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11 Projects Locally Vie for $24 Million in Stimulus

By David Robinson

May 13, 2010

 There’s plenty of competition among local companies for the $24 million pot of tax-exempt financing available through the federal economic- stimulus program.

Eleven projects in Erie County from 10 developers have applied for the lower-cost financing. Those projects are seeking a total of $113 million in financing, which is more than four times the amount of funding that is available through Erie County and the City of Buffalo, said Grant Loomis, a spokesman for County Executive Chris Collins.

The next step will be to weed through the applications and decide which projects will receive funding— and how much they will get. With such high demand, some projects could receive less funding than they applied for, while others might receive none at all.

The county is responsible for handing out $17.1 million in Recovery Zone bond funding, while City of Buffalo officials will determine the fate of $7.2 million. The county’s goal is to select its recipients by the end of June, Loomis said.

One of the projects seeking funding is Galvstar LLC, a startup company that wants to open a steel-processing business in a portion of the abandoned American Axle & Manufacturing plant on the East Side. Galvstar officials are seeking $18 million in funding.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., threw his backing behind the Galvstar project Wednesday, writing to Collins and Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown in support of the steel plant’s application.

“We have a rare opportunity to bring good-paying, union steel jobs back to Buffalo for a change, and we should grab the opportunity,” Schumer wrote. “Galvstar is exactly the kind of business that these federal tax-exempt bonds are intended for.

“The project won’t move forward, however, unless Galvstar can secure at least $9 million in federally backed Recovery Zone bonds for the plant.”

Other projects that applied for funding include:

• Seneca Exchange Larkin Partners for mixed-use development projects at 635 and 701 Seneca St.

• Savarino Construction Corp. for its adaptive reuse project at the former F. N. Burt facility at 500 Seneca.

• Iskalo Development for a project to tear down the former Kane-Doyle auto dealership at 2780 Delaware Ave. in Kenmore and replace it with a 20,000-square-foot building with retail space on the first floor and offices on the second.

• Queen City Landing LLC for its project to convert the former Freezer Queen plant on Fuhrmann Boulevard into a mix of 150 owner-occupied and leased units.

• Multisorb Technologies to expand and renovate its facilities in West Seneca and Cheektowaga. Multisorb makes packets that protect products, such as electronics and food, from being damaged by moisture or exposure to oxygen, among other things.

• Developer Marc D. Croce’s Baja Beach Club’s project to convert the long-vacant Curtiss Building at Franklin and West Huron streets into a boutique hotel.

• RiverWright LLC for its currently delayed plan to convert the former ConAgra milling facility along the Buffalo River into an ethanol plant.

Collins and Brown have agreed to a joint selection process, done by a four-member committee with two representatives from each side. County Legislator Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo, and Kathy Konst, the county’s commissioner of environment and planning, will represent the county.

“It will be a joint process,” Loomis said. “The hope is to do this relatively quickly.”

The aim is to have the allocations made in time to allow the recipients to close on the low-cost funding by the end of the year.

e-mail:drobinson@buffnews.com