BUFFALO, N.Y. — Two years after the NFTA awarded Savarino Companies pre-development rights to redevelop the second floor of the DL&W terminal along Buffalo's waterfront, owner Sam Savarino had a vision - to bring life back to this historic landmark.
It's a vision that his team, including Courtney Cox, the company's vice president of development, says the entire team shares.
"We see it as an opportunity to become a community and cultural asset, " Cox says. "We've seen for years now a wave of new residential development, mixed-use projects, and now more commercial space coming online so we see this a little bit differently."
The terminal has been vacant since the 1960s. Hopefully, that won't be the case for much longer.
As the NFTA continues construction on the railway and the ground floor, Savarino Companies has begun collecting feedback from the community to support their internal vision.
"The vision is to create a place that adds more to the waterfront district," Cox emphasizes.
But this is far from a top down decision, Cox says community input has been a vital part of this first phase of planning.
"We've got a lot of feedback over the last couple of months reaching out to the community."
From focus groups to interviews to public surveys, like the five minute survey one that is currently circulating on dlandwterminal.com.
"One of the themes that we've been gathering from the community is that it could become the head of the waterfront district, if you will," Cox says.
For now, topics like: inclusion, recreation, and food & beverage have been front runners, but the company is hoping to get even more surveys back by the end of the summer.
As for a construction timeline?
Cox says they're hoping to start construction sometime in the fall and work through winter. The goal is to be done by spring of 2022, that's if all things go according to plan.