Collins, Brown, Schumer & Higgins Award $28 Million in Recovery Zone Bonds

June 21, 2010

Erie County Executive Chris Collins, Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Brian Higgins announced the award of more than $28 million in federal tax exempt bonding to local businesses in Buffalo today.  The federal government allocated $17.1 million to Erie County and $7.2 million to the City of Buffalo as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, better known as the federal stimulus bill.  The town of Amherst also received a $4 million allocation, and Supervisor Barry Weinstein has committed to using the town funds to boost the selected projects.

 

After carefully reviewing the 11 applications and personally meeting with the developers, Mayor Brown and County Executive Collins jointly awarded the bonds to five of the applicants.  The recipients are Seneca Exchange Larkin Partners, Iskalo Development Corp., Multisorb Technologies, Inc., Galvstar, LLC, and the Curtiss Hotel redevelopment team.  Collins, Brown, Schumer and Higgins had encouraged local businesses to apply for the financing as a way to drive planned economic development projects forward.

 

• •Galvstar will receive $8 million to renovate the former American Axle site and turn it into a steel galvanizing and processing facility.

• •Developer Mark Croce will be awarded $6 million for the adaptive reuse and historic restoration of the former Curtiss Building to create a high end boutique hotel.

• •Seneca Exchange Larkin Partners will receive $5 million for the renovation and redevelopment of 635 Seneca Street in Buffalo.

• •Multisorb Technologies will receive $5 million to expand and renovate their manufacturing facilities in West Seneca and Cheektowaga.

• •Iskalo Development will receive $4 million to redevelop the former Kane Doyle auto dealership site in Kenmore.

 

Schumer successfully fought hard to have the recovery zone bond program included in the ARRA to aid in local economic development.  Congressman Higgins is a member of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over the bonding program and played an important role in its development.

 

“Private sector investment is critical to the growth and prosperity of this community,” said Erie County Executive Chris Collins.  “This tax exempt bond financing will be key to moving these five projects forward and I am confident they will have a direct economic impact on our community.  I want to thank Mayor Brown for partnering with me on this project, helping to ensure that our separate bond allocations could be used together for maximum benefit to the community.  I also want to thank Senator Schumer for being an important partner at the federal level as we continue to work to rebuild our local economy.”

 

“I want to thank our partners in the federal government for making these important economic development bonds available, which will have an immediate and lasting impact in Buffalo and Erie County,” said Mayor Brown. “It was a pleasure working collaboratively with Erie County Executive Chris Collins in determining the allocation of these funds and we both gained an even greater appreciation of the benefit these bonds will have on these development projects by meeting one-on-one with the developers of each project. We learned firsthand the plans each of these development projects have for creating jobs locally and how they expect to grow and expand through the investment of these federal bonds.”

 

“Today we are seizing a rare opportunity to bring good-paying, union steel jobs back to Buffalo for a change. Mayor Brown and Executive Collins are working hard for Western New York and I think they have made a great decision to use this federal stimulus funding to revitalize Western New York’s steel industry.” Schumer said. “Galvstar is ready to come into one of Buffalo’s hardest hit areas and create jobs right away- it just makes sense to use the funding there.  Seneca Exchange Larkin Partners, Iskalo Development, Multisorb Technologies and Developer Mark Croce are also fantastic choices for these bonds – they will do good things for the Buffalo community.”

 

“This federal funding will give a real boost to private investment that will create and retain jobs at an existing site in Cheektowaga and at other locations transform old and abandoned into new and existing sites that will deliver a  significant economic return for years to come, “ said Congressman Higgins. 

 

“The Town of Amherst could not identify any interested parties to utilize the Recovery Zone Bonds,” said Barry A. Weinstein, M.D., Supervisor.  “The town is happy to contribute to the county’s effort to promote development county-wide.”

 

The five projects were chosen based on their return on investment to the community, financial capability and the ability to close the Recovery Zone bonds by December 31, 2010.  The exact amounts allocated to the projects are subject to approval of the Buffalo Common Council and the Amherst Town Board.