Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Significant development is finally starting to take shape for a Canalside project that has seen a number of delays due to unplanned water contaminant cleanup, supply chain issues and other COVID-related holdups.
"After extensive dewatering and environmental cleanup, which really accounted for a lot of the delays, we are finally going vertical," says Matt Connors, VP of Development for Sinatra and Co. Real Estate, developers of the Heritage Point project. "Steel is on site. The hardest part is out of the way. We're still targeting June and July for substantial completion for each tower in 2024. It's very exciting."
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The Heritage Point project on Main and Scott Streets is the soon-to-be "premiere residential complex at Canalside" with 61 apartment units and 20,000 square feet of commercial space for restaurants and offices. Connors notes Sinatra and Co. are currently in negotiation discussions with potential tenants for the commercial spaces.
"We have the two elevator and stair towers, which if you drive by the site, those are kind of the big gray blocks that you see on either end, both the east and west side of the site," Connors tells WBEN. "Basically, the steel is kind of putting the building together on each side. We have a shared basement between the two and we are restoring the historic towpath, which leads directly to the rink at the canal. They look like two buildings, but they're ultimately conjoined between one basement."
Connors believes the project will compliment the other Canalside projects that are coming in phases, which includes new construction for the future Marine Drive apartments and similar development for the North Aud block.
"We'll have some critical mass down there after this project. They're going to be some of the most beautiful buildings, given the renderings that we've shown. The interior apartments will have state-of-the-art, typical higher-end finishes and we're very excited about it. I think it'll really be a detonator for this area," says Connors.
"I think that it's really a true mixed-use site. You have affordable components, you have commercial retail, market-rate apartments, office space. It really kind of creates a central corridor and a pocket neighborhood within this area. I think that every every one complements each other very well and we're just looking forward to completing it and getting residents in, that's really the biggest, biggest thing of what we want to achieve here."