Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As work to restore the historic Buffalo Central Terminal continues to progress, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC) has added four new board members in preparation for the long-term outlook of making the East Buffalo landmark a lasting cultural and economic hub for the community.
"We've been doing some great stuff over at the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation for the past couple of years," said James Morrell, Board Chair for the CRTC in an interview with WBEN. "One of the things that we've been doing, in addition to the construction and preparing for construction, hiring a developer and all that stuff, is capacity building. Bringing in a board that will have the wherewithal to move this project forward. The board many years ago was primarily volunteer board, and it did a great job to get us to this point right now. But right now, I think it's important that we have a strong board that would take us over the hump, especially getting a developer in place."
Morrell feels the four additions are strategically integral, in terms of what they bring to the table and their involvement in the community. He says they are going to be welcomed with open arms to continue the main objective for the Central Terminal: Move the project across the finish line.
"What this does is it provides that bench strength that we need," Morrell said. "We're bringing in Paul Harris, who lives in the community and he's an engineer. We're bringing in Rishawn Sonubiu, who is an architect. We're bringing in Kimberly LaVare, who's a project manager, and she does some great things from an urban planning perspective and her role at Evergreen. And we are bringing in Christina Orsi, who's the president of the John Oishei Foundation, which it's not because of the John Oishei Foundation, it's what she brings to the table, in terms of her connections, and what she does in the community."
In terms of what's going on right now with the Central Terminal project, Morrell says a lot has been happening behind the scenes to improve a number of elements with the Buffalo landmark.
"We fixed the barrel roof, we've done a lot of structural analysis to make sure we can continue with the project," he said. "We're in Phase 2 - this is about a $20 million effort - to basically stabilize the building. To look at the parking garage and make sure that we could build a parking lot back on top of the underground parking garage. We'll be boarding up the windows with specific type of window treatments. It will look like it's boarded up, but it has a special meaning, in terms of it will allow the building to breathe, but not let water in. You will see something going up over the windows, we're looking at the steel. We're looking to see if we could put things back to where they're supposed to go, in terms of the facades and some of the structural stuff that's on the inside, and continuing with asbestos removal. It's basically some stabilization stuff."
Another key part of the process in the coming weeks, especially now with the new board members on-hand, will be bringing in a developer, which Morrell says the CTRC is in the last phase of the process.
Once the developer is finalized, Morrell says the board and the Central Terminal's citizens advisory committee will sit with them and work on finances and a specific timeline on what the plan will look like for the next major phase of restoration.
"It's probably going to be over the next year, a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but I would imagine by this time next year, things will be off and rolling. The developer will be selected, and will start some construction, and before long things are going to happen," Morrell said.
"This is a big project. This is a huge project that's going to take many years, and we are in the beginning stages of that and it's definitely going to happen. Within the next few years, we'll start seeing some stuff, and we're very happy. We're glad that the momentum is there, the state has seen this is a priority for not only the City of Buffalo, but the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood. This is an area that's been, I wouldn't say neglected over the years, but now is the time to bring that community back. And Central Terminal is going to help that, along with what the city is doing with the Broadway Market, as well as what the state is doing on Broadway, Jefferson, Michigan and around the city. So we're happy, we're encouraged, and this is something that I am going to push very strong to get completed."
While there have been a number of events on the grounds of the Central Terminal, the building itself has not hosted any public events inside in about five years. Morrell says they will have to wait to hear from the developer they bring in to determine when it may be safe to welcome anyone into the building, given it's a safety concern in its current condition.
"We just don't want to have it open. Hopefully over the next year or so, we'll be able to bring individuals back through and let them see the progress of the building," he said. "I will say the last time I was in the building, we had state officials there, it is in pretty good shape. One of the reports from our Existing Conditions report shows that the building, even though it's been unoccupied for so many years, is in fairly good shape even though it is windowless, water got in and all that stuff. It is in pretty good shape. The architects and engineers that have looked at the building say it's not going to take a very, very big lift to get this thing moving. Some of the steel is in good shape after all these years. So we're hopeful that we can get this thing moving, and get individuals back into the building as soon as possible."
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