NORTH TONAWANDA: Kissling breaks ground on Remington Rand

By Neale Gulley
The Tonawanda News

There was nobody in Western New York left to thank Thursday as developer Tony Kissling broke ground at the site of a $15 million renovation of the former Remington Rand building on Sweeney Street.

A who’s who of developers and politicians from across Buffalo/Niagara corridor attended — and they used words like “success,” “rebirth,” “model for revitalization” and “prime example” to honor a project officially called the Remington Lofts on the Canal.

Later on, Kissling — the man who purchased the factory a year and a half ago — privately remarked, “I just want to show the people that this is not just talk.”

Following the fanfare, he toured the building’s massive fourth floor with a gaggle of high-end architects from Carmina, Wood, Morris P.C. (associate financiers on the project) and his own daughter Jennifer who runs an accomplished interior design firm with past clients like Tiffany & Co. jewlers in Manhattan.

Kissling said the apartments could be ready to rent by Thanksgiving 2010, and the entire project is expected to be finished in 2011. Interior remodeling will commence in the coming weeks.

The 200 jobs the operation is supposed to generate is in addition to new residential dollars many hope will begin funneling through the downtown business district and beyond. Kissling hopes everything from Canadian businesses in search of a U.S. presence to fulfilling the lack of downtown apartment housing will be addressed.

“The impact of these guys wearing a tie and suits and going to bars and whatever else is going to be huge,” Kissling said earlier, momentarily trading his measured tone for excitement during the speech.

As it were, the project also calls for its very own “bar,” or more appropriately, a high-end restaurant called “15-Mile” which could be open this year to serve things like “miso glazed seabass with sushi rice,” a press release states.

Veteran Manhattan restaurateurs Scott and Jenny Rossi are the chosen managers and have already taken over the City Grill in downtown Buffalo as well as formed a joint catering agreement with Gratwick Hose fire hall on this side of the canal.

Most centrally though, the project — four years in the making — aims to trade a long dormant four-story canalside typewriter factory for 81 loft apartments, work studios, a restaurant, fitness facility, conference center and sprawling rooftop atrium.

“This project is a message of hope for North Tonawanda,” said Greg Sehr of Kissling Interests, LLC., the development juggernaut based out of the Empire State Building. “With this, the hope begins.”

Mayor Larry Soos commended the “guts and fortitude” Kissling showed in pushing the project through a national economic crisis.

In a rare instance Thursday, political jockeying for credit on promoting or sustaining the project melted away — or was impossible since at least eight different state and federal funding channels had to combine to fund the work.

Niagara County Legislature Chairman William Ross, state Sen. George Mazarz, R-Newfane, Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore, U.S. Rep. Chris Lee, R-Amherst, Soos and scores of other elected officials rightfully thanked each other in turn, with Kissling himself almost a moderator at times.

Despite a freeze on state brownfield tax credits last year, a new agreement between Gov. David Paterson and the state Legislature some months ago came together in the nick of time. The state brownfield tax credit program, which aims to help underwrite projects specifically like this one where old industrial buildings are reused, expected to provide up to 10 percent of the cleanup money.

Tax credits just a piece of puzzle

About $1 million from the Restore New York grant program is in line along with a community development grant. The New York State Canal Corp. and Department of State are in the wings to cover a portion of the work, with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency offering an enhanced tax agreement.

It seemed as though as each puzzle piece fell into place, it made the next one possible.

“Everything leveraged the next benefit,” said Bob Murray of Kissling’s hired law firm Harris Beach.

Schimminger and Maziarz secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in earmarks for the work.

Almost none of it could have happened without the city’s Lumber City Development Corp. plying connections with state and federal grant sources: People like Jim Sullivan, Chuck Bell and Doug Taylor spent hundreds of hours coordinating, bridging the gap between the private development planning and the heavily public money it relies on.

“It was probably the most collaborative effort I’ve ever been involved with in terms of state and federal (money) ... totally apolitical and by the time it all came together it was a success,” LCDC Executive Director Jim Sullivan said.

As a backdrop to the event Thursday, excavators rumbled and crashed nearby — replacing hundreds of feet of storm sewer lines along one side of the building. The project to upgrade stormsewer infrastructure serving the whole of downtown passed by the council on the recommendation of City Engineer Dale Marshall in October. The project costs about $120,000 and is necessary before Rand’s apartments can be serviced.

Officials and spokesmen fashionably used words like “destination,” whenever possible to describe the city’s future Thursday. Kissling was applauded for being the first to risk the money to sweeten the deal for more skittish investors down the line.

One man stood watching near the water as the big-wigs descended to hear Kissling. Dan Wingrove, owner of the first popular seasonal restaurant on the water, the Dockside Inn.

He wasn’t worried about the competition.

“The more stuff that happens around here the better for everybody,” he said. “This is going to be our sixth season and I’m seeing more people still,” he said.

Contact reporter Neale Gulleyat 693-1000, ext. 114.