Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The former headquarters of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York, now known as "Genesee Towers", is set to get new a tenant after sitting dormant for months.
Ingram Micro is set to move its operations from its Wehrle Drive location in Williamsville to Downtown Buffalo, bringing about 1,300 employees to the building.
The B2B technology company will occupy the entire six-story North building, located at 257 West Genesee Street, according to Kieran McGee, senior vice president of investments at Orion Properties, the real estate investment trust that owns the building. That's about 160,000 square feet of space.
According to Ingram Micro, the change aligns with the company's' strategic modernization vision, and will offer the local workforce a state-of-the-art solution center, more modern facilities, enhanced recruitment opportunities and more office space to support growth. It will also provide the local team such benefits as covered parking, a private gym, a full-service cafeteria and proximity to shops and restaurants.
Ingram Micro expects to start the move in July and complete it by year-end, according to information provided to Buffalo Business First.
The eight-story South tower will still be available for lease, with 255,000 square feet of space.
Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski says this move for Ingram Micro into the Genesee Towers is great news for the City of Buffalo, and for a number of reasons.
"Downtown Buffalo post-COVID hemorrhaged about 25,000 office workers, so to rebuild downtown and to reimagine it also has to have a core piece of density, and it has to have a workforce down here to be able to support our amenities and our restaurants and our shops. So for a large scale employer to adaptively reuse that building at Highmark for a large scale industry is incredibly important to the City of Buffalo," said Nowakowski in an interview with WBEN. "I had initial fears of its vacancy for too long, especially because of the square footage, and really the magnitude of that building is quite large. So to have behind city hall, now we're having more office workers come to Downtown Buffalo, it will directly support our economy, and it's very important and critical that this move happens. I'm beyond thrilled."
Nowakowski feels with a company like Ingram Micro choosing to locate itself in Downtown Buffalo, it'll be a boost for the city that may attract other companies to start doing business in the region.
"For others to see large scale employers like that move to the City of Buffalo and move into our urban core, I hope shows other workforces and other agencies and industries that we're competitive here in the City of Buffalo," Nowakowski said. "We want you to locate in Downtown Buffalo. We want the office workers to come back. We understand that a lot of large scale employers are going to a hybrid model, but to relocate to the heartbeat of this region, which is the City of Buffalo, is incredibly important."
While Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa never wants to see a company relocate from your community, he admits this move did not come as a complete surprise.
"Ingram had gone through a couple of changes lately that saw a little bit of their workforce change, in terms of size and density. So I'm not shocked that they opted for a new location," said Kulpa in an interview with WBEN. "At the same time, I will say the Orion Development Group have had a couple of good conversations with us, and they're a group that develops in the government services, and aerospace and healthcare industries. So we think the building is pretty well positioned near SUNY Erie's North Campus, near Northrop Grumman, and near all of what we have going on, in terms of inside of our medical spine. So it's a shift, but I don't want to anticipate the building will languish all that long."
Located at Werhle and Youngs in Williamsville, Kulpa feels Ingram Micro is "Grade A" office space that's going to be popular for a future tenant.
"The building's on our medical spine. There has been a number of entities looking for space in that medical corridor that is sort of the 90 and 290, and it also is inside of an aerospace technical sort of triangle near the airport," Kulpa said.
"Northrop Grumman's been in their space for a while, stuff along Lawrence Bell [Drive]. There's certainly some change in and out, but ultimately, we think that'll be a pretty good landing spot for some of these companies. We've seen huge investments in UB Neuro down the street, UBMD's neurology center, and we've seen continued growth in Windsong Radiology's properties, and continued investment along College Park with some of those healthcare facilities. We think it's going to bode well for some of those industries to have some space available."