Skip to main content
News & UpdatesSeneca Street Lofts

Housing boom underway in Larkinville shows the fascination with city living

By November 5, 2015March 11th, 2022No Comments

Here is a recent article from The Buffalo News profiling out Seneca Street Lofts project in Buffalo NY.

Screen shot 2015-11-05 at 8.58.50 AMYou can read the original article here.

A drumbeat of change is sounding throughout once-ignored parts of Buffalo, and it is luring young and old.

They want to live, work and play surrounded by the activity generated by the city’s resurgence. Developers are busy building on the groundwork laid by a few visionaries.

We’re beginning to take new construction and the renewal of historic buildings for granted, but someone had to start the process, someone had to take a chance.

Among the early adopters was Howard Zemsky, managing partner of Larkin Development Group. He is now CEO of Empire State Development Corp. (at a salary of $1 a year). It was his record in Buffalo that earned him the key slot heading the state’s development agency.

About a decade ago, Zemsky and his partners moved forward with the risky venture of redeveloping a 600,000-square-foot warehouse into what is now the Larkin at Exchange Building.

It’s hard to fully convey the hurdles, and doubts, they faced. Back then Buffalo was known for the many development plans left to gather dust on office shelves. It took guts to turn an old warehouse more than a mile from downtown into offices. Success begets success, and other developers and the public at large are benefiting.

Larkinville, the district east of downtown, began to grow as additional buildings were renovated and people lined up for the space. Food trucks, author series, pickleball courts, fitness-centric activities, shops and the Hydraulic Hearth increasingly make it the place to be.

This is the kind of new urbanism Buffalo once dreamed of, before snapping awake.

As News staff reporter Jonathan D. Epstein wrote, “Over the next year, the onetime industrial and shipping district will become home to several hundred new loft apartments.”

Three enormous block warehouses near each other are being simultaneously repurposed by three different developers, all with plans to create enviable spaces. This is a “build it and they will come” scenario that has been playing out throughout downtown.

Screen shot 2015-11-05 at 8.59.44 AM

The buildings at 500 and 550 Seneca St. and 545 Swan St. will include at least 281 apartments, in addition to office space, restaurants, a distillery and tenant amenities.

Savarino Companies is leading the redevelopment of 500 Seneca, CSS Construction teamed with Frontier Group of Companies to convert 550 Seneca and Cincinnati developer Miller-Valentine Group has plans for 545 Swan St.

The word Larkinville conjures positive images of civic rebirth. That optimism should help it weather the storm expected to be created by the sale of First Niagara, headquartered in Larkinville, to KeyCorp. While the bank occupies a lot of space, the building boom shows that Larkinville is much more than one company.

Downtown living is getting better every day.

Reset password

Enter your email address and we will send you a link to change your password.

Get started with your account

to save your favourite homes and more

Sign up with email

Get started with your account

to save your favourite homes and more

By clicking the «SIGN UP» button you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy