A $45 million facelift of the East Side landmark will begin in earnest this summer.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Empire State Development is out with an update on plans to revamp Buffalo’s venerable Broadway Market.
It now says construction on a $45 million facelift for the east side landmark will begin this summer.
Along with the update on when the work will start, Empire State Development also released some new renderings of what the revitalized market will look like.
“I love it,” said the market’s director, Kathleen Peterson, while viewing the renderings.
The renovations are being paid for with NY State tax dollars and the market, formerly managed by the City of Buffalo, is now under the management of Broadway Market Management Inc. (BMMI), a not for profit organization formed in 2021 to lead the development and management of the renewed Broadway Market.
When reached by phone on Friday, Peter M. Cammarata, the chair of the BMMI, refused to speak with 2 On Your Side about the project until Saturday.
The latest design plans will also have to go before the city’s preservation and planning boards for approval.
According to Peterson the permanent businesses, which operate year-round at the market, will stay open during the two-year construction, which will be done in phases.
“When you come in you will see a wall dividing the market in half, and so one half of the market will be worked on first, and when that’s completed, all of your meat departments will move into their new spaces,” Peterson said.
The new spaces for those anchor business and others will be largely in the center of the market creating sort of a “main street in the middle.”
A large, vacant section of the market that formerly housed a Save-A-Lot grocery store will be converted into production space allowing merchants to make goods on site.
When renovations are complete the central escalator will be a thing of the past, as the market will be strictly one story operation according to Peterson.
The aging three-story parking ramp that occupies the back portion of the current Broadway Market will also be removed and replaced with a surface parking lot.
Although some Broadway Market merchants who spoke privately with 2 On Your Side expressed concern about the resulting net reduction of parking spaces, Peterson sees advantages to the plan including easier loading of goods as part of the overall plan to make the market more attractive and more functional.
“We could have a farmer’s market in the back, food truck rodeos, or other events,” she said. “It’s going to present us with lots of different options.”
