Lockport NY

The LUSJ reported that the community market is up and running on Canal street and will be for every Saturday this month:

The brand new Lockport Community Market is off to a good start, according to Heather Peck, program director of Lockport Main Street Inc. And there is still time for vendors to sign up.

The outdoor business and merchant market held its first event Saturday, a “Kids Day” that featured kids games, a magic show, face painting and a performance from the Palace Theatre cast of “Hairspray the Musical.” Peck said 27 vendors were present Saturday, with 20 of them setting up a booth on Canal Street overlooking the Erie Canal locks.

“It went very well,” Peck said. “We had a good showing, we’re very excited. It’s been a steady crowd, a few people have even said they’ve seen folks they haven’t seen in a while. It’s kind of a gathering place.”...

The Buffalo News and the LUSJ have both reported on the GLDC deal with Trek Inc of Medina to occupy the top two floors of 57 Canal St.

A Medina company will be moving some of its employees to Lockport, as it leases the second and third floors of the largest building on Canal Street.

Mayor Michael W. Tucker said Wednesday that Trek Inc. will pay $90,000 a year, or $7.50 per square foot, for the top two stories of 57 Canal St.

Also, the city will be selling the smallest building on the block, 79-81 Canal St., to Lockport Cave for $70,000 as a new headquarters for the seasonal tourist attraction.

Trek, founded in Medina in 1968, is expanding its production facilities and needed someplace to move its engineering, and research and development departments, said Cindy Coons, company human resources manager....

The price is cheap but it will cover the build out and after 4 years it will still be completed viable space if Trek decides to not renew the lease. Could be a kick start if bigger plans are put into place.  It is nice to see that they wisely kept the 1st floor free for a business to generate foot traffic (even thought the facade isn't designed for it). The street will need some infill and the street opened to traffic if any sustained foot traffic and street life are desired.

A second article by the LUSJ on the deal and another about a local connection to the Verison project underscore the positives that can be gained from the "negatives" of the area's children moving away for better opportunities. Instill in them a love for their hometown, etc and someday they could return with opportunities.

While Ulrich was toying with NCCC we were told there were three other interests just waiting for the opportunity to get one of the buildings. After a lot of down time I heard that something could be happening soon. Now the Buffalo News reported that Lockport Cave Tours appears to be continuing to persue the east most buildings:

The city’s development agency is bargaining with Lockport Cave owner Thomas Callahan, who is interested in acquiring a vacant building at the east end of Canal Street...

Someone please open a Niagara Wine Trail store before NCCC beats us to it at the old Rainbow Mall. Lockport still continues to miss the opportunity to make itself known as the starting point of the trail. The state highway Wine Trail sign at the Niagara Falls Blvd exit in Amherst shows how irrelevant we have allowed ourselves to remain in regards to the overall wine trail.

It looks like NCCC Culinary Institute will be at the Old Rainbow Mall as Cordish has so graciously given up his long term lease. I wish them the best as that concrete bunker is formidable but the redo of Falls St. is quite beautiful and should be a good foundation to build off of.  I'm also a little amused to the whole over reaction to the donation of the mall lease by Cordish. It's been vacant for a decade though I guess he is losing the tax write off and that is worth something.

"Cordish has offered to “donate” Rainbow Square’s lease on the city-owned mall “in an effort to see this proposed culinary institute project move forward,” said Corporation Counsel Craig H. Johnson."

As for Canal St here in Lockport, are the other three parties still interested? Will we see them move forward now that the door is open on the opportunity?

And can we please secure ourself as the epicenter of the wine loop? If the "Niagara Wine Trail" sign at the Niagara Falls Blvd exit on the 290 is not offensive enough, having a signature store in the Falls will surely up it.

The Buffalo News and The LUSJ reported on Ulrich's latest (first?) public solicitation of NCCC for its culinary institute to be placed on Canal St.:

Developer David L. Ulrich on Wednesday continued making his pitch for Niagara County Community College to locate its planned culinary arts institute on Canal Street.

The college's current plans -- described as a $13.2 million hospitality and tourism school -- call for the project to be located in part of the former Rainbow Centre mall in Niagara Falls.

Ulrich, touting the prospects of the Lockport site, called his plans a "combination of two good ideas" -- the college's school and Lockport's refurbished block overlooking the Erie Canal locks.

NCCC will not say no, but will also say nothing else:

...The school doesn’t want to burn any bridges with a developer, or the City of Lockport, by saying “no” — especially since it has had such difficulty acquiring a site in Niagara Falls — but the culinary institute has always been conceived as a school with retail components planned specifically to feed off the Falls tourist market, he said.

“That (Ulrich) is offering us an alternative is a real compliment to the idea of a culinary institute; when he says he can build us a first-class campus and save X amount of money, I don’t doubt him, he’s got a good reputation,” Klyczek said, “but going to Lockport would require a major reworking of the plan. ... (Canal Street) is a nice property; the parking ramp concept is interesting; but in our development team’s opinion, it’s not within the framework of what we’ve been pursuing.”...

An unfunded school knee-deep in discussions for another location and being lured with an unfunded ramp.

Current thoughts:
1) why does NCCC need all the buildings? The smaller two should be for other uses to create a mix on the block. Use the largest building and the Old City Hall as NCCC bait....for now.
2) Even better: get all three current buildings in the hands of those that currently want to buy them and build a new building on the large waste-of-space gazebo area. It looks to be a bigger area than the old Harison building. Everyone would get a piece, we would not need to wait to start things happening and the street would end up with a nice mix of year round uses.

Older ideas on the area here: LCC - Canal - Gooding St Area



View LCC - Canal St - Gooding St area in a larger map

View LCC - Canal St - Gooding St area in a larger map

UPDATE: Intersection over 100 years ago: (Thanks Jeff)
What once existed in places never ceases to amaze me.

It seems there are others out there share the ideas of some of my recent posts on Canal St.. As reported by the LUSJ:

...The block of four city-owned buildings, overlooking parallel old and modern sets of locks near the Pine Street bridge, seems like the logical center of a heritage tourism district, they say; but the fact the touring season only lasts six months a year means the block should not be reserved exclusively for tourism-related uses.

Mixed-use development — first-floor retail appealing to visitors and locals, and guaranteed year-round users of upper floors, say offices and/or residential lofts — would be the best strategy for Greater Lockport Development Corp. to pursue as it is soliciting building tenants and/or buyers, business owner Mike Murphy and Canal Task Force volunteer Jane Whitmore both suggested...

Now only if the city would present what its ultimate vision is we could probably move forward in a more orderly fashion. And I will ask the question: what is considered "tourist related"?

As a tourist myself, I may seek out a local attraction or two to highlight the day but the rest of the time I look for the amenities that any local resident would look for. Diverse shops, places to eat, people watching etc are part of the background that makes a trip fun but that may also go unnoticed. I do not seek out T-shirt shops, cheap tacky gift shops, etc. I do not look forward to hopping in my car traveling parking lot to parking lot or conversely walking past a bunch of nothing for long stretches.

From my point of view, the best street to offer to tourists is the same street that would be best for residents: diverse, full of mixed use buildings and thus ultimately full of people. Make the smallest building near Pine St a small welcome center and fill the rest of the street with places that people are drawn to in general. Throw in some residents to have lights on and bodies around 24-7 and off we go on a journey from just being a place to visit to also being a place that worth seriously considering living in.

The Buffalo News and The LUSJ have both reported on the attempts of small-business to land on Canal St.

Does a “small” business person have a prayer of landing a piece of Canal Street?


A few who’ve tried believe they do not, especially once a bigger entity like inLighten or, now, Ulrich Development Corp., enters the picture.
But the city’s development arm says they are not playing favorites and will consider all offers currently on the table....

