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Old Posted Aug 31, 2006, 9:06 PM
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Halovet Halovet is offline
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Location: South Bend, Indiana (Hometown: Buffalo, NY)
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BUFFALO | Development Thread

There is more Warterfront talk going on!



From Buffalo Rising:

Why Senator Schumer's Waterfront Proposal Is Correct

by Steve Siegel

Editor's Note: The image used for this post is an alternative plan recently presented by Citizen's Vision for the Lakefront. The group spoke at the BOHW Waterfront Discussion this past saturday. The image is being shown here merely to point out that various groups have different ideas as to how our waterfront should function. This proposal's #1 concern was keeping waterfront land open to the public. It is an image that until Saturday we had never seen. The above proposal is NOT Senator Schumer's waterfront proposal.



The current jousting between the city and the anointed developers of the harbor project is rather frustrating to the many that were energized by the possibility that this project would proceed. But, in retrospect, the current impasse is wholly predictable.

Recent posts and comments have provided some great perspective on the hows and whys of the current situation - and even provided ideas on how to proceed from here. What needs to be discussed is why, from a more holistic perspective, all these large, complex development projects almost always follow the same pattern of: “yes…finally .. thank god, it’s going to happen……oh s@#*, screwed again!

Think of the great looking male “Cade” in high school who dates the rather ordinary looking girl who he knows is lacking in self confidence. About halfway through the date he demands that they take a little drive over to lovers’ lane. The girl, though rather plain looking, is nobody’s fool and declines. The Cade responds that she is lucky to have a suitor the likes of him and that she will never do any better.

The city is the rather plain looking girl and the suitor is Uniland, or Bass Pro, or the Seneca Nation – take your pick.

My point is that from a strategic business point of view, cities that consistently pull off development projects that, to the frustrated residents in the city of Buffalo appear to be development miracles, are always cities that recognize that they need to find developers who need to accomplish the project more than the city needs the project accomplished. In other words the city holds the upper hand and the developer is either an equal partner or the equivalent of an economic “lapdog” that must do as the city demands because this project is a “silver bullet” project to the developer, but merely one more in a series of small, but important projects to the city. Why can Bass Pro, the Seneca Nation and Uniland attempt to continually dictate new terms to the city? It’s because if they don’t get their way, they can walk away and develop elsewhere and probably get a better return on the investment, with less risk.

The cities inability to recognize this reality and find development partners that the city possesses strategic advantages over, is one big reason why we see this same pattern repeating itself over and over again.

I presume that Senator Schumer’s proposal to subdivide the project into many smaller projects is at least in part based upon his acceptance of these realities. It is also why the city should use this impasse as an opportunity to walk away from the deal – this is only the first of many new demands that the developers will make upon the city.

Schumer’s proposal makes sense, and in my mind is the only strategically viable way to proceed at this point.

http://www.buffalorising.com/city/ar...umers_wate.php
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