LISTEN: Seneca Nation president addresses Seneca One Stop dispute with Buffalo

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the dispute between the Seneca Nation and City of Buffalo heats up over the Seneca One Stop gas station under construction on Ohio Street, Seneca president J.C. Seneca joined WBEN on Thursday for his perspective on the project.

Seneca admits a gas station was not part of the initial plan for the site.

"When you acquire land, there's a lot of times it comes on at a time when maybe you don't have a plan for it. But as time evolves, you look at it, look at opportunity, look at your needs, looks at what kind of revenue can be generated there, and then you go through that process," said Seneca with Joe Beamer on WBEN. "We have an enterprise board that works with our one stops that looks at opportunities, in regards to different ways we can increase revenue for our programs and things we do for our people on their territory. They evaluate those things, they look at it, and that goes through that process. And then it moves up forward to the council, and the council then looks at it. They work on that and get together, and determine if that's the next step that they want to do. And in this case, it did. The council supported it, and so the project started moving forward. And then started to, of course, secure the funding to do it, and then to be able to get the project off and going."

Seneca believes Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan was not aware of a lot of information on the matter.

"There's a lot of things that he could have learned before he started taking a position and talking the way he has. So my hope is he'll see that, understand that, and be able to get to a point where we're able to sit at the table and have a discussion," Seneca said. "The meeting we had on Sept. 11 with him, we had a meeting on Sept. 10 with Councilman [Mitch] Nowakowski, both meetings I thought went well, and were great foundational meetings for us to continue a dialog and discussion in their concerns. We could answer them and be able to move through this process in a way that both the city and the Seneca Nation would have a better understanding of what was going to happen."

Seneca says he has spoken with nearby business owners about the project.

"When you're in business, you have to work together. I think there's a lot of different ways that each of the businesses, Seneca Nation - whether it's the breweries, whether it's the hair salon, whether it's the automotive plays, whether it's this dispensary or whether it's Tewksbury and the people that live in the apartments in that area - where we can come together and find ways to coordinate and work together that benefits all the different businesses in that area and the residents," Seneca added.

Work continues despite Wednesday's cease and desist deadline from Mayor Ryan.