This is the highest profile section of street along the Canal in Lockport. The biggest issue here is the city's lack of a plan for the street. If there was a plan in place it wouldn't matter if there were separate entities or one trying to develop the block. Though with the money needed to finish each building and create in-fill to make it successful, I'd say a large developer and their money is needed.

I've mentioned the current draw backs:
-No thru traffic in a pedestrian light area.
-Only two or three street level store fronts separated by almost a city block.
-No continuous street frontage to draw pedestrians down it.
-No plan to ensure it has the best chance of drawing people year round to make it viable.


This should be a signature project. Anything less will sell the street and the city short. It should one-up Ulrich City Center and pick up on what was missed over there. Offer tax-breaks etc to offset the investment needed in exchange for a mixed-use development that should set the precedent for future development downtown while showing visitors a progressive city. Invite successful developers from Buffalo and Rochester to sell them on the opportunity and then bid on it. No one bids well enough, increase the incentives and repeat...

 

Seems Lockport’s (only?) developer David Ulrich is proposing something for Canal St. today. The Buffalo News and the LUSJ reported:

...David L. Ulrich is to meet behind closed doors today with the board of the city’s development agency to discuss the empty buildings along the north bank of the Erie Canal, which were renovated at a cost of more than $3 million, mostly in state and federal grants.

Proposals ranging from a wine store to the headquarters of a digital screen manufacturer have fallen through.
Now Ulrich, landlord of Ulrich City Centre on Main Street, will go before the Greater Lockport Development Corp. to make a pitch for a new project...

What would you hope to see?

I’d love to see the Niagara Wine Loop Shop come back in its original form. I’d be knocked silly if an actual residential mix was proposed. I may need shock paddles if mixed use infill development is mentioned.

UPDATE 06-04-10
Most meeting updates from The Buffalo News and The LUSJ with not much by the way of new information.

LUSJ reported that last night Chapman (4th Ward) criticized the potential sale of Canal St. to InLighten.

Behind the scenes, several city officials said, Chapman has been highly critical of Greater Lockport Development Corp.’s desire to sell four Canal Street properties to inLighten, a global digital media technologies company.

Out front Wednesday, Chapman proposed that when city-owned property is up for sale or lease, the Council should set “parameters” for the negotiations, not leave them to the GLDC board of directors, alone.

 While I'm not opposed to Chapman's desires (it is good to have some benchmarks) I fail to see the downside of 100 higher paying jobs and a million plus in investment in the downtown core. While the "tourist" aim got us the funding to clean up the block, the isolation of the street from the rest of downtown, the missing buildings in the street scape and the fact that the largest building mid block has not store frontage the aim was not on the mark for the best use without further build out of the block. The wine emporium at the Pine St. end would have been nice but it can do just as well on Main st. It is not like the buildings are being sold cheap to make a dollar store.

Concentrate the commercial interests along Main St. It has a lot of continuity gaps that still need to be filled in with people drawing uses. Let canal street get back into private hands, grow jobs that will pay much more than retail and get 100 more people downtown on a daily business. Move the gazebo to allow for a new building. It can be part of any new green space at the parking ramp site.

The problem with envelopes: Somebody has to foot the bill for interior buildout, either the tenant/buyer or GLDC. The agency doesn’t have the cash — and neither, it seems, do most small businesspeople who’ve expressed interest in a building.

Late last year, inLighten proposed buying all four buildings, for $100,000, and investing $1.5 million in development of new company headquarters on the block. The Depew-based business would move 70 jobs here and create 25 new jobs, according to its proposal. Its annual payroll is said to be about $4.5 million; and the paychecks go to engineers, software developers and programmers, tech support specialists, editorial staff.

“Nobody else has come running to us and said, ‘We’ll put a million dollars into this,’” GLDC board member Chris Boron said.

Nobody else has proposed a business that would bring 100 jobs and year-round additional foot traffic downtown, either, Murphy said...

