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Economic Development Remains Strong In Buffalo

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Office of the Mayor
Peter K. Cutler
Director of Communications
716-851-4841


Mayor Points to Continuing Investment in Key Public and Private Development Projects as Indicator of City’s Attractive Development Environment

BUFFALO – Mayor Byron W. Brown today stated that the City of Buffalo continues to attract and sustain important public and private investment that supports a strong economic development environment throughout the city, particularly in the downtown central business district.

Joining Uniland Development Company President Carl Montante and Michael Huntress of Acquest Development at the development firms’ joint 200 Delaware UniQuest redevelopment project (formerly the Dulski Federal Building), Mayor Brown reiterated his 2008 State of the City message that development remains strong in Buffalo and that the infusion of public and private investment dollars have helped strengthened the city’s overall fiscal condition.

“The City of Buffalo is experiencing an incredibly strong period of investment and development, which has helped send a clear message throughout the region and the nation that Buffalo is a great location to build and do business,” said Mayor Brown. “New projects, such as the completed BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York’s regional headquarters, or the redevelopment of sites such as Uniland’s 200 Delaware project and New Era Cap Company’s international headquarters in the former Federal Reserve Bank building are evidence that the environment for doing business in Buffalo, for investing and developing in our city, is strong and making a significant difference in our city’s physical landscape and overall economic condition.”

Since taking office, Mayor Brown has made restoring Buffalo’s fiscal health and fostering investment and development top priorities of his Administration.

“Coming into office, we were fortunate to have many important development projects underway or planned for execution,” said the Mayor. “We have made it a priority to build on those development activities, encourage further development, streamline our governmental services to enhance the development environment and to emphasize that Buffalo is getting stronger and an excellent location for investment and development. Certainly, projects such as Uniland’s and Acquest’s 200 Delaware effort or Uniland’s recently completed 285 Delaware commercial development demonstrate that now is a good time to be investing and developing in the city.”

"Rebuilding the City of Buffalo back to its former glory will take the continued commitment and cooperation of both the public and private sector,” said Mr. Montante. “That's exactly what is taking place here at the 200 Delaware project. Uniland and Acquest Development may be leading the charge, but the city, county, state, and even surrounding neighbors and community activists have played critical roles in helping to bring this exciting new project to fruition. It is truly the result of a team effort."

As part of Mayor Brown’s overall strategy to document development projects occurring throughout the city, the Administration has maintained an economic development list that is posted on the city’s website and updated regularly as projects are added or even deleted from development taking place in Buffalo.

“The important point about this development tally, which today stands at approximately $4.5 billion dollars, is that there is significant interest in investing in the city,” said the Mayor. “Whatever the details are about one or the other projects, it’s the total amount of interest is exciting—it’s really an unprecedented amount of accumulated development in Buffalo. We can’t control global economic forces or the state of the national economy—these things will change over time, but what the list shows is that people feel Buffalo is a good place to invest in and my Administration will continue to do everything it can to maintain and expand that level of interest among investors and developers.”

To further enhance and strengthen his Administration’s commitment to maintaining this level of development activity, which has built up over the past several years, Mayor Brown created the new city position of Chief Economic Development Officer to oversee all development-related activities in the city.

“During my 2008 State of the City address I stated that this new position ‘…will provide a roadmap to grow the City economy, boost job creation and enhance workforce development,’” said the Mayor. ”As the city’s Chief Economic Development Officer, Brian Reilly possesses the skill and experience we need to go to the next level of economic development in Buffalo.  He has a proven track record of success in Great Lakes cities that have successfully implemented creative and sustainable economic development programs.”

Reilly served most recently Director of the City of Cleveland, Ohio’s Economic Development Department, a 106-member department with a $13 million annual operating budget.  He was responsible for strategically deploying $40 million of incentives for business growth, administering a 300-loan portfolio and overseeing the city’s federally funded workforce system.

“Our goal is to continue to reduce the “hassle factor” of doing business in Buffalo by creating clear, predictable processes to enable more investment here,” said Reilly. “Our plans need to define the kind of development we want to see, our regulations need to convey what is required, and our permitting needs to be more timely and solution focused. We are working within and beyond city hall to provide that level of service to existing businesses and those who want to expand here.”
To date, according to Mayor Brown, approximately $1 billion of public and private investments have been completed in the city completed since January 2006 and an additional $1 billion is under construction.

“What my focus on economic development will do now is something we as a city haven’t done in a long time—to systematically create the conditions for more private sector development,” said the Mayor.  “Local government’s role is to ‘set the table’ for private sector development.”