Have a Blast in Buffalo...

Statler Towers is all the talk of the news here in Buffalo. After several failed attempts to find an owner who could revitalize the downtown landmark, it appears the iconic 1920s structure will be mothballed. So what is a mothballing, anyway? I thought the name peculiar. It simply means the building will be closed up, heat turned off, and windows boarded—using taxpayer dollars, no doubt. It will then be left to rot away until years later the structure has become so unsound that a state-mandated demolition (again at taxpayer’s expense) will take place, or the building will implode on itself—whatever comes first. In the meantime, the cornice will continue to crumble and rain meteors down on Delaware Avenue.

Various developers have tried to purchase the Niagara Square landmark, only to come up short on the cash. Plans for the building have included mixed uses: apartments, hotel rooms, office space.

Here are the problems I forsee:

1. Hotel rooms—We keep hearing about revitalized old buildings being turned into boutique hotels. From the office-building-cum Giacomo Hotel in the Falls, to Rocco J. Termini’s ambitious plans for a Hilton Garden Inn at the former AM&A’s department store, to talk of a Wingate on the Waterfront, it’s no secret the developers around here love the prospect of building hotels.

Buffalo News cites data from Smith Travel Research showing that Buffalo hotel occupancy rates were at 63.3% for the first nine months of 2009, an 8.5% decline from the same period 2008.

I think the writing’s on the wall: Buffalo doesn’t appear to need more hotel rooms. If I go downtown, I’ve got my choice of the Hampton Inn & Suites, the new Embassy Suites, Adam’s Mark, or the convention center Hyatt—just to name a few nicer downtown lodgings.

2. Apartments—In today’s Buffalo News, concerns were aired about Buffalo’s continuing population decline. In the half-decade from 1950 to the 2000 census, Buffalo has seen more residents pack up and go then new ones come in. So do we really need more apartments downtown? I won’t even get started on Governor Patterson’s talk of revitalizing all the abandoned housing in Buffalo.

3. Office space—people are decreasing, jobs are decreasing, taxes are increasing. Not many businesses are looking to set up shop in the Queen City. (Buffalo…not Charlotte, NC. The two metros share this moniker.)

So what do we do about it?

I say we tear the old dinosaur down. Do a Vegas-style implosion, complete with a drawn-out countdown, pyro-technics—and then the walls come tumbling down. Just think of the crowds drawn when the developers in Sin City decide to blow up another structure. Imagine if we did this in Buffalo? Make it a late-night spectator event; last call isn't until 4am in this town.

I bet it’d bring tourists in from Ontario and all around the northeastern United States. They could occupy our glut of downtown hotel rooms, fill up on chicken wings at Anchor Bar…heck, we’ve even got a casino. While not the glittering Vegas megaresorts, the old warehouse-style tin structure with “Casino” nailed to the side will take your money just as fast as The MGM Grand. Look beyond the Buffalo Creek Casino, and you’ll see the rusting structure of what the Seneca Nation hoped to become a sparkling hotel/casino resort—someday.

While tourists are in town, let them decide: is Buffalo really the city of art, architecture, and potential that some locals are trying to reinvent it as?

Of course preservationists and environmentalists alike would decry such a spectacle. The Statler is probably loaded with asbestos and other unsavory substances. The toxic cloud produced when that sucker goes down would rival the air quality over Buffalo when Bethlehem Steel was in its heyday. Historians would be mortified at the razing of another landmark.

But in any case, a big one-time implosion event could be a quick infusion of cash for the city. Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau—where for art thou?

About the above photo:  To the right of City Hall's spire you can see the Statler's three towers against the setting October sun.  This was shot from the terrace at Shanghai Reds.

Buffalo could follow this example.  The video is copyright Las Vegas Sun.