UPDATE: 02/25/10
The Buffalo News also reported

As company officials consider other locations, Aldermen Andrew D. Chapman and Joseph D. Kibler raised the issue over the site included in a potential deal to attract inLighten, a digital screen maker.
Chapman said he would prefer a tourism-related use for Canal Street, telling other city leaders his “dream” would be to have an offshoot of Rochester’s Strong Museum locate in the spot that has been the subject of negotiations between the Greater Lockport Development Corp. and inLighten since late last year.

Let's keep dancing around while some other area lays out the welcome mat and we lose out. With inLighten, MTC etc we could maybe start branding the city as a place to do 21st century business (or at the least 20th). The effort should be to get the same lines Yahoo is getting ran to and thru DT. Actively market it and the companies that would now be here. I know of one software company (was on Robinson) that left the town because the data lines were not fast enough for their remote programming etc. More 50k+ jobs out of Lockport and off to Amherst.

Tourist Canal St was a nice (if unrealistically hopeful idea.) We've had a much better one knock on our door. Don't chase it away. Pull it in and lock the door behind it. ;) A healty 21st century corporate presence DT will go a lot farther in impressing visitors than another restuarant and antique shop.

Some exciting news for DT/Canal St is being reported in the LUSJ and The Buffalo News. InLighten is considering Canal St for relocation. It is always very interesting to find out about WNY businesses that would otherwise be under the collective radar. It's more exciting when they want to capitalize on current trends of operating out of historic buildings and adding to/parking in the vitality an urban area offers. All the better when it's considering DT Lockport. It's been happening in Buffalo for the last several year's.

Currently operating out of newer leased space on Walden Ave in Depew they are currently looking for their own space:

"Any relocation of inLighten would have to consider how it impacts our growing team of employees and their families," said Dan Snyder, president and founder. "We are searching for a community that recognizes the great opportunity inLighten offers and is willing to work with the company through a relocation and the future growth of our company." ....

...The company was looking at a privately owned site in Lockport, but Tucker said that deal fell through and he stepped in to try to keep inLighten from going elsewhere.
"They were looking for a community like ours. They wanted to be downtown so their employees could walk around," Tucker said.

With its non continuous street frontage and its biggest building having no real street presence. I had doubts with Canal St attaining any high retail use or street level activity. This presents a great opportunity to add workers downtown who will be able to walk to places like Chet's, Tom's, Daily Grind, India Grill etc. No more having to hop into your car to race to a BK (though it would still be an option ;). Add to that Lunch time walks along the canal etc and you start to offer your employees more than a cubicle and a parking lot with tress for their work life.

Watch out on the parking. The land on the other side of Gooding is a waste and prime for canal visitor/worker parking. All Saints lot is a block north and only really used for church services a couple times a week. Perhaps the church would like a few bucks for overflow parking? Non-planned single use parking will kill the whole reason for locating in a DT area. Perhaps this will add some credence to the ramp proposal.

Another bonus is the possible leasing of space at Harrison Place:

Tucker said a rental of some space in Harrison Place, the city-owned former Harrison Radiator Division plant, is part of the deal. He said inLighten would need that space for warehousing and perhaps for manufacturing.

With places like Yahoo coming just outside the city limits, InLighten a possibility, MTC already on Main St what is the plan to get workers to want to invest in the city?

And speaking of MTC, perhaps they could make a phone call or two InLighten? Nothing like word of mouth from your contemporaries who have already done what is being considered.

It looks like my opinions over the downtown wine shop will stand as is...

Questions raised over wine store - US&J

Important quotes for the skimmers out there:

“I have no desire to help bring people to this town any more,” Martin said. “I think the mayor made the biggest tactical error ever by screwing with me. I will never, ever, lift a finger for the city again, that’s my bottom line.”

and

Bittner said her business will be different from the one Beautiful Visions proposed in several regards. Theirs was a cooperative and hers is to be controlled solely by The Winery At Marjim Manor. Theirs envisioned making shelf space available to all Trail wineries to display as little or as much product as they wanted. Hers will invite Trail wineries to showcase one or two products a month based on themes. Both incorporated local, packaged product displays and a local tourism-promotion component, but Bittner said she intends to create event and education centers as well.

