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Queen City Landing project advances

City Planning Board reacts positively to design of $65 million first phase

By Sharon Linstedt
Updated: 06/04/08 6:40 AM

The former Freezer Queen frozen-food processing plant on the waterfront would be turned into 150 condominiums in this revised design with a nautical theme.

The $200 million Queen City Landing mixed-use project planned for Buffalo’s Outer Harbor got its first public airing before the Buffalo Planning Board Tuesday.

Developers are seeking approval of a site plan for the first $63 million phase of the project which would see conversion of the idle Freezer Queen Food plant on Fuhrmann Boulevard to 150 condominiums. While the planning panel tabled approval of the condo conversion site plan, members expressed general support for the pioneering outer harbor effort.

“Your team has done a great job blending it into the site and the waterfront,” said Planning Board Chairman James A. Morrell.

South District Common Council Member Michael P. Kearns applauded the project for its outer harbor investment, as well as for incorporating public boardwalks and trails.

“It’s great to see access for regular people,” Kearns said regarding the master plan for the full 20-acre peninsula. “This project should be a catalyst for Outer Harbor development.”

The Queen City Landing development group, led by Orchard Park developer Gerald Buchheit, unveiled updated plans for the former food plant. They call for the existing six-story building to be raised by two stories and clad in a new facade with strong marine influences.

The building, as planned, will sport a raised penthouse section that resembles a ship’s bridge.

“It will have a nautical feel,” said project designer Brian Davis of Connecticut-based JCJ Architects. “The mix of white metal panels, blue glass and red accented balconies will give it a ship-like appearance.”

The planning board asked the Queen City group to make a few modifications to the site plan, including relocation of garbage dumpsters, and slight changes to landscaping and parking garage facade trim. The panel also ruled the project does not require a full environmental impact study.

The developer is expected to make those alterations in time for reconsideration at the planning board’s June 17 session.

Phase One of the project would see the existing 350,000- square-foot former food plant gutted and converted to 150 luxury condominiums, with price tags ranging from $350,000 to over $1 million.

The first phase of development will also include construction of an attached three-story parking garage and an enclosed swimming pool/fitness center complex.

The development group hopes to begin renovations this fall and complete the conversion from industrial use to high-end housing by late 2010.

Future phases of the project call for a luxury hotel, marina and townhouses.

In other business, the Planning Board heard a request from Amherst-based Iskalo Development to construct a one-story parking garage to support its Electric Tower office complex downtown. In late 2007, Iskalo floated plans for a three-story, 294-vehicle ramp at the corner of East Huron and Oak street, but has scaled back those plans.

The proposal has been redrawn to specifically meet the requirements of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which requires secure, covered parking for its agents. The smaller, revised ramp would hold 47 vehicles, leaving space for 71 surface slots for other tower tenants.

The planning board tabled the request, raising concerns about a one-story building amid downtown Buffalo’s multistory structures. The board asked Iskalo to revise its design to create a true multistory building, or to add architectural elements to give it the appearance of a two-or three-story building.

Iskalo attorney Sean Hopkins said the ramp project is on a fast track to meet the DEA’s requirements.

“We need to deliver by the end of the year,” Hopkins said.

The DEA will occupy nearly 25 percent of the 125,000- square-foot former Niagara Mohawk headquarters building at 535 Washington St.

The board also tabled action on plans by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to expand into a portion of the former Trico plant at 640 Ellicott St. The panel delayed action after hearing complaints from an adjacent building owner regarding lack of access to a campus-owned alley.

The owner of the former Phoenix Brewing Co. at 835 Washington St. claims the medical center’s plans, which eliminate access to the former Roch - evot Alley, would prevent access to his rear loading bays and fire doors. Parlato’s lawyer, Timothy McCarthy, said his client has tried unsuccessly to work out a permanent arrangement for access to the driveway.

Parlato leases a large portion of the building as warehouse space. His main storage tenant is La-Z-Boy furniture.

Representatives of the medical campus, which has locked entrance and exit gates to the site, said the biomedical tenants who will lease space in the redone Trico site require “24/7” access to the former alley.

“If we can’t deliver, they will go elsewhere,” said BNMC project manager Mark McGovern.

He also said a long-term use agreement with Parlato would preclude location of large-scale equipment to support biomedical research and production in the alleyway.

McCarthy said the dispute could escalate to a lawsuit if his client can’t come to terms with the medical campus.

The medical campus requires board approval of its site plans to move ahead with a $10.5 million overhaul of the four-story former windshield wiper plant to high-tech use.

slinstedt@buffnews.com