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Home > Issues > Economic Development

Economic Development

While the national economic climate has posed challenges to regions throughout America, Mayor Brown has instituted policy initiatives to create the conditions for more private sector investment in Buffalo. His reorganization of the Department has broken down old bureaucratic silos within City Hall and is allowing a more comprehensive approach to development than Buffalo has taken within recent memory.

Highlights

  • New Era and Labatt USA, major companies with household name recognition, relocated their corporate headquarters to downtown Buffalo.
  • Developed and branded the “Buffalo Green Belt,” an economic corridor anchored around the Buffalo River and spreading along the shores of Lake Erie, that has attracted green businesses from across North America—from the new headquarters of the Buffalo Solar Boat company, to Modern Recycling’s $11 million state of the art recycling facility. Currently, the city is pursuing government funding for a green business incubator for renewable and advanced energy firms.
  • The first new department store in Buffalo in a decade, Kohl’s on Delaware Avenue represents a $3.4 million investment.
  • Adaptive reuse of legacy buildings – $78 million Avant mixed use project, and $2.2M preservation restoration of the Beverly Gray Small Business Incubator in the former North Jefferson Branch Library. Also the iconic new construction represented by $137 million Federal Court House.
  • $380 million Canalside Redevelopment project, will advance the city’s waterfront into a major destination.

Small Business Growth

  • Aggressive small business lending has put $6.5 million on the street, attracting $17 million in matching investment. This represents 66 businesses assisted, of which half were women or minority owned, together creating 252 and retaining 473 jobs in Buffalo.
  • Launched a 15-member interdepartmental Business Assistance Team (BAT) in July 2008 to provide a development-friendly, customer service-oriented, City Hall interaction for those currently within or interested in the City of Buffalo
  • Created a project tracking system to monitor & document project progress & staff workload, which indicates that the BAT is currently working on 179 “open” projects worth $279M. 80 “closed” projects since July 2008

Brownfield Redevelopment

  • Assembled and cleaned up over 500 acres of vacant and underutilized and contaminated properties as part of one of the most aggressive brownfields programs in the Great Lakes.
  • Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park – Assembled over $15 million of local and state funds for site preparation and infrastructure construction, to reclaim this once fallow land for productive use and the tax rolls. BLCP currently houses almost 700,000 SF of new business facilities, 350 jobs, and is approximately 50% sold out.

Regulatory Reform

  • Launched the rewrite of Buffalo’s 50 year old and outdated zoning code.
  • Revamped permitting processes to streamline approvals.
  • Reviewing state and city laws to bring new tools to urban redevelopment opportunities.
  • Revamped and reformed over 20 policies for small business lending and operations.

Linking Buffalonians to New Jobs

  • In the last 6 months, offered “First Source” services to 18 local companies who placed 146 Buffalonians in new jobs
  • Launched innovative “CleanTech” Jobs initiative to train Buffalonians in renewable energy analysis and installation skills and use $2.7 million in federal Energy stimulus funding to employ them in the rehabilitation of 25 city-owned buildings, save the city$500,000 in annual energy costs and create local demand for building and energy supplies, including up to 1 megawatt of solar panels over 5 years.