And the Mayor seems to be guilty of trying to get something, ANYTHING into canal street at any cost.

So what's the end result?

• Pissed off a well respected local busnessman and property owner downtown who was known for their charitable work, to the point that they have pulled back from the City and the County, and might just move somewhere else.
• Allowed Margo Bitner to take the idea and distort it to the point that the winery will be all about her, and in order to make it seem like she's playing nice she's allowing one winery a month to sell one or two wines.

Good job!

I just hope Martin reconsideres his decision to pull out of the area. He just got screwed over by a greedy busnesswoman, and the mayor was just too willing to turn around and give full support for someone else with the same project.

-Erik.

The city is asking Niagara County for $100,000 to help launch a Wine Emporium on Canal Street.

On behalf of Beautiful Visions LLC, the city earlier this month filed an application for a Niagara River Greenway grant to complete the purchase and furnishing of 79 Canal St.

Beautiful Visions, a separate company by J. Fitzgerald Group partners Jack Martin and Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, would rent the building to Margo Bittner’s Appleton Creek Winery LLC as a satellite winery.

According to Martin, the Wine Emporium would sell all Niagara County-produced wines and a host of other locally grown and created goods.

...

Mayor Michael Tucker vouched for the project in the grant application, writing in a support letter that the emporium would be the “stimulus to entice other businesses” to the Canal Street block. GLDC has showed 79 Canal to several prospective buyers but is holding them off in the hope Beautiful Visions goes for the purchase; it has “first dibs” at the moment, he said, because its proposal satisfies two GLDC goals — recruiting retail and increasing downtown’s tourist appeal.

A proposed Lockport retail outlet that would sell Niagara County-produced goods, pegged by supporters as a potential center for tourists interested in the county’s Wine Trail, failed to receive the endorsement of the Niagara River Greenway Commission this week.

By a 6-4 vote, the commission found the Canalside Wine Emporium proposal did not meet the goals of a 2007 master plan for a Buffalo-to- Youngstown recreational trail along the Niagara River.

The Greenway Commission holds no power to award funding, but its denial raises roadblocks for the project receiving any share of the $9 million in annual funding dedicated to Greenway projects.

...

Initially, the proposal from Beautiful Vision LLC called for the property at 79 Canal St. to be privately owned. The project, as presented Tuesday, had been changed — the City of Lockport would now maintain ownership of the building.

...

The project will still move forward, and other funding sources will be sought, he said. Sponsors had been seeking $100,000 in Greenway funds for acquisition costs, according to their initial application.

Applicants who fail to receive commission endorsement are free to resubmit their plans, said Rob Belue, the commission’s executive director.

Some of the commissioners deemed the project inconsistent because they believed the project’s location was outside the boundaries of the Greenway, as well as the location having limited connections to the Niagara River, though some who voted in favor considered the project to have sufficient geographic ties with the Greenway.

...

Lockport Mayor Michael W. Tucker said he was angered by the commission’s vote, but said the project will move forward. The city’s development agency, Greater Lockport Development Corp., might spend $100,000 of its own money to fix up the building and then sell it to Beautiful Visions, he said.

“There were some great projects, but ours was the best,” Tucker said of the projects reviewed by the Greenway Commission on Tuesday.

Greater Lockport Development Corp. is taking action to ensure the Wine Emporium opens on Canal Street this summer.

GLDC’s board of directors this week approved spending the money to outfit 79 Canal St. as a satellite winery/marketplace for all locally produced goods. The agency will pay the tab for having the building interior finished, then lease or sell it to the company that pitched the Wine Emporium.

“Finally, we’ll have something on the block, and it’s the right thing,” Mayor Michael Tucker, GLDC president, said Friday.

