Main Place Mall's Search For Tenants Signals Buffalo Revival Hopes

The last few years haven't been that kind to some parts of downtown Buffalo. All you have to do is take a walk or train ride down one block of Main Street to see it. On one side you have the abandoned former AM&A's department store, and on the other side you have the shuttered Main Place Mall.

Since coming out of the pandemic, there are thousands fewer people working in the central business district of New York's second largest city. While there were hopes of bringing back the Main Place Mall with a multi-million-dollar development, those plans have not materialized. That has the owners of the sprawling former shopping complex going back to a novel idea: bringing stores back to the mall.

According to Buffalo Business First, the nearly 300,000 square foot complex is now on the lookout for businesses to move back into it. It seems that the mall's owner is actively looking to lease space in the mall that saw its last publicly accessible tenant move away in 2025.

Giving people who live and work in downtown Buffalo vibrant and active places to congregate is key to helping bring the central business district back, and the owners of the Main Place Mall are looking to capitalize on some of the work that the NFTA is doing as part of the returning cars to Main Street project.

There's no word on what type of tenants the mall is looking for, and whether retail is destined to return to downtown Buffalo needs more fleshing out. But this is a good sign that downtown may be back on the rise again.

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Filed Under: Buffalo Buzz