BUFFALO, N.Y. — A not-so-well-known area could be Buffalo’s latest up-and-coming neighborhood. Soon, it will be filled with tech companies, breweries, cideries, a salon and more, making it a potential hot spot for millennials.
Chandler Street in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood has $50 million being poured into it, creating around 300 new jobs.
"We're going to be using state historic tax credits, federal historic tax credits, new markets tax credits and brownfield tax credits, so there's a lot of different layers of financing to go into doing these buildings," said Rocco Termini, Signature Development president.
Stacie Kowalksi, the owner of Salon in the City, grew up in the Black Rock neighborhood, making this something special for her to be a part of.
"I looked at those boarded up buildings for 44 years because my grandparents had a house over on Grote Street and I always thought it could be something more than it was and it almost makes me cry because it's so exciting that I'm actually alive to see it and be part of it on some sort of scale," she said.
Blackbird Cider Works, currently operates in Barker. They have been looking to open an urban location for a while now, and felt being a pioneer in the Black Rock neighborhood was the right decision.
"About a year ago we actually went over and looked at the space and we were pretty excited about the potential that it had, even though it was in very rough condition at the time and hadn't been occupied in well over 40 years," said founder Scott Donovan. "I really feel like it's going to connect the Hertel Avenue area with this area and then Elmwood Village. I think it's all going to kind of connect together and just be this amazing place of technology, social activities, networking. I think it's really going to make the city so much stronger."