By Dan Miner
Ellicott Development Co.’s Fairmont Creamery building, at 199 Scott St., and McGuire Development Co.’s Compass East building, at 425 Michigan Ave., now headline the downtown spaces available for a signature state tax abatement initiative.
Both buildings were included in the University at Buffalo’s amended Start-Up NY plan, which included new spaces in presumed anticipation of pending projects. UB officials have declined to discuss potential businesses until they’re formally admitted into the program.
The amended plan was recently approved by the state.
Under the program, colleges and universities formulate “campus plans” which designate space available for Start-Up NY. Then they vet qualified businesses, which must be startups, expansions or relocations, before final approval from the state.
Eight UB-sponsored companies have already been admitted into the program, and will take up previously approved space in the downtown Gateway Building, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, Z80 Labs Inc., and the Baird Research Park in Amherst. Collectively, those businesses expect to create more than 200 jobs.
UB has already prepared about 15 additional applications to the program, but had been holding off on roughly half of them until the amended plan is approved.
The eight-story, 126,000-square-foot 199 Scott St. building will include apartments, a microbrewery and a restaurant, along with commercial and business space. Liazon plans to lease space in the building and is potentially a Start-Up NY target, given its recent expansion.
