City, developers at odds over Aud film-facility plan

BUFFALO

By BRIAN MEYER
News Staff Reporter
4/5/01

A plan to give Memorial Auditorium a Hollywood makeover by turning the long-vacant building into film and musical production facilities likely will not materialize, city officials predicted Wednesday.

But spokesmen for a group of Hollywood film industry executives and local businessmen insisted that progress is being made in efforts to line up private financing for a project that could cost as much as $37 million.

"Our financial package is in order," said Thomas A. Mauro, an Amherst-based building consultant who has been working with the group. "We have commitments for private financing, and we're working on some final details right now."

The group has also been considering sites in Niagara County, Rochester and the Binghamton area.

But two top advisers to Mayor Anthony M. Masiello expressed growing skepticism that the project has a future in the Aud. The city is continuing to work with a Baltimore developer on a plan to convert the building into an urban entertainment center. The project being advanced by Cordish & Co. could include live entertainment, restaurants, museums and specialty stores.

While Alan H. DeLisle, president of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp., finds the studio proposal "intriguing," he also noted that "we have yet to see concrete proof that they can finance this thing. We want to see more than just a letter. We want to meet with their finance people, because $37 million is a lot of money."

Financing has been a major concern since the group pitched the concept to the city several months ago, said Vincent J. LoVallo, the mayor's chief of staff. One early proposal called for the city to sell the Aud for $1, allowing the developers to use the building's assessed value as collateral to secure private financing. Mauro said that financing option was later shelved.

Mauro said the region's talent pool, unusual venues, proximity to Canada and relatively low cost of living would give a Buffalo-based studio a competitive edge. The project won praise from the Greater Buffalo Convention & Visitors Bureau, which works with many media production companies.

"It was a terrific idea," LoVallo said. "But we haven't seen the financials or the terms that would be required to make this project work."