Old Buffalo Police HQ Now Apartments That Are Actually Cool

Over the past few years, there's been a trend of taking older buildings in downtown Buffalo and redeveloping them into something new and different. It's been a successful venture for the most part and has been helped, to some extent, contribute to Buffalo's economic resurgence.

At one time a thriving production hub and regional economic driver, Buffalo's labor market imploded as its manufacturing base faded away. The mass departure of employers left Buffalo with a lack of jobs, which also meant empty buildings downtown. What do you do with those buildings? Tear them down or try and fill them with new businesses?

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If you're smart (and clearly the people doing this are, because they've been successful), you turn them into apartments, or breweries, or restaurants. After all, those buildings have a history and a story, which gives them character. That character isn't just incorporated but sought out a lot of times. It helps sell the concept of the redevelopment.

That character is great if you live in a loft, like the AM&S's Warehouse Lofts (where I used to live), or it gets turned into a restaurant or brewery. But what about the old Buffalo Police Department headquarters? Would you be OK with living in a loft/apartment knowing what the building's former life was? A few years ago that building was sold and at the time, no one said outright what they were going to use that building for specifically. But just the other day as I was driving down Church street here downtown and I saw a banner on the side of the building with apartments for rent.

When Buffalo sold the building in 2018, Mayor Byron Brown said, "It's time for this historic structure to get a new lease on life as part of Buffalo's vibrant downtown." Now we know exactly what that new lease on life will be; apartments. While it's not to the level of an old hospital or mental institution, it does present a little bit of uncertainty. Think about it; who knows what's happened there over the years? Life is stranger than fiction sometimes and you just never know. That idea alone might it interesting for some, and a hard no for others. I'd definitely be into living in a building like that. As long as it wasn't where the cells themselves were located. I have this thing about bars and being behind them. It's just not my thing.