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September 22, 2006

The Buffalo News

New Commerce Park Labeled 'Shovel-Ready'

by Matt Glynn

Thomas M. Montante hopes to draw tenants to his new Riverview Commerce Park with features like abundant green space and a location across from the picturesque Niagara River.

Another selling point for his Town of Tonawanda site is something invisible yet important to the people who help companies decide where to go: its state designation as "shovel-ready."

The label says a site has done its homework securing the permits and approvals for development to start right away.

"It's another job-creating tool the state promotes that tells prospects from inside the state and outside the state that we're ready to grow," Montante said Thursday at the park's ceremonial groundbreaking.

Montante's company, Broad Elm Management, plans a total of 11 buildings on Riverview's 106 acres. About 75 percent of the land will remain "green." Montante estimated the entire project will cost $75 million.

The park is starting its development with a 55,000-square-foot "speculative" office and warehouse building that is scheduled to be finished in March 2007. "We feel we'll have the building filled before it's built," Montante said.

The park's status as both an Empire Zone and shovel-ready should draw attention from companies scouting Western New York, Montante said.

About two dozen sites in New York state have the shovel-ready tag. Ten of them, including Riverview, are in Western New York.

Both Empire State Development and the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform help determine which sites receive the label.

"It's not an easy thing to earn," said David S. Bradley, deputy director of the regulatory reform office.

Applicants must prove their sites are economically viable and have resolved key development issues such as wetlands management and storm water control, he said.

"Businesses are looking for sites, but they want the uncertainty taken out of the equation," Bradley said.

Eric Tudor of Coldwell Banker Commercial Meridian, who helps match business prospects with sites, agrees.

"It means streamlining a process and not having to worry about environmental issues," Tudor said. Companies know they can act quickly instead of facing a drawn-out approval process for development, he added.

Tom Kucharski, president and chief executive officer of Buffalo Niagara Enterprise, said business prospects increasingly ask for sites that meet shovel-ready standards. "They are the ones that get the highest profile."

Without such sites, he said, a region can fall out of the competition.

Uniland Development Co. has the shovel-ready label on several of its area sites.

Tom Widzinski, a Uniland spokesman, noted some property owners informally call their properties "shovel ready," even though they lack the infrastructure or surveys needed to actually put a project into motion.

"When we say shovel ready, it is literally, come in the next day and put a shovel in the ground," he said.

The status alone doesn't guarantee a flow of development. Uniland's CrossPoint Business Park in Amherst and Eastport Commerce Center in Lancaster both have it, but CrossPoint is booming, and Eastport is awaiting its first tenant.

Widzinski said shovel-ready status helps, but so does demonstrated success by a companies willing to be the pioneers.

CrossPoint's shovel-ready rating enabled tenants GEICO Direct and Citigroup to act quickly once they chose the site.

"These are projects that needed to go," Widzinski said. "That's the way business is nowadays."