The 30-day deadline demanded by Byron Brown is halfway over, and we’re hearing the same noncommittal mouth-noises from Quinn at ECHDC and Bass Pro’s spokespeople. Buffaloi has more.
Except we might extend the deadline a little bit. If a deal is “imminent”, says Chairman Gioia.
Problem is, a deal has been “imminent” for literally 18 months, for God’s sake.
Someone from the Mayor’s office told Channel 2 that the deal wasn’t dead but was on “life support.”
I have an idea for people in the future.
Next time you decide that you’re going to devote tens of millions of public dollars towards a project such as this, negotiate it in the sunlight. Let us know what’s going on.
I know that complicated deals such as this are generally negotiated on conference calls and emails and junkets and over nice dinners all of which are outside the public spotlight. But this deal involves our money and we deserve to be at least moderately in the loop.
Keeping us in the dark for literally two years about this deal (which, incidentally, no longer resembles the original Memorandum of Understanding at all, based on what I’ve heard) merely perpetuates this community’s well-honed, overused cynicism.
Furthermore, don’t insult our intelligence.
Bass Pro’s 2007 catalog no longer lists “Buffalo, NY” as a future location. That’s pretty self-explanatory. Channel 2 asked Gioia about it.
Tony Gioia with the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. says he wouldn’t read too much into that and remains confident a deal can be reached.
Considering Buffalo was listed in the 2006 catalog, I think we can read very much into that, indeed.
Bass Pro told Channel 2,
no mention of Buffalo on “coming soon” location may be a mistake.
They must really think we’re ignorant clowns to say that. Pull the plug on the deal. Call Bass Pro on Monday and say, “thanks, but no thanks.”
Someone wrote in to the News suggesting an IKEA for the Aud. Nice idea, but that thread’s been played out at Buffalo Rising for months, and the bottom line is that IKEA looks for very specific demographic conditions to exist, and Buffalo doesn’t meet them.
I’m of the mind now that we preserve the Aud’s deco façade, auction off everything worth auctioning off inside, and using the proceeds to help fund its demolition and site cleanup (asbestos, bloody rags, everything.)
The city ought to require that any development of that site incorporate the Aud’s majestic façade and re-open it for development. If the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. were to drop the megaplans and instead fund the build-out of only necessary infrastructure and codify certain design and architectural requirements for development of the resulting parcels, and let the private sector do its own build-out, we’d be in much better shape. The selection of Benderson Development for this project means we’ll have to ensure that the Canal Side area doesn’t begin resembling Transit Road or Southwestern Boulevard (or Delaware Avenue just south of Kenmore Ave, for that matter).
The Buffalo Record 
BP,
Just curious to know how the demographics of New Haven, CT differ from Buffalo, NY? Yeah, we don’t have Yale in our backyard; but we have plenty of other colleges and universities.
We also have a larger population to draw from, don’t we?
You’re from NYC area and probably know more about CT.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/09/09009.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven,_Connecticut
Although I can’t see IKEA in the Aud or anywhere downtown – I can see it out near UB off 290 or right off 90 at the Depew exit (a nice way to attract folks from Rochester!)
What are your thoughts?
-thanks
Without glancing at the links you provide, the rationale given by IKEA for not coming in to the Aud has to do with population density and, probably, income.
New Haven isn’t particularly wealthy, but the surrounding communities are. New Haven is for all practical purposes a suburb of NYC, so the population is pretty dense and getting denser. (Traffic plain stinks on the I-95 in New Haven).
IKEA may be a good fit here, but not any time soon. Burlington isn’t that far, and Toronto has plenty of stores. Hell, Fox 29 runs IKEA ads for the CDN market.
The word is Kaput. It was doomed months ago.
The Aud is not a good location for Bass Pro or Ikea. They don’t build their business operations in old structures like the Aud.
The casino in Buffalo will also hurt business development in downtown Buffalo. You don’t see Bass Pro and Ikea near to casino ventures. They are probably worried that their employees would get into gambling debt and start stealing from their employers.
What a non story the ch 2 report was. So Buffalo is not in their 2007 flyer. Well guess what neither is Memphis or Pittsburgh. The only proposed stores listed this year are those scheduled to open in 2007 .The omission means zero!
I dont think Buffalo’s demographics differ that much from Buffalo’s, but I do know that Ikea likes to build in outlying sprawling areas, not in the center of a downtown urban area.
I had always thought the former Kittinger furniture building would have been a great IKEA. On the edge of the city, near the burbs. on a major street, Elmwood, close to the 190 and 198, plenty of room for parking.
I still think the city would be better off courting IKEA with $60,000,000 than Bass Pro.
When Artistic Furniture moved to Arkansas (to get away from the Unions like just about every other employer in Buffalo), my dad went to Republic Steel, and his Brother went to Kittinger, where he retired.
Where’s Kittinger now? Not in Buffalo! Wonder why……
The Kittinger building would be good for something, the location is good, but the demographic of the surrounding area would be a turn-off for IKEA.