Arena’s storied past recalled at ceremony opening waterfront for development
As Aud falls, hopes rise for site
A portion of Memorial Auditorium’s southwest corner was ceremoniously pulled down Tuesday, leaving only skeletal remains to be demolished over the next several days.
The past was hauled away while hundreds watched the final farewell and speakers recalled the Aud’s glory days as a sports and entertainment venue after its completion in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration.
But mainly they talked about the future of the 5-acre site and the waterfront.
“I know for many of us the demolition of the Memorial Auditorium is bittersweet, because this great building has housed so many great memories that so many of us have from attending events at that fine facility,” Mayor Byron W. Brown said.
“But just as the Aud comes down, it gives way to great progress on the waterfront, the progress we are all looking for in Buffalo and Western New York.”
Although Bass Pro has yet to sign a binding contract to locate in Buffalo, development officials said construction will begin next summer on a 130,000- square-foot, two-story store where the Aud stood—recently scaled back from 150,000 square feet and a height of three stories.
The store is to anchor the planned $315 million, 20-acre Canal Side mixed-use redevelopment project, with the aim of attracting droves of residents and tourists to the city’s historic former Erie Canal district.
The project has been slow in the making, with its share of delays, setbacks and clashes with critics. However, with last year’s successful opening of Erie Canal Harbor and the Buffalo & Erie County Naval and Military Park, and now the clearing of the Aud site, there is tangible evidence that significant change could be coming to the waterfront.
Adding to the evidence will be the construction of five original cobblestone streets expected to begin after Labor Day.
“This is really a great project,” said Jordan Levy, chairman of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. “Is it the savior of the economic issues of Western New York? No, it’s not, and we don’t profess to be. We profess to be a major component of quality of life that makes [Western New York] a great place to live and to visit.”
Even with the outward confidence of Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and other lawmakers, along with County Executive Chris Collins and officials who have developed the plans and brought the resources to bear on making Canal Side a reality, public doubts over whether Bass Pro will come to Buffalo remain. The company has yet to sign a binding development contract eight years after discussions began to locate in Buffalo and after considerable public subsidies were dangled to reel in Bass Pro.
“There have been a lot of people who have doubted the Bass Pro project from the beginning, and the talk we heard today is very positive,” said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo. “I’m anxious to see it become a reality.”
Thomas P. Dee, the development corporation president who calls Canal Side “inevitable” and “transformative,” said weekly meetings are now being held with Bass Pro officials in preparation. Dee said Bass Pro “would have to” formalize its commitment after the environmental review process is scheduled for completion in the fall.
Construction on the store itself is to begin next summer and take 10 months, Dee said.
Before that can happen, the building pad will need to be readied, water lines and utilities relocated, foundation walls removed and three levels of underground parking built. That work will start in the fall, Dee said.
He said putting public canals in front of Bass Pro and over to Washington Street is planned for next spring.
Levy said he is hopeful that Benderson Development, the site’s master developer, will present a plan in the next two months for the vacated Donovan State Office Building next to the Aud site that could determine whether the building will be reused or demolished.
The same timeline for a plan extends to the Webster Block, now used for a surface parking lot just north of HSBC Arena.
“They’re working on something we’re quite excited about. We’re hopeful within the next 60 days that they will be ready to announce something there,” Levy said.
A Marine Drive parking ramp—part of a plan to supply 2,300 to 2,700 parking spots within a 1,000-foot radius — is also in the development corporation’s near-term plans.
Questions about the number of parking ramps, representation of local businesses and whether an “authentic, livable mixed-use neighborhood” will be created were among the concerns raised in April at a forum hosted by the Partnership for the Public Good, a community-based think tank. Discussion of those issues is expected to continue.
Canal Side is seen as a catalyst for economic development in surrounding areas, including the Cobblestone District. Levy predicts that five years from now the area will be “teeming with people.”
“I think the best part of it is that the suburbanites are coming down here. We think we’ll have between 12,000 and 15,000 people here this [July 4th] weekend,” Levy said. “It’s really bringing back people who have been afraid, reluctant and unwilling to go downtown because there’s nothing here.”
When the Aud ceremony — which included opening a time capsule from 1939 featuring a Memorial Auditorium blueprint, newspapers, photos and coins — was over, many people lingered, thinking about what the Aud meant to them and what the site might hold for the future.
Rita Kucharski, who grew up on the East Side and now lives in Cheektowaga, said she was pessimistic about the future and “a little sad” to see the Aud go.
“It’s a grand old building,” she said.
Mike Camfield of South Buffalo said he was encouraged by what has been happening.
“I am optimistic. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I do feel there are better things to come, and hopefully things are on the right page.”
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