Lackawanna and South Buffalo residents, as well as other interested parties, will have a chance Tuesday night to learn more about plans to redevelop the former Bethlehem Steel site and also to offer public comment into both the project and the scope of the environmental quality review that will be required.
The Buffalo and Erie County Industrial Land Development Corp. – an affiliate of the Erie County Industrial Development Agency – will hold a public meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m Dec. 17 . It will feature an update on the infrastructure master plan and the progress of the redevelopment, as well as a discussion on the draft environmental review.
The ILDC purchased 150 acres of land in 2017, and initiated a state-supervised brownfield cleanup and a redevelopment effort that has included construction of a multiuse bicycle pathway along Route 5, the extension of Dona Street into the property, and the relocation of rail lines for the benefit of existing and future businesses on the property. The entire site is now ready for commercial or industrial tenants in a business park, while ILDC is preparing to buy another 90 acres for the second phase, for a total of 240 acres.
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Already, the first new company has signed on for the park. TMP Technologies – which makes Magic Eraser and other cleaning products – completed its previously announced purchase of 28 acres of the site for $1.05 million late last week, and will now spend $13 million to construct a new 280,000-square-foot manufacturing plant that would employ 130. That would be near the Welded Tube plant that opened in 2013 on a neighboring site, with 100 employees.
Attendees will hear from Deputy Erie County Executive Maria Whyte, ECIDA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Cappellino and Gary Palumbo from AECOM, the national engineering firm that was hired in March 2018 to prepare the infrastructure plan that focuses on roads, utilities and subdivisions. Development of that plan was funded with assistance from the federal Economic Development Administration, National Grid and National Fuel Gas Co.
The meeting will be held at St. Anthony Church, at 306 Ingham St. in Lackawanna.
