BUFFALO, N.Y. — The West Side Bazaar is getting a new home soon on Niagara Street.
Over the past 11 years, The West Side Bazaar has launched the dreams of dozens of small business owners including the owner of Nile River.
"I am so happy. I can't wait to be here next year," said Akec Aguar, owner of West Side Bazaar restaurant Nile River.
Operated by The Westminster Economic Development Initiative, or WEDI, the incubator space includes restaurants and shops. It's so popular, there's a wait list of more than one-hundred businesses to get a spot.
"If you read any article about Buffalo's resurgence, most of them include a reference to the West Side Bazaar. It's a major cultural destination. People will come to it where ever we are. You may consider Niagara Street to be industrial now, but with a vision of the investment the federal government has made on this street structure here, it's becoming a residential neighborhood," said WEDI Board President Stephen Zenger.
The West Side Bazaar will move from its 32-hundred square foot home on Grant Street to an old factory with more than 16-thousand square feet on Niagara Street.
Monday, Congressman Brian Higgins announced $950,000 in federal funding for the West Side Bazaar.
"150 years ago it was the Irish coming here, and now it's people from South Sudan and all over the world. All of whom enrich and ennoble us because of the great diversity of culture that is separate and distinct to them, but a melding of that all together so that all of us are enriched and ennobled," said Congressman Brian Higgins.
The new space is expected to see the number of small businesses double from 12 to 24 and will include seats for almost two-hundred people and a new kitchen. Construction is expected to start this summer with an opening date sometime next year.