Rails Apartments on Main St. in Buffalo to open in July

Imagine the immense height of the Seneca One Tower – Buffalo’s tallest building, standing 540 feet tall.

Now flip it on its side and drop it off Main Street on Hertel Avenue, extending east, and add another 60 feet of length for good measure.

“If you stood it up, it would be bigger than Seneca One,” said Eric Ekman, vice president of development and acquisitions for McGuire Development Co., one of the partners in the new project.

Welcome to The Rails, one of the city’s newest and largest apartment complexes, with a mix of renovated spaces and new construction on a former industrial site.

The $44 million project from Utah-based McGuire and Blackfish Investments is aimed at young professionals and couples on the move as a transit-oriented development.

It highlights a host of tenant amenities – including a golf simulator, a two-story fitness center, lounges, a music room and a coworking space – as well as its proximity to public transportation, including the LaSalle metro station, one block north across the street. Street. It will comprise 312 studio, one and two bedroom apartments, spread between a rehabilitated former warehouse and the long, newly constructed main building, including a small spur extension.

These market-rate apartments, priced between $1,200 and $2,250 per month, are small by traditional standards, averaging 500 square feet and as little as 382 square feet for studios.

Joelisa Pitoniak, Blackfish’s director of property management, calls them “efficient” in their design because they maximize the use of space. It was designed, in large part, based on a survey of more than 8,000 people over seven months to obtain feedback on the priorities of today’s renters.

“Residents are no longer looking for apartment size,” she said. “They’re looking to have everything in one place so they can maximize their time.”

The scale and design of the project also helped cover the cost, with help from $6 million in brownfield tax credits. The rest of the funding came from equity and traditional bank loans, with interest rates rising.

“Multifamily is a challenge in Buffalo,” Ekman said. “There’s not a lot of basic construction in the city. It’s different for affordable products, but for market-rate products it’s very difficult.”

Construction, which began in June 2022, is nearing completion and the first apartments are expected to be ready for occupancy by July 15. Rental has already started, with a model unit open for viewing.

“The rental is going pretty well,” Pitoniak said. “We are gaining ground.”

Meanwhile, a second renovated structure – a two-story former office and administrative building next to the warehouse – will be leased to Valvaere Collective, a new coworking business launched by Megan Leith, owner and manager of Hiraeth House in 501 Delaware Ave. in Allentown, where she and a group of vendors offer a range of spa and other experiences for women.

The new business will use the commercial space for women-owned start-ups and independent practitioners focused on health and wellness, such as massages and facials, as well as a cafe and coffee shop.

The Rails – named for the complex’s emphasis on mass transit and triangle shape – is the latest example of a large adaptive reuse and brownfields project in Buffalo. But it’s also a symbol of the evolution of apartment living, with tenants paying for a wide range of activities, common spaces and other features within their complex while accepting less floor space. real life in their home.

This is a similar model used by Cedarland Development Group with The Grid, also on Main Street and developed in partnership with Blackfish, and by Douglas Development Corp. by Douglas Jemal at Seneca One Apartments.

“We want to create experiences,” Pitoniak said. “It’s no longer about an apartment, it’s no longer about a square footage basis. The market has changed dramatically in Buffalo, and I’m proud to say we were one of the pioneers in changing that.”

Located at 2929 Main, The Rails sits on a 4.5-acre brownfield redevelopment site that developers cleaned up under state supervision at a cost of $2 million. The site was originally home to the Automatic Transportation Co., established in 1906 to make industrial forklifts, tractors and train engines, but it was best known for its automatic electric compact car, a two-seater car capable of traveling 50 miles with one vehicle. charges up to 15 miles per hour.

After that company was acquired and closed in 1935, the site and its multiple buildings were used as machine shops until the McDougall-Butler Co. moved its operations there in 1949 to manufacture paints, enamels and varnishes. The complex was then used for metal plating from the 1970s until 2018, first by National Finishing Company and then by Keystone Corp. The site was purchased by Blackfish predecessor DF Fusion in 2018.

At that time, the property had seven buildings, but five were so polluted that they had to be demolished, leaving behind the red brick warehouse and white brick office building.

DF Fusion’s initial plan called for student housing, and it received approval for a $30 million project including 321 units in 2018, then under Blackfish. Work even began on the project, but it quickly stopped, and then the pandemic hit, delaying the project even further. Costs have also climbed, forcing Blackfish to seek a local partner in McGuire, who is overseeing construction while Blackfish manages the property.

The complexdesigned by Elev8 Architecture and built by Buffalo Construction Consultants, includes the three-story red brick warehouse that is connected by a two-story connector structure to the sleek new metal panel building, which extends toward McCarthy Park and homes along William Price Parkway. The spur of the main building juts out towards Main, opposite Hertel. The complex is next to Ciminelli Real Estate Corp.’s Bethune Lofts.

When completed, the complex will include 43 382-square-foot studios, 218 472-square-foot one-bedroom units and 51 723-square-foot two-bedroom apartments. Twenty-eight of the apartments will be located in the warehouse building. The rest of the units are in the new construction. Nearly half of them will be furnished.

“We target young professionals,” Pitoniak said. “They’re not looking to have this huge living room anymore. They’re living on their own, trying to get things done and get on with their lives.”

Most apartments have a fully equipped kitchen with ovens and hobs, fridges, microwaves and dishwashers, as well as an integrated laundry room. Studios will have smaller cooktops, with just two burners instead of four, due to feedback from the tenant survey which found many people were not cooking much. Counter space and outlets were larger. And the units on the upper two floors feature darker wood than the lower three floors.

Amenities will be located primarily on the first floor, near the main entrance on Main. A new 1,500 square foot Mediterranean-style restaurant and bar will sit on one side of the entrance, open to tenants and the public, while the other side will accommodate a coworking office space and a glass-enclosed community room with a kitchen and large screen televisions.

“The idea is that it provides amenities to the neighborhood, but it’s also a spectacular space,” Ekman said, citing “very high ceiling heights” and an outdoor patio space in front that “will allow for activities on the street Hand”.

In between, an open hallway will lead to a multi-level ramp meant to mimic a railroad track, with the mail and package room on one side and the fitness center on two levels, a golf simulation room and other sports, and a common lounge with a “green” wall, pool table and other games. The delivery area includes both individual mailboxes and 12 Amazon parcel lockers with 190 different doors.

“As young professionals, we wanted to create a space where they could continue to stay moving and keep moving,” Pitoniak said. “We’ve learned that they are very active people. One of the most important things to them is time, so we want to make sure we put everything they do for fun in one place. It’s one of the reasons we have so many amenity spaces. And the market has dictated that the experience is much more important than the size of the apartment.

Toward the rear, near a side entrance leading to the rear parking lot, is the rental office and a pet washing station. A full dog park and pet relief area — “with a fake fire hydrant so your pets can do their thing,” Ekman said — will be outside.

The building includes commercial laundry rooms for large loads, as well as a soundproof music room, while glass-enclosed “observation” balconies extend to the sidewalk from the second to fifth floors, offering top-to-bottom views of Main and West. There is also bicycle storage and a bicycle repair station, as well as 17 electric vehicle stations.

“In the Buffalo market, the focus hasn’t been on amenities, but if you go to other cities, like Boston or New York, it’s like a race for amenities for these projects, and what is the best thing to do,” Ekman said. “We’ve done it here. The amenity package here is robust.”