will this spur some more activity for employees to move downtown, which will create vibrancy? And also, what will happen to their other building out in Williamsville now? It's interesting to see what happens there."
Both Heussler and Hunt agree that this kind of acquisition for Downtown Buffalo may trigger a positive wave of companies similar to Ingram Micro looking to take shop in the city and fill up some of that unoccupied office space still available.
"I think energy begets energy, and this is a sign of energy that will create vendors that will be needed to make the space the way they want it," Hunt said. "There will be equipment and things that they'll be buying. There will be people coming and going in-and-out of the building to get the building ready. There will be, obviously, the employees themselves using the space. There will be a spin-off effect for the other businesses around there, and also right into downtown itself. So I think there's all kinds of positives when these kinds of things happen."
Heussler feels this type of move will help get the central business district and other areas downtown like the Waterfront cruising again, allowing for businesses to thrive once more during the lunch and dinner hours.
However, Heussler feels the true test with a move like this will be who else from outside Western New York will look to follow in Ingram Micro's footsteps.
"I think what we really need is to find some outsiders, people not from Buffalo locating in these size buildings. That would be a really huge win for Buffalo, if we can get an outside firm to join us," Heussler noted.
So what more can, or needs to be done to help attract more businesses like Ingram Micro back to the City of Buffalo, and more specifically downtown?
Heussler says it's about continuing to make Buffalo a place to live, work and play.
"Right now, we have a lot of work going on there. More living is going on, but it's awfully quiet in the restaurant business. So if we can pull all that together, have demand for supermarkets, then I think we've really got something. This will certainly help that mission," he said.
As for Hunt, it may come down to when, and if more businesses are going to return to the more traditional concept of going to an office or a place of work, and the impact that has on the surrounding businesses.
"The employers, themselves, would like to see people back in the offices, working together, rebuilding their culture that, to a large extent, has been diminished because of the COVID effect," Hunt said. "And also there's the whole concept of how people, young people in particular, move up in a business if they're not being seen, if they're not interacting with other people in the business. How is somebody really going to know what somebody's capable of if they never see them?"
Hunt feels that once both the employee base itself and the employer understand the connection between being in a space together and the culture of that organization, that's when we start to see more of a workforce coming back. He recognizes, though, it's going to be a long haul.
"People have gotten used to being at home, they've gotten used to working in an isolated environment. I don't think that's particularly healthy," Hunt said. "I think there's a bunch of side effects in our culture that we're starting to see. For example, we're not getting any slimmer as a society. I don't think we're getting any healthier as a society, and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we're not moving around. We're not getting up, getting ready, going to the office, interacting with our coworkers, returning home, and interacting with our families. There's a whole aspect of society that's been lost, and I hope we can regain that through emphasis on the part of employers and on employees, on the value of being together."
Hunt also notes on the move of Ingram Micro, the same landlord owns both the Genesee Towers and the building on Wehrle Drive where the business is currently located.
"We're losing a tenant in Amherst and we're gaining a tenant in downtown, but there's no net gain here for the community," Hunt explained. "It's just a matter of where those people are going to be going to work, and under what conditions, and what the spin-off effect is going to be. So I think we need to recognize that it's kind of a zero sum gain for our community right now."