NFTA pulls plug on plan to sell port site to Canada furniture-maker for 250-employee plant
Robert J. McCarthy
An ambitious plan to sell the former Port of Buffalo complex on the outer harbor to a Canadian furniture manufacturer – and create 250 new jobs – is dead.
Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority officials acknowledged late Wednesday that efforts dating from last September to sell the property for $4.7 million to Gracious Living Corp. of Woodbridge, Ont., collapsed at the 5 p.m. deadline. Authority spokesman C. Douglas Hartmayer would offer no specifics on why the deal fell through, although NFTA officials have previously indicated Gracious Living was conducting extensive environmental inspections of the cavernous buildings that once housed Ford Motor Co. facilities.
“The nature of the deal was complicated with many moving parts,” Hartmayer said. “They just weren’t ready to complete the deal within a reasonable time frame.”
Though the project was announced last September with great fanfare by Empire State Development Corp. – accompanied by comments from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo – it seemed plagued by problems from the outset.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/downtown-waterfront/nfta-pulls-plug-on-plan-to-sell-port-site-to-canada-furniture-maker-for-250-employee-plant-20140430
