P R E S S . R E L E A S E S

Old Buildings Create New Opportunities
May 23, 2003

B. Thomas Mancuso, SIOR
President
Mancuso Business Development Group
585.343.2800 email: tom@mancusogroup.com

The Western New York Area is blessed with many assets. Wonderful people, great universities and cultural institutions like the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Hidden among these gifts, we sometimes overlook the treasure of opportunity waiting to be released from our vast inventory of old industrial and commercial buildings.

Millions of square feet of factories, row buildings, schools and other structures are spread throughout our communities. Built in different times, they are now vacant or underutilized because business standards, traffic patterns, demographics or other conditions changed rendering them obsolete for their original purpose. Many large employers are downsizing in a challenging economy and attractive financial investments are hard to find because of interest rates and stock market uncertainties. The adaptive reuse of these properties is a key to our region's success.

If we look around, there are examples of what can be done. Large projects like Tri-Main and the Batavia Industrial Center are significant success stories. A common theme in these re-developments is the combination of small businesses with large or obsolete structures. More than 90% of WNY businesses have 49 employees or less. Over 70% have 9 or less! The SBA and Census Bureau have documented that the majority of net new jobs are produced by small businesses. Since smaller businesses don't require large blocks of space, the smaller, compartmentalized configurations of older buildings can actually be a plus in creating affordable and functional space for them.

A variety of opportunities are waiting to be seized. Chances to preserve historic properties, create a profitable investment, protect the look of a neighborhood, create jobs or revitalize a brownfield are just a few. The professional, financial and other resources needed to transform your unique vision into a profitable investment in terms of finance as well as community are all around us.

Look at your neighborhood and then get the direction and assistance to help you to a successful project. Your accomplishment in capturing some of the abundance of opportunity provided by our wealth of old structures will lead to a better future for you and your neighbors.

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