Beautiful Visions, a separate company by J. Fitzgerald Group partners Jack Martin and Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, pitched the Emporium as a showcase for products created in Niagara County.

...

Martin will negotiate with GLDC principals next week regarding whether his company will lease or purchase the improved building from GLDC

...

It’s using money from its revolving loan fund, which is considered private, not public, cash, [Attorney John Ottaviano] said. The agency may use the contractors that Martin already obtained estimates from.

A local winery owner plans to open a store selling Niagara County farm products exclusively, while the man who first broached the idea charges he was double-crossed.

Mayor Michael W. Tucker told the Greater Lockport Development Corp. board Thursday that the Canalside Wine Emporium is to open next year at 79 Canal St., a building owned by the city corporation.

Margo S. Bittner, owner of the Winery at Marjim Manor in Appleton, will be in charge, and her employee, Sara Capen of Newfane, will manage the store.

Jack Martin, owner of J. Fitzgerald Group, a Lockport ad agency, is out of the picture, Tucker said.

An angry Martin said, “I’ve spent eight months trying to do something for the city, and I’m done. We’re going to focus on our own business.”

He blasted Bittner for allegedly stealing his idea and going to the city with a proposal after Martin’s talks with the city broke down.

Martin said, “Margo’s name is pretty muddy around the area, and this is how she deals. She runs over people.”

...

Bittner said, “I guess everyone’s got their own opinion. I am quite frankly looking forward to working with the other wineries and the other businesses I have good relations with.”

“I’ll put our reputation up against anyone else involved in this debacle,” Martin said.

He and his ad agency partner, Carmel Cerullo-Beiter, came up with the idea of a retail store selling the wines produced in Niagara County and other local farm products. At first, their idea was to place it at 16 W. Main St., a storefront owned by J. Fitzgerald Group, two doors from the ad agency.

Bittner’s firm was asked to be the lead winery and to enlist the support of other members of the Niagara Wine Trail. Capen already manages Bittner’s satellite outlet, the Kempville Wine Shop in Olcott, and was to manage the Lockport store, too.

Martin then became interested in 79 Canal St., above the Erie Canal locks, but things started to come unglued May 19.

...

The city’s development corporation then tried to work with Martin’s group on the project. But that went awry, too.

Martin said he had a verbal agreement with the city to buy the property for $95,000, but after a June 8 closed-door development agency meeting, the deal was substantially altered and became more expensive.

The city was to sell the property to Martin for $108,000, after a three-year lease with a balloon payment at the end. Martin also thought the property would be tax-exempt for five years, but it wasn’t.

“It’s kind of like the Wizard of Oz. We could never find out who was behind the curtain,” Martin said Thursday.

Tucker said, “I think the [development agency] board bent over backwards for Jack. The project kept changing. They didn’t have a business plan. They didn’t have any projections. They know Jack, or know of Jack, and his success in business and his desire to help our community. If John Q. Public had come in with the same proposal Jack had, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere, but they had confidence in Jack.”

The negotiations foundered, and Martin decided to open the store at 16 W. Main after all. Bittner didn’t like that news; she said, “I think Canal Street is ideal.”

On June 22, she e-mailed Martin, “I was very surprised to read in the newspaper that the Emporium will be opening on Main Street. Which winery are you working with? By the way, before you use the name, you need to know that I have trademarked ‘Canalside Wine Emporium.’ ”

By July 7, Martin had learned that Bittner and Capen approached the city for a new Canal Street deal. “Unscrupulous,” Martin termed it.

Tucker said Thursday that the city has applied for another Greenway grant, this one $200,000. The city will keep the money to hire a contractor to make both floors of 79 Canal ready for occupancy, while Bittner works on obtaining a liquor license, which she said will take three or four months.

...

Bittner said the Greenway commission is supposed to vote on the grant Sept. 22.

Good luck. I'd love to see this come to fruition.