BUFFALO, N.Y. — We are once again celebrating Western New York with the return of Shea's Seneca. The piece of South Buffalo history is now reviving that neighborhood without forgetting its roots.
"It was a challenging process, but it's truly very rewarding and fulfilling to be done now and it turned out beautifully," says developer Jake Schneider.
It's like stepping back in time to Hollywood's golden era at the official building dedication of Shea's Seneca in South Buffalo. The lobbies are fully restored to their original 1929 splendor.
A lot of people remember going there to see movies before the theater in the back was torn down.
"They tell me how they spent a quarter to come to the shows, and now they see it again and I see them, their eyes glaze over and they're just touched deeply by the renaissance that's taken place here," says Schneider.
Paul Winkler remembers coming to Shea's Seneca to see movies when he was little.
"I came to movies here and then a little later on, I saw a Bob Seger concert here for about a dollar. They used to have bowling alleys here and the Sky Light Room and I was up there and that was years ago," says Winkler.
If you go upstairs now where the Sky Room concert venue was, you'll find 23 new apartments including one right over the marquee featuring two stories, two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. On the first floor, there's the event space, shops and restaurants.
"They're nice apartments. They are. They're set up really nice. There are stairs, you know, we're getting a little older now, a little bit more stairs than we want to climb, but they're nice apartments," says Winkler.
There is an elevator in the building and parking in the back.