Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Flanked by his development team in Buffalo City Hall Tuesday, Mayor Byron Brown pointed toward a milestone in $9 billion in investment in Buffalo communities since 2012.
"Buffalo remains a good place for development," Brown declared as he rattled off a progress report on a number of key projects across all sections of the city.
In 2022 alone, Brown said, 126 new development projects were approved by the Planning Board or permitted and include 492 affordable housing units and 519 new market rate units.
Among the infrastructure improvements highlighted by the mayor's team is a $25.65 million streetscape project for the entire stretch of Jefferson Avenue. The improvements are currently in the design phase.
Among some of the major development projects discussed during the extensive briefing Tuesday was the redevelopment of the Broadway Barns which sits just east of the Michigan Avenue corridor and has been home to the city's Department of Public Works operations for decades. A designated developer for the project to redevelop the building should be known by the end of this year.
The development of the expansive DL&W terminal along the Buffalo River adjacent to Key Bank Center is a focal project and will require more discussions before a meaningful update is given. "We will have much more detail on that very soon," said Brendan Mehaffy, Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Planning. Mehaffy says it's a complicated project that involves, "Canalside land next door, Marine Drive, the parking lots that are owned by the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency that are next to the Erie Basin Village and then all the way down to Centennial Park."
The demolition and reconstruction of the Marine Drive affordable housing project was announced just earlier this month and the initial planning for that extensive project is unfolding as soon as this week with public planning meetings.
Marine Drive consists of seven towers and 616 housing units, said Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority Executive Director Gillian Brown. "We are in the process now of designing, with the residents, a vision of what it could look like," Brown said. "The waterfront should be a place where anyone has the right to live," Brown said. "This footprint really needs to be preserved for affordable and public housing."
View a complete update on all the key development projects in 2022 at this link.
Related
