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Canal Side/Bass Pro: Moving forward
August 2, 2010

For nearly a decade, there has been no escaping the conversations about Bass Pro. Now, because of the deluge of media stories about the company’s decision last week not to come to Buffalo, you literally can’t pass a person on the street without the topic surfacing.

Whether you’re cheering or jeering Bass Pro’s decision, the community should recognize the hard work (done completely on a volunteer basis) over a long time span of Bob and Mindy Rich, Jordan Levy and Larry Quinn. Never expecting the project to be an overnight victory, they always represented our community with dignity and perseverance; and I encourage you to thank them directly if you have the chance.

Also, whether you’re cheering or jeering Bass Pro’s decision, the community should remember that the store was only 10% of the Canal Side project. Granted, it was an important 10%, but it was merely one piece of a much larger, multi-faceted initiative.

So, as debates about Bass Pro’s decision fill voids in summertime conversations, what obviously will be more productive is thinking ahead. What is next? There are probably two separable, but connected answers regarding Canal Side’s on-going development – “What?” and “How?”

On the “What?” end, everyone must bear in mind that Canal Side is an economic development project that is being financed with economic development funds (remember Adelphia?!). The focus must be on job creation, on investment opportunity and tax receipts on the waterfront. This starts with projects generating a critical mass of people working in and/or visiting the Canal Side area, and doing so year-round, as much in January as in July. The good news here is that there are still significant opportunities being pursued for commercial development at Canal Side.

But to make that development actually happen (the “How?”), there are steps to take. The first is for the Buffalo Common Council to approve the land transfer to ECHDC to allow the overall project to move forward. While the feeling may be that, with Bass Pro’s departure, the urgency of doing so is less, the community must show that we’re open for business. Our waterfront is ripe with opportunity, but whether we’re looking to attract an “anchor” retail tenant or a major employer we ought to be in a position to do so – before you sign a tenant, you need to own/control the real estate it will be leasing.

(An appropriate third question is probably “When?” If history is any lesson, governments don’t like unspent money, and the vulnerability of NYPA funds currently dedicated to the project is an added impetus to press forward).

The Canal Side project has been increasingly community designed since its inception, and will continue to be so as the post-Bass Pro “What?” is developed. Clearly, nine years of community discussion couldn’t mitigate damaging 11th hour protests and lawsuits; but keeping the all-inclusive conversation going, while maintaining the necessary focus on economic development, gives us our greatest chance to make Canal Side a success.

There’s a way for you to get involved now – by contacting the members of the Buffalo Common Council (contact info) to urge them to proceed with the land transfer as soon as possible. For those holding out due to disagreement over incentives previously being promised to Bass Pro, that stigma has been removed. The land transfer is critical to the “How?” and sets the stage for new waterfront development; in other words, it does not define the “What?” The Council should make this happen right away to tell all prospective Canal Side tenants they are welcome.

Andrew J. Rudnick

Additional information.