Downtown Bus Depot Slated for Overhaul: Plan Includes Shops and Restaurants
By Sharon Linstedt, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Apr. 28–The downtown bus depot is slated to become more than just a place to catch a ride.
The area’s transit agency has taken the wraps off a nearly $19 million plan to overhaul the 31- year-old Metropolitan Transportation Center. Preliminary plans call for dramatic interior and exterior changes to the dull, dated center at North Division and Ellicott streets in the heart of downtown.
A new glass first-floor facade with an exterior electronic message board and a redone interior with restaurants and shops are among the key features.
“We want the Transportation Center to be a welcoming gateway to Buffalo and a downtown destination,” said NFTA Commissioner Eunice Lewin, chairwoman of the authority’s Surface Transportation Committee.
This marks the third time in a decade that the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority has floated plans to modernize the bus terminal, which is the arrival/departure point for Greyhound and Trailways bus service, as well as the main hub for Metro Bus routes.
“We had grand plans, but there were always other ideas floating around out there that made us hesitant to put money into the building,” NFTA Executive Director Lawrence Meckler said.
He pointed to the failed proposal to create an intermodal transit center in Memorial Auditorium and a push for the NFTA to vacate its prime downtown site to make way for expansion of the nearby Erie Community College City Campus.
“Now we know we’re going to be here for the foreseeable future, and we can to take steps to make this a great building, an asset to downtown,” Meckler said.
The NFTA also has to find a way to pay for the ambitious work.
“We’ll be seeking traditional federal and state transportation dollars, but we also think we can position this as an economic development project, opening the door to nontransportation sources and private investment,” he said.
As proposed, the NFTA would spend a minimum of $15.04 million on capital improvements and related expenses. Depending on its success in drumming up fiscal support, another $3.5 million in enhancements, including the exterior lighting/message system, water features and terrazzo flooring will be part of the project.
The authority is expected to kick off its hunt for money by early summer, with the goal of starting construction in fall 2009. The project will take at least a year to complete.
Under concept plans developed by Buffalo’s Architectural Resources, the entire first floor would be gutted, and large glass windows would create “clear views from the outside in and the inside out.”
“Right now, unless you have to be in this building, you don’t come in. It’s not an inviting structure,” Meckler said.
The NFTA will seek a local and national restaurant and retail tenants to serve bus travelers. The hub will soon become a destination for Megabus, bringing busloads of visitors in from Toronto and New York City.
The authority also is hoping to attract people who live and work in the downtown core with the spiffed-up building and enhanced offerings. It also wants to improve conditions for its employees.
slinstedt@buffnews.com
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