fixBuffalo: Wiping Away Trico: Part I

3/06/2012

Wiping Away Trico: Part I

Tim Tielman, Executive Director of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo, announced today he will fight plans by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) to demolish the historic Trico Plant #1.

The daylight factory at 791 Washington Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, making available tax credits that could offset up to 40% of the costs of adaptive reuse. In spite of the availability of these incentives, BNMC Executive Director Matt Enstice has indicated his intention to begin demolition on April 15.

Tielman and his organization are drawing a line in the sand. I caught up with him this evening during his interview with WKBW. Here's the video:

Trico Plant #1 is owned by a subsidiary of the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (BUDC), which acquired the site in 2007 with an agreement from BNMC to maintain the property. BNMC has reportedly skirted its obligation to keep up repairs, a textbook "demolition by neglect" strategy. BUDC has designated the BNMC the preferred developer of the site.

This building is a must save. Daylight factories like Trico Plant #2 and the Larkin Terminal Warehouse are now vital contributors to Buffalo's economic resurgence. Trico #1 can be also be a major ingredient in downtown Buffalo's revitalization, apparently only if BNMC is told to see the light.

Mayor Byron W. Brown chairs the Buffalo Urban Development Corp. The buck stops with the Mayor. Here's hoping he can return sanity and common sense to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, before the bulldozers roll.

Check out Tielman's recent post on Trico Plant #1 - here. Also, check out a screen shot of this morning's Buffalo Rising post that was swiftly deleted shortly after Matt Enstice complained to the blog's management. The full text of that deleted post is available on Views of Buffalo, Mike Puma's blog.

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fixBuffalo flickr • the atlantic cities • shrinking cities • americansuburbX • copenhagenize
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6 comments:

mark said...: why would buffalo rising agree to his request to take that article down? that story is legit and being reported elsewhere, and is exactly the kind of information I want to read on BRO; 12:17 PM, March 07, 2012
Matt P. said...: Why would Buffalo Rising take the post down? Because Matt Enstice is the neighbor and good friend of BRO's owner. Small town.; 1:46 PM, March 07, 2012
NCJ said...: Yes. Which is also the reason there has been no reporting on Buffalo Rising in recent months regarding TRICO up to now - even though they were aware that there were meetings happening with BNMC regarding the planned demolition. Buffalo Rising lost a couple of notches of credibility through this, as far as I'm concerned.; 2:25 PM, March 07, 2012
Anonymous said...: All over the US, cities that honor and preserve their heritage are experiencing a renaissance. Buffalo has such a rich architectural history
that should be preserved and celebrated. We need more voices like Tim Tielman.; 6:57 PM, March 07, 2012
Andrew said...: why would we want to slow down the expansion of the buffalo med campus? If they want to tear it down it is only so they can build another building in it's place and expand again. That is 1 of the few great things going on in our city why should we care about a big square windshied wiper plant that no one has used in a very long time?; 1:58 PM, March 13, 2012
Brandon Brooks said...: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-The-Trico-Building/151046228350500; 2:48 PM, March 19, 2012