Seneca One Tower has its first tenant since being purchased three years. M&T Bank announced today they signed a long term lease in the building to create a tech hub to continue to diversify the region’s economy.
The Bank will occupy 11 floors and 333,000 square feet of space.
“Everybody thought that I was crazy when I did this,” said Developer Owner Douglas Jemal on his purchase of Seneca One. “I am so fortunate to be a part of this revitalization. Really what is signifies, when we put this together, was we are all working in sync. In lockstep, to make this a great community.”
Jemal said his vision is for Seneca One Tower to be a linchpin in downtown Buffalo, along with the Buffalo Waterfront, the area around Key Bank Center and the Buffalo Medical Campus.
The idea is to turn Buffalo into a regional tech hub, attracting the brightest from around the area.
“The question that we’re asking ourselves is not ‘how does M&T hire 1,000 new tech workers,’” said M&T Chairman and CEO Rene Jones. “The real question is how does Buffalo build and support and nurture and ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurialism.”
Jones says the plan moving forward is to have 1,000 employees into the Seneca One by the middle of 2020, and to have more than 1,500 there within three years.
