Savarino Companies has once again downsized its planned new Howell Street residential apartment project on the north bank of the Scajaquada Creek, after an unexpected new directive from state environmental officials effectively restricting the scale of the project.
The Buffalo-based company is preparing to restart the city’s review of its $15 million redevelopment proposal for a heavily polluted site, after hastily revising its overall plans and then spending the last two months firming up the details. The project had already received approval last year, but must now start the process over.
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But, in the meantime, the venture has undergone some significant changes from the prior version, reducing the number of units, abandoning a separate cluster of townhomes, and leaving a secondary city-owned property untouched for now. It will also contain a much different mix of apartment sizes than before. And it won’t encroach on nearby parkland along the creek, where a pedestrian path winds along the edge of the water.
So, instead of a 66-unit apartment building, it will now have 50 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. That includes a dozen studios that weren’t in the mix before. It will have 22 semi-submerged parking spaces, plus surface parking behind it. And it will fit entirely in the footprint of the existing building that will be torn down.
Perhaps, more importantly, the smaller size reduces the overall…
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