Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Progress continues in the efforts from the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) to finalize plans to begin construction on the massive Marine Drive Apartments redevelopment project along the Buffalo Waterfront.
The next step in the process comes this week, as the BMHA will have Phase I of the redevelopment project reviewed by the Buffalo Planning Board. As it turns out, though, this week's review is likely going to be somewhat anticlimactic, according to BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown.
"This is simply a continuation of a process that's been going on for some time," said Brown in an interview with WBEN. "Phase I is on land that is technically situated within the area of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation (ECHDC), or Canalside. Because of that, this is a multi-step process where we first present to the ECHDC design committee, the design committee then has to review it. The process then requires the ECHDC forward a recommendation to the Planning Board, and then the Planning Board will review it. They'll conduct a public hearing, and then they'll issue a recommendation to the full ECHDC board. So we're at the middle of those steps."
As far as the BMHA knows right now, the recommendation from the ECHDC is the plan is good and it's a go.
"They made a couple of suggestions and a few tweaks were made to the project, and now the Planning Board is going to look at that. And what we anticipate is the Planning Board will issue a recommendation to the full ECHDC board to approve it. That's where we are," Brown said. "It's not quite as cut-and-dry as this is a big hearing where something big is going to happen."
Brown adds the BMHA expects the ECHDC's approval from the full board to happen probably towards the middle or near the end of February.
As it stands right now, Brown says the timetable for construction to start on site of the redevelopment project is still calling for early 2025. He says the very first part of construction is going to be remediation work on the parking lot site in the early parts of 2025.
"That's when people will really notice that things are starting to happen at Marine Drive, because we'll be actually digging and actually doing work on the parking lot site," Brown said. "Once the Brownfield's remediation work is done, and that should be fairly quick, we'll then begin the process of constructing the three buildings that are going to be located on, what is now, the site of the parking lot. So up against the Skyway, there will be three very large buildings. And once those are completed, which should happen during 2025, beginning of '26, we anticipate that construction being done, and then we can start moving people in from the towers that are set to be demolished."
Currently at Canalside, the Heritage Point project has caused some hinderances with traffic and people getting around the area more freely, whether it's for a hockey game or concert at KeyBank Center, or just a day out-and-about. However, Brown doesn't anticipate construction for the Marine Drive Apartments to be any sort of hindrance to Canalside or the Waterfront.
"The way it's structured now, it's sort of an island, as it is. I'm sure there are people who illegally park in our parking lot, but they're not supposed to, and so once they can't, they can't. But the construction will be happening on the parking lot site, so that's not going to impact the streets," Brown explained. "It's going to be far-less of a hindrance than really what's going on there now with the construction of the new building on the old Aud site, which has blocked off that section of street, on-and-off in the mornings."
At this time, the massive redevelopment project for the Marine Drive Apartments is slated to be completed by 2031 with all three phases of the project in tact. However, Brown believes the tangible effects of this project will start to be felt well-before the completion of all three phases.
"What this is going to do is this is going to make this sort of island, separated community, it's going to basically weave it back into the fabric of an actual neighborhood," he said. "Once these three buildings are done, there will be streets, there will be areas to walk, there will be places to congregate that are not separated from the rest of the community. So I think we'll be able to see the effects of what these 616 or more units of affordable housing on the Waterfront are really going to do. What they're going to do is make it more of a cohesive neighborhood.
"Right now, you have Canalside's attractions and the hotels and that sort of thing, and you have the very high-end housing farther up, but we're going to be an actual neighborhood. It's not to say we're not a community now, but it's a very different sort of community, because you have these seven identical towers that are all very inward looking, that don't really participate at all in the life of the Waterfront. This is going to be a very different kind of development, and I think it's going to have a profound effect on our waterfront going forward."
