Residents and a local lawmaker are raising concerns about the state of the Erie Basin Marina.
David Gunzburger has lived on the Buffalo waterfront for 10 years.
"I think pre-pandemic, it was really close to the dream," he said. "It had high quality, high-end restaurants, it had live music, it had very casual restaurants, it had things to do for everybody, and it was sort of like a melting pot. It was kind of like, a culturally positive thing as well as a gastronomically positive thing."
But now, he feels the marina has lost its shine.
"I think that if you don't stop it now, kind of like stop the bleeding, it's going to continue to deteriorate to a point where we're going to have to start all over again. And I think that would be just the saddest thing for a city that was doing so much down here."
Buffalo Common Councilmember, Mitch Nowakowski, agrees. The marina lies within his council district. The lawmaker asked the city to come up with a multi-year plan for the entire Buffalo waterfront, Tuesday, claiming that shuttered commercial properties are leading to a lack of activity there.
"Yes, it's in my district, but our waterfront and its natural resource belongs to every single one of our constituents. We need to have a comprehensive plan of what does that section of Canalside and our waterfront look like," he said.
He asked the city for updates on a number of issues, including a timeline to procure a new marina operator, as well as plans for the two restaurants – Templeton Landing and the former William K’s.
William K’s is within a cluster of city-owned properties known as The Hatch complex. Jason Davidson has been operating Sully’s Seafood Bar and Grill and Scarlett’s Ice Cream there since last summer as part of a five-year contract with the city, which started 2022.
Davidson agrees there could be more at the marina, but as far as he’s concerned his business is playing its part in activating the area.
"We're a busy, bustling restaurant that offers a lot of dining options - clams, happy hour. We do live music down here, and we get, you know, hundreds of people every day," he said.
His business partner, Angelo Canna Jr., has been in the restaurant business for 35 years. He said the William Ks part of the city-owned property, now called John Henry’s, is open, but only for special events. That contradicts his 2022 formal business proposal to the city, in which he described the concept as “a full-service, Buffalo-themed sports tavern featuring local and regional breweries.”
Canna blames the Buffalo winters.
"You basically have to shut down January, February, March. It's uninhabitable. You can't get down here with the snow, ice and elements, but it just doesn't make sense to open for four months and close," Canna said.
Templeton Landing is open for special events only this year, according to a sign outside the property.
Plans for the area will be discussed by councilmembers at the next Waterfront Development Committee meeting, which is scheduled for December 31.
