After 50 Years, Waterfront May Be Redeveloped

The city of Buffalo, New York, once rode high as a major metropolis with industry and development anchored around the Erie Canal. But as railroads became a more efficient form of transport, the heavy industry located near the canal eroded. Since the mid 1970s, Buffalo has experienced a slow decline. And though its waterfront was what made it into the city it once was, improving the area along Lake Erie has never quite happened. But now, after 50 years of proposals and plans, the ball is finally rolling.

"Restoration work on the historic inner harbor, the point where the Erie Canal met the Great Lakes, is well under way. In the downtown area a few blocks away, two developers — one from Long Island, another from England — have each bought historic buildings that were empty or underused, with plans for major mixed-use projects. And a new office building, with almost a half million square feet, is going up, the largest to rise downtown in at least 20 years."

"At the foot of Main Street, for instance, cobblestone streets and the original commercial slip at the terminus of the Erie Canal are being restored. A new building for an existing naval history museum is under construction, and a new promenade meanders along the shoreline where three Navy ships are anchored. Also planned is a market modeled after Faneuil Hall in Boston, and a museum devoted to the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes."