Members of the American Planning Association were given tours of Metro’s DL&W rail facility this summer. They gave back valuable insight on the redevelopment project and what it could mean to the growth of Buffalo’s waterfront. The input is more than welcome. As the design evolves, the broadest possible view of the DL&W’s impact on the area will ensure the greatest benefit to the community.

Constructed in 1917 for both heavy freight and passenger rail lines, the facility has the strength and capacity for nearly any development initiative. The first floor will continue to serve Metro’s light rail system, but will become an active, full-service station. The second floor – originally built to support its own set of locomotive tracks – offers 150,000 square feet of interior space and 80,000 of exterior space. It is some of the most promising development real estate in Western New York.

Sitting at the start of Canalside and almost, but not quite, touching the First Niagara Center, every professional planner on tour agreed that the DL&W could become even more important to Buffalo in its second century than it was in its first.