Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's the tallest building in the City of Buffalo, and has undergone quite the transformation over the last several years to become a business, communal and residential hub for all of Western New York.
This past Thursday saw the Seneca One Tower being the site of a Buffalo Bills playoff rally, hosted by M&T Bank, who has their Tech Hub housed in the Tower. As we continue to head further into 2024, Seneca One is poised to host a number of other gatherings, and be more accessible for the community.
"I think this is just the beginning, and we're all going to be working together to go bigger and better as the years, and the playoffs, go on," said Sean Heidinger, Director of Business Development with Douglas Development in Buffalo.
Heidinger understands how much of a community asset Seneca One can be for Western New York, and he encourages anyone to stop by.
"We painted the building red because we wanted to become the heart of the city, and I think we're getting there," Heidinger said. "Every time a new person comes into the building or learns about the amenities or the businesses here, it's a win for us. We like people to think that Seneca One is almost like a hotel lobby: You don't need a key to an apartment or a key to a hotel room, or you don't need a key to your office to be here. The lobby of Seneca One is open to the public. We encourage anybody that's downtown to come in, take a meeting, grab a cup of coffee, hit the food hall, meet some friends. On top of all that, there's tons of community events for everybody to enjoy."
In the years after the major redeveloping of Seneca One began, the expansive building is expected to be at full capacity come this April. While Heidinger says they are nearly full at Seneca One, there is still space available.
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"If you go back five years, when I started here, I was here with Douglas [Jemal] and just a handful of other people, there was nobody in the building except for construction and development teams. Today, we see upwards of 1,500 people a day and days like today, probably 2,500 people. That includes people that live here, work here and guests from the community that make a point to visit Seneca One every day," Heidinger said.
So what's in store for Seneca One in the coming weeks and months ahead?
One of the biggest things the folks at Seneca One are working on is getting Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York into the building as fast as possible.
"Highmark is, obviously, a force in Western New York, and just like M&T, they're focused on the community, which is Douglas Development's commitment. Anything that we build, we develop or we bring back to life, we're doing it for the betterment of the City of Buffalo and the community within it," Heidinger said.
A couple of things Heidinger says he's most excited about is their incubation programs at the building. One of those programs has been Other Half Brewing Company, which is finally close to opening its 7,000 square-foot tap room after four years.
"Buffalo [can] look forward to some of the best beers in the world right at Seneca One, with the biggest beer garden in Downtown Buffalo," Heidinger detailed. "Conveniently right next to the ballpark, there's so much for us to parlay our amenities into our neighbors with, it's so exciting."
The other program that continues to be a work in progress to expand is Downtown Buffalo's commitment to dogs and the quality of life downtown.
"We did a survey, and just within a block of Seneca One, there's over 250 dogs that live down here, but there's no green space. So we learned a lot, and now we're adapting to it," Heidinger explained. "We just opened Hounds & Hops here at Seneca One. It's a dog grooming business, but it also serves beer and wine. That business is going to grow and continue to take steps here at Seneca One, culminating in the country's biggest indoor dog park with an outdoor dog park as well underneath the 190, which we're working on right now."