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 Passport Office Headed to Genesee Gateway

By Jim Courtney

Wednesday,February 17, 2010

A new passport office is slated for the Genesee Gateway site.

The quest to establish a passport office in Western New York has succeeded, two area congressmen announced Wednesday.

The new federal office will be the first tenant in the refurbished Genesee Gateway complex in downtown Buffalo.

Reps. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, and Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, joined officials from Genesee Gateway LLC and the U.S. Department of State to reveal the destination.

It was nearly a year ago when the lawmakers petitioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, proposing bipartisan legislation to place a passport issuance agency in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region. The office is expected to open to the public this fall.

“Western New Yorkers need to have the ability to travel easily across our northern border to conduct cross-border commerce, a necessity to our region for many years,” Lee said. “With a one-stop shop passport office located right in our community, Western New Yorkers will be able to more easily acquire valid travel documents while not having their need to conduct cross border business negatively influenced."

The office is seen as a necessity since the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. The WHTI instituted new travel rules in summer 2009 that require all U.S. citizens to present a passport or other valid travel document at all land-based ports of entry, including WNY’s four border crossings, which are among the busiest in the nation. The closest passport agency is located in downtown Manhattan, a seven-hour drive from Western New York.

“This passport office is especially important to residents here in Western New York who consider a drive to Canada as routine as a drive to the next town over,” Higgins, a member of the House Northern Border Caucus.

Genesee Gateway, which has 60,000 square feet of space, is undergoing a $10 million rehabilitation and serves as an entry point into downtown Buffalo for traffic exiting the Kensington Expressway/Route 33.