A state waterfront agency is threatening to take control of a stalled residential project at Canalside unless the developer can quickly show it is back on track.
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The construction of two apartment buildings with planned office and retail spaces sit stalled at Canalside. County and state economic development officials are losing patience with the pace of the Sinatra Development Co. project.
Sinatra Development Co. says it can do that, but only if the state, as part of their public-private partnership, provides a $4 million loan to go with other state commitments they say will get the project over the finish line.
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A 2019 rendering of Heritage Point, the stalled mixed-use project for Canalside.
The company, headed by founder and CEO Nick Sinatra, suspended work earlier this year after losing construction financing for the two six-story, mixed-use buildings being erected near the entrance to Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children’s Museum.
Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. sent a letter June 5 notifying the company it was in default on their development agreement, reached almost five years ago.
Heritage Point was supposed to have been completed this month, after the delayed start of construction began last year. It is the latest of numerous setbacks since the residential development was announced in August 2018, with first floor retail opening by Memorial Day 2020. Besides financial challenges, the state's transfer of the land, negotiations over parking arrangements, and price hikes and supply-chain issues related to the pandemic have all slowed the project.
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Construction is expected to begin later this fall and be finished in the spring of 2023. Plans call for the two six-story buildings to have a combined 64 apartment units.
Environmental remediation, which began in March 2022, also proved to be more challenging and costly than expected.
Under the agreement, if the developer doesn't provide a satisfactory plan to promptly complete the project, the property can be repossessed, the company can be fined for damages due to breach of contract, or both.
"Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation is monitoring the progress at Heritage Point and is prepared to take action, under terms articulated in the development agreement, if the development team fails to meets its commitments to complete the project and continue our revitalization of Canalside," ECHDC spokeswoman Pamm Lent said in a statement to The Buffalo News.
The waterfront agency and its parent agency, Empire State Development, have grown increasingly frustrated over the succession of delays that have plagued the project for years and slowed waterfront progress.
Sinatra has said the project's cost has more than doubled from $21 million to possibly $45 million.
Sinatra & Co. Real Estate has begun the environmental remediation work on the former Buffalo Memorial Auditorium site, where it plans to construct a pair of six-story mixed-use buildings between the Explore & More Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Children’s Museum and the Metro Rail station on Main Street.
In a June 11 letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, he asked for a doubling of a $4 million state package agreed to in 2019 that calls for a $2 million grant from Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. when the project is completed, with $1 million already advanced, and a $2 million loan from Empire State Development's Better Buffalo Fund.
Sinatra told The News this week that an additional $4 million loan from the fund or other state entity would be enough to satisfy their local lender, allow construction to resume within 60 days and bring the project to fruition in fall 2025.
The loan "is the best and most efficient way to get the project restarted and finished," Sinatra said. "It's in everybody's interest."
Anthony Nanula, the company's chief investment officer, said the steel work is almost done and "the most uncontrollable costs" are almost all behind them, with wood framing, roof and finishing work mostly left.
Plan B, he said, is waiting until financial conditions become more favorable for borrowing and lending. That could take more time, something the waterfront agency may be no longer willing to give them.
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Steel framing at the stalled apartment construction near the Explore & More Children's Museum at Canalside on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
First Canalside apartments
The brick apartment buildings, with a total of 103,000 square feet, would overlook the historically-aligned canals between Hanover and Lloyd streets and bring 57 one- and two-bedroom apartments and ground-floor office and retail space to Canalside. The number of apartments was pruned down from 61 to make room for offices.
Sinatra plans to move his headquarters to one of the two buildings and remains upbeat about what is planned.
"These are going to be some of the nicest apartments in the area, and we have tremendous interest from restaurants and retail," he said.
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A rendering of Heritage Point, a mixed-use project proposed for Canalside as seen from Marine Drive.
The project called for 10% affordable units and two "top-of-the-market buildings," Sinatra said, meant to be a catalyst for more residential development.
The first phases of construction of the Heritage Point residential complex and Gateway building at Buffalo's Inner Harbor signal a new and long-awaited phase of development along the downtown waterfront.
Lending instability
High interest rates fueled by inflation led one lender to pull out of the project last year, and a second to drastically reduce its commitment, bringing added burdens to the project, Sinatra said.
"Typically the lender wants you to fund your piece, and then they come in," Sinatra said. "That's what we did, and last August we got a call from Enhanced Capital, three weeks from closing, that the company was going belly up after losing their lending source."
Lending instability has also crippled the company's ability to borrow money.
"Our ability to borrow because of what has happened in the debt markets has been cut by 40%," Sinatra said.
The loss of financing led to the company's decision in December to "ramp the project down," he said. That left two floors of steel framing and four-story stair towers standing idly at the construction site surrounded by a chain-link fence.
"In places like Western New York, it's very expensive to build through the winter, and you have to pay for it up front to order materials," he said.
Sinatra said his appeals to state officials have fallen on deaf ears, but he hopes to meet with representatives of Hochul and the two state agencies.
"We are asking the state, like you would ask any of your partners in these deals, to put in more," he said. "We're not asking for a grant, we're asking for a loan, and we don't need it until the end of the project.
"Our request has been to get in the room and talk about it," Sinatra said. "Maybe there are other ways to get this done. What we know right now is that in the next 60 to 90 days, we can get this project up and running and get it done by next fall if we get the commitment from the state."
Common Council President Chris Scanlon also would like to see movement.
"I am going to reach out to the mayor and all interested parities to see if we can get them in the same room to hash this out," Scanlon said.
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Stalled apartment construction near the children's museum at Canalside on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
The stalled project is somewhat symbolic of the momentum slowed and stopped after Covid-19 hit, the council president said.
"If we could get together and get the project done," he said, "I think it would be a signal that the City of Buffalo is moving full steam ahead."
Delays hurt waterfront
The on-again, off-again construction has made life difficult for nearby attractions.
"It's frustrating for us," said Michelle Urbanczyk, Explore & More president and chief executive officer.
Urbanczyk sympathizes with the construction challenges, having faced some of her own at the children's museum, and looks forward to the project's completion where the southern portion of Memorial Auditorium once stood. But the impact has been hard on the museum.
"It's like having an abandoned house next door," Urbanczyk said. "We see progress, and then they're off the site for six months."
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Walkers pass the Buffalo Heritage Carousel on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
Elizabeth Bozer, a board member of the Solar-Powered Buffalo Heritage Carousel, said the prolonged construction deters visitors from coming to the waterfront attraction.
"The construction with the road closures were a nightmare, and it definitely affected our ridership," Bozer said. "Now, it's a reminder that things are unfinished, and I don't know what kind of message that is sending when you're trying to attract families for family-friendly fun."
Jason Davidson, co-owner of Liberty Hound restaurant, agreed that construction delays have discouraged people from visiting Canalside.
"We don't mind that it's a work in progress, but we have to see more progress," Davidson said. "Everything looks unfinished. The 'Pardon our Dust' part is taking way too long, and it's discouraging."