County $$ for Bass Pro

WKBW-TV—Buffalo, NY

City of Buffalo not matching Erie County contribution.

Plans to bring BassPro to Buffalo are finally falling in place tonight. Efforts to bring the mega-store to Buffalo’s waterfront are getting a major boost. A 7-million dollar boost to be exact. At one point, Erie County and the City of Buffalo each had agreed to kick in $7 million toward the Bass Pro project. The county’s ready to write the check, but don’t count on any money from the city. The County Executive Joel Giambra signed the deal Tuesday morning with the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation giving money toward the cleanup and demolition of the Aud to help make way for Bass Pro. “This footprint is probably the most valuable piece of waterfront land in the inner harbor,” said Giambra. “It has to be cleared. It has to be ready it has to be shovel ready for development.” But now there’s a discrepency over who promised what to get the job done. “When Bass Pro first appeared on the horizon we and the City of Buffalo jointly promised to come up with 14 million dollars to help in this effort.” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown sees things differently. “I understand that that committment was a gentlemen’s agreement.” Brown says he hasn’t been able to find any official record of then-Mayor Anthony Masiello’s promise to match the county’s contribution. “And the city is not prepared to provide $7 million.” So it appears the Harbor panel will now have to come up with that money. They have accepted a low bid of $525,000 to get remove hazardous materials from the Aud. Next will be the demolition and they want to get that job done faster than originally expected. “Two years is way, way way too long and we’re going to have to find a quicker way to do it,” said Harbor panel Vice Chair Larry Quinn. The Erie County Legislature and County Control Board still have to approve the county’s 7 million dollar share. Giambra and others hope to get that done before the election. “We want to get it done so that we don’t get caught up in that period of time that can delay the project that much longer,” said Jordan Levy, Chair of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation. Although Bass Pro has signed off an a pre-development agreement, the lead developer on the entire Canal Side project, Benderson, hasn’t had time to review it yet. So the Harbor Development Panel is holding off on its vote until Thursday. The final real deal with Bass Pro won’t be signed until after an environmental review.