Lakefront Sets Sail

At completion, Buffalo Lakefront will encompass a marina with 380 boat slips and a 34,000-sf marina store, clubhouse and service building at Seaway Pier; Lakefront Park residences, a complex of 143 townhouses, 580 residential condos and 300 rental units with 236 canal slips and 53,000 sf of office and retail space; a 300,000-sf convention center, 215,000-sf sports center, and accompanying 300- to 500-room hotel; a Wintergarden complex of 200,000 sf of class A office space; a 4,500-seat Festival Park theater and 500,000-sf Festival Pavilion in former Terminal A; a 150-suite hotel, and an 80,000-sf waterpark and aquarium. A minimum of 20 acres of green space for public use is included in the master plan, which also calls for public access to the lake and creation of a central canal.

Craig Guers, vice president and general manager of Plymouth Meeting, PA-based Opus East, tells GSR, "the project priced out at about $800 million over a seven- to 10-year timeframe. It will be done in increments, and each phase has four to five sub phases."

He acknowledges that his company, the mid-Atlantic affiliate of Minnesota-based Opus Group, is known primarily for industrial development, "our bread and butter. But Opus national," he says, "has moved into the top 10 of retail developers and is now in the top 10 of multifamily, too. The market tells us what to do, and we're looking at retail projects in Philadelphia and mixed-use development in Pennsylvania."

For Buffalo Lakefront, Opus East partnered in master planning with Chicago-based VOA Associates, which has been involved in mixed-used urban and waterfront development, most notably Chicago's Navy Pier; Amherst, NY-based Uniland Development, which has long been involved in Buffalo-area projects and gives the team "a local presence," Guers says; Urban Retail Properties Co., in Chicago, as retail specialist; and locally based Bidco for underwater and marine-related construction services.

Guers says, "it's up to us to control the entire design, engineering, construction, management and marketing. We may hire third-party entities for particular specialty areas of the project as it moves along," he adds. The project is expected to commence in early 2006, beginning with infrastructure improvements, followed by development of the marina at Seaway Pier, now scheduled for completion in the first half of 2009.

Retail development will take place in two phases. The first will coincide with development of Lakefront Park Residences, set to begin during the last half of 2006 and aim for completion five years later.

"This will encompass about 80,000 sf within a town center," Connie Dyer, SVP of Urban Retail, tells GSR. "It will not be a traditional mall type setting, but ground-floor shops. Retail tenants will be ones that serve the residences, such as a grocery, dry cleaner, bank, and restaurants," she says.

The second retail phase will coincide with development of the Festival Park and Pavilion, slated for construction over a two-year span beginning in the final quarter of 2009. "It's pretty far out to speculate on just what form that retail sector will take," Dyer says. "But it will be geared toward serving the tourism component, primarily among those who travel to Buffalo from Canada. Buffalo already gets a lot of visitors from Canada, and they do shop there," she adds. Buffalo Riverfront is expected to bring much more such commerce from the North.

Bass Pro Shops' Buffalo development is less than a mile from Buffalo Riverfront and will connect along the same lakefront stretch. Funded nearly half by public sector investment, it expects to open in 2007 and draw between three million and five million visitors annually, according to Jim Hagale, president of the Springfield, MO-based retailer. It is the company's second store in New York State and its third largest among its current 28 US units.

Beyond the financial incentives, this location offers Bass Pro the opportunity to have on-water boat demonstrations, guided fishing trips, and water-based outdoor skills workshops, Hagale notes. Big-ticket boat sales are an important component of the retailer's business. Among Guers' observations during long months in Buffalo preparing the lakefront development plan, "was the city's extraordinary affinity for the lake."

Hooking Bass Pro accelerated approval of Buffalo Lakefront, and both are seen as part of the city's continuing retail recruitment program. "It's much easier for retailers to follow in the footsteps of the one who made the first step," says Mayor Anthony Masiello, "and Bass Pro leaves a big footprint." The city is collaborating with Buffalo Niagara Enterprise to attract more local and national retailers to designated urban areas. Equipped with census data showing a high level of disposable income with the downtown core, the collaborative is targeting both convenience-oriented boutiques and big box retailers.

This October, Buffalo will host an ICSC regional alliance program, and BNE plans on rolling out the red carpet, using Bass Pro and Buffalo Lakefront as chief lures to hook major retail developers, many of whom will be visiting the city for the first time. Thomas Kucharski, BNE's president and CEO, sees a larger catch of retail as part of a larger picture. "A lively retail scene is one of those quality-of-life issues that are evaluated when corporate relocation/expansion decisions are made," he says. "We believe, and our data supports it, that there is a huge untapped opportunity here for the retail industry."