Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Congressman Tim Kennedy (D, NY-26) was in Buffalo on Wednesday to announce $625,000 in new federal funding for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) toward investments that facilitate and evaluate public-private partnerships for transit-oriented affordable housing and mixed-use development at two Metro rail stations in the city.
The funds will go towards the evaluation for development at the LaSalle Metro Rail Station in the city's University District, as well as the DL&W Metro Rail Station in Downtown Buffalo.
"This project is one of only 45 in the entire country to receive this award of funding that's going to help to transform our community, and really help to invigorate the momentum here in the University District. The goal of which is to advance transit-oriented development around transit stations, and ultimately for the residents here, improve the quality of life," said Congressman Kennedy during Wednesday's press conference at the LaSalle Metro Rail Station. "It's going to make our neighborhood here even more walkable and livable. It's going to make it stronger for the residents in the community. For adjacent communities, it's going to bring greater access to jobs and opportunities. And for drivers, it's going to reduce congestion and cut down on commute times. And critically, this project is going to help to create 300 new affordable housing units."
Transit-oriented development invests in the urban landscape, improves walkability, and enhances access to jobs and opportunity.
"At the end of the day, if we want quality, affordable things in our neighborhoods, we have to talk to the people who will be utilizing them. So I'm really excited about the 300 apartments that's going to be built here, as well as the commercial infrastructure that's going to happen for small businesses, hopefully," said University District Councilman Rasheed Wyatt on Wednesday. "But again, right across the street from William Price Parkway, we have the Independent Living Center right here that's a major hub in this community. So all these parties will play a role in making this happen, and making it be what we needed to be for the people who live here."
The NFTA Metro LaSalle Station is located on the corner of Main Street and LaSalle Avenue, and adjacent to North Buffalo Rails to Trails connecting Buffalo and Tonawanda bicycle paths.
In May the NFTA and City of Buffalo issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the LaSalle Station Equitable Transit Oriented Development in response to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s call for state agencies and authorities to examine opportunities to increase affordable housing. Responses to the RFP are now under review. It is anticipated that the LaSalle station project will add more than 300 new units of housing and invest more than $100 million in the surrounding neighborhood.
"The State of New York and we here in Buffalo are in a housing quality and affordability crisis. Gov. Kathy Hochul's Executive Order 30 is a challenge to state agencies and authorities to look at their real estate holdings and ask of the land we already control, where might we put more housing? To help address this crisis, with the cooperation and support of our colleagues in city government, the NFTA is rising to this challenge," said Darren Kempner, director of government relations and development for the NFTA. "This project, those largely vacant lots over there, are clearly not the highest and best use of this valuable land, made more valuable by the ability to get to-and-from one end of Main Street to the other, as well as to the Tonawanda's by a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian path. The LaSalle Station equitable transit-oriented development will drive more than $100 million in investment, and create more than 300 units of new housing right here on Main Street."
The DL&W Station sits along the Buffalo River at the intersection of the Cobblestone District and Canalside.
Work is currently underway to extend the Metro Rail into the ground floor of the DL&W Terminal, with work expected to wrap up sometime in early 2025.
$2 million in additional federal funding was previously allocated to support construction of a pedestrian bridge connecting the DL&W Station to the KeyBank Center. $1 million in federal resources will also be invested in a project renovating the Riverwalk trail that runs between the DL&W Terminal and the Buffalo River.