Tag: Economy

Dec 6

2024

State board doubles down on secrecy

Published by

Union protestors look on at the former Wood & Brooks piano factory in Tonawanda. Photo by Garrett Looker. For more than a year, a state board created to determine whether highly subsidized development projects must pay prevailing wages has operated in secrecy. Since May, Investigative Post has pressed the Public Subsidy Board for records detailing its decisions, including on two Western New York projects. In response, the board has dug in its heels. A hearing officer for the state Department of Labor, under whose umbrella the subsidy board operates, issued a ruling last month upholding the agency’s denial of records[...]

Posted 2 months ago

Nov 8

2024

City Hall: No more money for Braymiller Market

Published by

Braymiller Market in downtown Buffalo. Photo by Garrett Looker. The Buffalo Common Council is sending a new message to Braymiller Market, downtown’s struggling grocery store: If the business is going to fail, it better fail within the next year.  That way, University Common Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt said, the city can recoup the $561,000 it loaned the business last year. Under the terms of the forgivable loan, the store must stay open for two years to avoid repaying the city. “If we can get our $561,000 before he closes, let’s get our $561,000 back because I think that can[...]

Posted 3 months ago

Oct 24

2024

Braymiller Market pays its delinquent taxes

Published by

Braymiller’s grocery includes a deli. Photo by Garrett Looker. It took two formal warnings from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency and the threat of losing a key tax break, but Braymiller Market owner Stuart Green paid his overdue city taxes Wednesday. Green’s $8,200 payment, half his annual bill, was nearly three months late and was at least the third time he’d missed the deadline for paying his city property tax, according to city records. Under the terms of a 2019 package of tax breaks, which totaled $765,000, Bryamiller is responsible for paying 20 percent of its tax bill. John[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Oct 22

2024

City loan has not stabilized Braymiller Market

Published by

Story updated 10:34 a.m. Oct. 24. A year after the City of Buffalo threw Braymiller Market a half-million dollar lifeline, the downtown grocery store continues to struggle financially. For a third year in a row, records show that owner Stuart Green is months behind on his city tax payments.  That failure to pay $8,119 in taxes, half the annual bill, prompted the Erie County Industrial Development Agency to warn him Sept. 10 and again last week that the property tax abatement it granted him in 2019 could be revoked. On Wednesday, IDA leaders said they were prepared to begin the[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Oct 9

2024

A literal power struggle at STAMP

Published by

Gov. Kathy Hochul, center, flings dirt into the air at Plug Power’s groundbreaking. Photo via governor’s office. The financial strife of Plug Power is causing headaches for a Western New York industrial park, leading economic development officials in Genesee County to seek state assistance and even court data centers in an effort to “save the day.” As it’s run dangerously low on cash, Plug Power has stopped construction of its hydrogen production plant at Genesee County’s Science Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park, located halfway between Buffalo and Rochester. The company’s building has been paused since January. That has meant construction[...]

Posted 4 months ago

Sep 19

2024

Developer Doug Jemal, back in the news

Published by

An advertisement featuring Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen hangs on the side of the Statler Hotel. Photo by Garrett Looker. Developer Doug Jemal is in the news this week over his company’s installation of a huge ad posted on the side of the Statler Hotel in the heart of downtown Buffalo. Jemal’s company didn’t obtain the necessary permit for the 11-story ad, featuring the likeness of Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Jemal is unapologetic, telling The Buffalo News that installing the ad was the “right thing to do.” Jemal, known for sometimes playing by his own rules, was the subject of[...]

Posted 5 months ago

Aug 5

2024

DOT plays gotcha on the Scajaquada Expressway

Published by

The Scajaquada Expressway isn’t a toll road. Not technically.  But the state Department of Transportation has turned it into a moneymaker by surreptitiously installing speed detection cameras under the guise that a stretch of the roadway is a construction zone. As a result, DOT has been issuing a lot of speeding tickets – in the thousands, by the department’s own admission – to motorists. WKBW first reported on the situation, here and here, followed by The Buffalo News.  As The News reported: Patrick Freeman, a retired police officer who spent 30 years on SUNY Buffalo State University’s force, has filed[...]

Posted 6 months ago

Jul 31

2024

Rural IDA leader highest paid in New York

Published by

Steven G. Hyde retires effective Aug. 1. Photo by I’Jaz Ja’ciel. When he steps aside tomorrow, Steven G. Hyde — a Genesee County official — will retire as the highest-paid economic development leader in the public sector in New York. His $274,898 salary as president and CEO of the Genesee County Economic Development Center was nearly $25,000 more than Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2023 salary. It was also more than every other industrial development agency leader in the state. To wit: His counterpart in New York City earned $243,500 in 2023. His counterpart in Erie County made $205,000. His counterparts at[...]

Posted 6 months ago
Investigative Post