BUFFALO, N.Y. — Plans to re-do a large public housing project on the Lake Erie waterfront are changing slightly as the developer and the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority contend with increased costs.
According to documents filed with the Buffalo Planning Board, Phase 1 of the Marine Drive Apartment project has been scaled back due to construction expenses and engineering challenges.
Instead of 738 affordable apartments, as was first proposed, the project will include 686 affordable apartments, still 70 more than currently exists.
The altered Phase 1 plan will include one twelve-story high-rise, seven-story, and three-story ones, and a three-story parking garage, rather than two twelve-story high-rises, a five-story one, and a five-story parking garage.
The new buildings will be located in what is currently a parking lot across from the current Marine Drive towers.
On Thursday, the Buffalo Planning Board met to discuss the above changes and design recommendations made by the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation's Design Committee, a state entity that manages development near Canalside.
The parking lot falls within the state's zoning control for Canalside requiring the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) to get their approval.
The Planning Board recommended Monday that the full board of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation vote to approve the project at their March meeting.
The project birthed back in 2020 has been an incredible challenge, BMHA Executive Director Gillian Brown told 2 On Your Side.
"When we first started this project we assumed we would be renovating these buildings. It never occurred to us we're going to end up in a position where we needed to tear down all 7 of these and replace them with brand new housing," Brown said.
The current buildings built in the 1950s were determined to be unsalvageable hence why the city and BMHA started pursuing the $400 million reimagining.
The state's role has been to make sure the project and joint design firms, The Habitat Company and Duvernay & Brooks, mesh the new Marine Drive with what's been built along the Buffalo waterfront.
"In redesigning the buildings and thinking about a future of Marine Drive it was really important to embrace what is there on the waterfront," said Jeff Head, from The Habitat Company.
Executive Director Brown from BMHA told 2 On Your Side the goal is to finish up the paperwork and financing phase of the project by late 2024 or early 2025.
The first steps of Phase 1 involving Brownfield remediation could then commence in the Summer of 2025.