But they are historic and shit. I personally would like to see something like CompUSA come back. I think that during their last run on the BLVD, people just weren’t into computers like they are now. Components were higher priced, there wasn’t such a high demand, there were less gamers. I’m not saying give them the whole waterfront, but there is a fuck ass ton of Real Estate downtown once the vacant buildings are removed. Oh best buy doesn’t count.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: breathe :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Brick and Mortar stores that specialize in computers don’t do well typically but a Fry’s in buffalo would be awesome.
IKEA would be a hit downtown I would love it, but skeptical that that will ever happen.
I’ve never been to Fry’s (either one lol). Isn’t it just a Canuck Bestbuy?
Umm no Fry’s started in Cali and has expanded outwards… http://www.frys.com/ac/storelocator/index.jsp
You are thinking of Futureshop in Canada.
Ah yes…futureshop…
Anyway…hopefully Buffalo doesn’t dick around Ikea.
It’s pretty similar to Best Buy. Just bigger and a little less home-store-ish and a little more geekier instead.
A wegmans downtown would be awesome. And it would help the poor in the lower east side have more access to proper nutrition. However this would never fly. They wouldn’t want the poor to have a legitimate reason to be hanging around on the waterfront making it look bad and the residents of the new condos would bitch etc. Plus Wegmans might make the case that they have one in the city limits at Amherst street.
I think all in all it would be a good idea. This city could use more diversification (in terms of residents intermingling)
Hey yeah, lets just bulldoze all those old industrial sites and build neighborhoods on top of them.
Oh wait, what was the name of that neighborhood that tried that… Oh yeah, HICKORY WOODS.
Constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s on an old LTV Steel site in South Buffalo, the Hickory Woods subdivision with its market-rate homes and suburban-style properties, was hailed as a dramatically positive development for Buffalo.
But in the late 1990s, during construction of a new home in the subdivision, developers discovered black coke wastes, refractory bricks and an oozing black substance in the soil. Sampling revealed levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, a carcinogen resulting from steel manufacturing - some as high as 100,000 parts per million, when the allowable federal and state guideline is 15 ppm.
http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/archives/vol31/vol31n25/f2.html
It’s never as easy as it seems.
I was just a few days ago saying they needed a Wegmans near waterfront. I mean its not like any of us are crunching real numbers here but I think its easy to say that people want the waterfront developed. I think a key strategy if building a store is something people in the area need(ie food) or something you can’t get really close by since it would then prosper from the suburban residents coming to the area as well. I will be really happy if they actually get the ball rolling on ANYTHING at this point.
Oh, well, you asked WTF was I talking about.
Sorry for trying to inject some humor into this serious internet business.
If Wegmans was a good idea Wegmans would have done it already.
It may be good for the waterfront but if it is not good for the store it aint gonna happen.
The shoplifting rate would probably be waaaay too high in the city of Buffalo.
lol why am I not surprised. This whole area is full of toxic waste. I was honestly happy for my health when I moved my office from the first floor (which sits 4 feet below grade) at the Praxair site to the third floor. I didn’t like watching guys in tivec suits behind double barriers digging 20 feet from my office. 
OK so the steel mill stays put. Maybe we can start it back up again? If we make some money again there would be markets for Bass Pro’s and Ikeas to serve and we wouldn’t have to convince ourselves of some voodoo reason why a retail store should come here.
It would be fine if your jokes were funny. 
<3
There are plenty of other vacant buildings throughout the city. Doesn’t have to be along the waterfront.
The point is something needs to be done to bring jobs and bring attraction to buffalo other than chicken wings. Buffalo also needs to keep their dicks in their pants and quit prodding them in people’s faces. Pick a spot, pick a contractor, build the fucking thing.
Hrm. Did you know that Buffalo now has a Frank Lloyd Wright boathouse? He designed it in 1905 but it was never built… until 2007.
Seems on par for the normal Buffalo construction time frame.
The irony about this whole mess is all of the RED TAPE that has completely stopped anything from happening. Think about it, ten years of nothing happening because of bullshit interference. If some local little businesses could have had the freedom to start something ten years ago who knows what would be going on down there now. Bass Pro might be in a bidding war with other big companies to get in on part of the action.
At this point why not just let someone do something? Because of fear it may not be the best thing? So the alternative is to have nothing.(?) Great fucking plan.:tup:
You’re right. If ANYONE is willing to set up shop down there at this point, we should let them. Even if it’s on a year to year contract.
I think a supermarket is a bad idea for an anchor store. Most people don’t do their grocery shopping on the same trip as their recreational shopping.
The way an anchor store works is it draws people in who then say, “if I have time I’ll check out some of the other stores while I’m there”. The problem with a grocery store is people will go there first since that was the reason for their trip and then not want to go anywhere else because they have a car full of perishables.
I agree downtown needs a big grocery store if you expect lots of people to live here but I don’t think it should be part of the harbor development, at least not as an anchor.
They have a big sign up DT accepting donations to build Frank Lloyd Wright’s gas station as well. Wonder if it has pay at the pump.
And the grocery store would be another stage in the process. Step 1 would be getting people to visit down there, and like it enough to want to live there. Then that kind of thing could be filled in.