Congressmembers Higgins & Lee Announce Passport Office Location in WNY
State Department is First Tenant Signed for Historic Genesee Gateway Complex
Congressmembers Brian Higgins (NY-27) and Chris Lee (NY-26), joined leaders from Genesee Gateway, LLC and the U.S. Department of State to announce the first tenant for the $10 million Genesee Gateway historic adaptive reuse project. General Services Administration (GSA) for the State Department and Genesee Gateway, LLC executed a lease for approximately 10,000 square feet in the building for the first Passport Office in Western New York.
“I think the entire community understands the importance of redeveloping this block and the promise that these buildings hold,” said Doug Swift, a principal of Genesee Gateway, LLC. With tenancy by the GSA we’re one step closer to finally realizing that promise.”
“This passport office is especially important to residents here in Western New York who consider a drive to Canada as routine as a drive to the next town over,” Congressman Higgins, a member of the House Northern Border Caucus. “We appreciate Secretary Hillary Clinton’s decision to locate an office here and we are particularly pleased with the location choice. The leadership at Genesee Gateway, LLC has a proven track record of taking on projects that breathe new life into areas of our city which were forgotten or neglected. This placement will not only provide a vital service to local residents but it will create activity along an important corridor within our urban core.”
“Western New Yorkers need to have the ability to travel easily across our northern border to conduct cross border commerce, a necessity to our region for many years,” Congressman Lee said. “With a one-stop shop passport office located right in our community, Western New Yorkers will be able to more easily acquire valid travel documents while not having their need to conduct cross border business negatively influenced. I’m pleased the State Department heeded our call to locate a passport in Western New York and I look forward to its opening this fall.”
“The opening of the Buffalo Agency is a significant milestone for the Department as we continue our efforts to expand services to underserved areas of the nation. With its proximity to the Canadian border, the agency will assist U.S. citizens living along the border comply with travel document requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. Americans are traveling -- nearly 40 million of us traveled overseas last year. Ninety-six million Americans – more than 30 percent of our citizens – now have passports.” – Assistant Secretary Janice Jacobs
The office is expected to open to the public this fall. $700,000 in Recovery Act funds will help support the opening of the regional passport agency. Congressmembers Higgins and Lee, Genesee Gateway, LLC, the project Developer and City View Construction Management, the Construction Manager, along with collaborators Margaret L. Wendt Foundation and key supporters like the City of Buffalo, National Grid, and the Erie County Industrial Development Agency (ECIDA) are excited for tenancy after 30 years of dashed hopes and false starts on this iconic downtown Buffalo structure.
The Genesee Gateway buildings total 60,000 sq. ft. and stretch from 85 to 123 Genesee St. Once complete, the buildings will house commercial and retail units at rents ranging from $15 to 18 per sq. ft. The Buffalo architectural firm of Flynn Battaglia is the project architect and Young Wright Architectural LLC is the architect for this specific tenancy buildout.
The Trustees of The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, Janet L. Day, Robert J. Kresse, and Thomas D. Lunt, which provided the major innovative financing which made the Project possible, are pleased that the anchor tenant will provide the kind of retail presence to the project and the public with the opportunity to conveniently apply for passports or passport renewal. The Genesee Gateway project focuses on the last remaining and most intact block of the 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings that are located in Buffalo’s central business district.
The restoration of the buildings will be based on the United States Department of the Interior standards for historic preservation. The building will also employ state-of-the-art systems that promote energy efficiency. Construction continues to transform the long-idle building shells, plus newly-built space into a 60,000 square foot office/retail complex.
Congressmembers Higgins and Lee have been vocal advocates on measures that seek to ease the flow of people and goods across the border between Southern Ontario and Western New York:
March 27, 2009 Higgins and Lee
ask the Department of Homeland Security for a final finding on Shared Border Management to allow for clarity on the Peace Bridge project
April 15, 2009: In anticipation of new tougher border crossing rules due to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) Higgins and Lee
request establishment of a passport agency in WNY and seek details on selection process
May 16, 2009: Higgins & Lee
announce State Department decision to locate an office in WNY.
May 18, 2009: WNY is
awarded $700,000 in Recovery Act funds to support the opening of a regional passport agency
For details on the process for obtaining a passport go to the State Department’s travel center at
http://travel.state.gov.
