Memorial Auditorium will be torn down and a new Bass Pro ShopsOutdoor World store will be built in its place, under the latestplan to lure the retailer to Buffalo's inner harbor.
The Buffalo News has learned a cost-benefit analysis ofretrofitting the idle sports arena into a retail-hotel-museumcomplex has concluded it makes better economic sense to tear downthe Aud and build from scratch.
'This is a major breakthrough that will allow a contract to besigned in a matter of weeks, if not days,' said a source involved inthe two-year-long effort to get Bass Pro to make a bindingcommitment to Buffalo.
'They were always out of their element with a retrofit. Theybuild new stores all the time, so this puts them back in theircomfort zone,' he said.
The source, who requested anonymity, said physical factors,including serious mold and asbestos problems in the mothballedarena, would put renovation costs 'tens of millions of dollars'above the price of building a new facility. No cost projections forthe new plan were available.
Larry Quinn, vice president of the Erie Canal Harbor DevelopmentCorp., which is overseeing efforts to reel in Bass Pro andrevitalize Lower Main Street, declined to comment on what would be adramatic shift in the
project. 'I can tell you we're continuing to make progress andwe're optimistic, but we're not going to negotiate this in public,'Quinn said.
Bass Pro spokesman Larry Whitely also declined to discuss theBuffalo store. 'Things are moving forward,' he said.
City, county, state and federal officials, who received an updateon the Bass Pro effort in the past month, also remained mum on thelatest development strategy. However, several hinted an announcementabout the project is imminent.
While the project has always been based on reusing the Aud,ultimately the retailer, not the building, will be the draw, saidformer Buffalo Mayor Anthony M. Masiello, who launched the quest toland Bass Pro back in 2001. 'People will flock there from near andfar because it's a Bass Pro. It doesn't matter if it's a newbuilding or a remodeled building. Bass Pro will be the anchor forthe critical mass we've all wanted on the inner harbor for so manyyears,' Masiello said.
>Bass aired intent in '04
It has been nearly two years since Bass Pro founder Johnny Morrisjoined Masiello and several other Western New York officials toannounce the company's intention to set up shop in the Aud. Butdespite a memorandum of intent signed in November of 2004, thecomplicated public-private project has never progressed to thebinding contract stage.
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., a subsidiary of theEmpire State Development Corp., was created in September 2005 tobreak the stalemate by working directly with the retailer. Both BassPro and the new development panel have continued to report slow, butsteady progress, despite the lack of a signed deal.
The complicated conversion of the 66-year-old Aud to a 250,000-square-foot Outdoor World store, 250-room hotel and Great Lakes-themed museum has always seemed a huge leap for Bass Pro, which hasrarely done anything other than build its stores from scratch. Ofits 34 operating stores and four set to debut, only five areretrofits of existing buildings. Even those overhauled buildingswere all relatively new retail structures.
>$66 million in public funds
The overall Bass Pro project -- which was expected to includeredevelopment of the Aud, demolition of the Donovan State OfficeBuilding and construction of related parking/retail facilities --has carried an estimated price tag of $123 million. However, recentplans to incorporate a Bass Pro store into a multiphase plan torevitalize Lower Main Street were expected to change several of thenonstore costs.
Sources said $66 million in public funds previously pledged byfederal, state and local governments will still flow to the project,whether or not the Aud remains standing.
Built in 1940 for $2.6 million as a federal Works ProgressAdministration project, the Aud may not be an architectural beauty,but it does evoke scores of sports and entertainment memories.
NHL and minor league hockey, professional and college basketball,indoor soccer, lacrosse and even wrestling events attracted fivedecades of crowds. Major rock concerts, ice shows, circus acts andother entertainment also packed its seats.
All that changed in 1996, when HSBC Arena opened its doors. TheAud has sat dormant and dark ever since, leading to myriadsuggestions for its reuse, along with calls for its demolition.
e-mail: slinstedt@buffnews.com
