Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Two private sector-backed development projects that bookend the former War Memorial Auditorium footprint within downtown's Canalside District could see shovels in the ground and construction underway this spring.
Leaders of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., who oversees the Canalside District, are confidently predicting that construction of the oft-discussed and delayed Heritage Point project by Sinatra & Co. and the Canalside Gateway Building development on the North Aud Block will both be underway by mid-to-late spring.
"These can be a springboard," said Mark Wendel, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. president.
Combined, the two projects represent nearly $250 million in private sector-backed developments and together, they will bring in 315 new apartments within the Canalside footprint.
NIck Sinatra said he expects to close on his financing package that's critical for the $45 million Heritage Point construction to resume. The project, located at Main Street and Marine Drive and adjacent to the Explore & More = The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children's Museum, has been stalled for nearly three years.
Heritage Point will be anchored by 64 apartments.
Wendel said construction on Heritage Point will start in March and take between 12 months and 14 months to complete.
"It sits on a site that needs to be activated," Wendel said.
Wendel said he expects that the Brooklyn-based Pennrose to close on its deal to acquire the North Aud Block parcel by April The block is owned by the ECHDC.
Pennrose will be developing 251 apartments and 18,000-square-feet of commercial space with the Canalside Gateway Building complex.
Pennrose will be investing $200 million in the project.
"These are projects that are giving Canalside a 24/7 feel," Wendel said.
The Canalside Gateway Building should be ready to welcome its first apartment dwellers by mid 2028.