By JAMES FINK
Business First

A sprawling 1,900-acre series of parcels that at one time was all industrial land could become Buffalo's newest development zone.

The land, dubbed the South Buffalo Brownfield Opportunity Area, is eyed for several developments ranging from Class A office space to high-tech research incubators.

That was the advance word from the planning team hired by the Buffalo Urban Development Corp. to look at potential uses for the land, which extends from the Buffalo River south to the Buffalo-Lackawanna border. BUDC directors got a sneak preview of a detailed development master plan Tuesday morning.

The land includes five active rail lines and 800 parcels. Sitting along its southern boundary is the Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, which has already welcomed several new tenants, and 185 acres of land the city acquired along the Buffalo River.

"This is an opportunity to leverage those assets," said Mark Ried of Toronto-based Urban Strategies Inc., one of the lead consulting firms. "It is in an interesting place for the city. You can use it to begin to create and strengthen the economic base."

Ried said to be effective, Buffalo needs a combination of short-term, mid-range and long-term development strategies for the land. He estimated that it could take the city as long as 20 to 25 years to build out the land.

Because of its location just outside the downtown Buffalo core and along the Route 5/Fuhrmann Boulevard stretch, the land lends itself to a number of development options.

But, officials say, Buffalo needs to see some growth within the region for the land to be effectively developed. Shuffling existing tenants doesn't necessarily produce any gains, warned Marc McCauley, Robert Charles Lesser & Co. senior principal. The Bethesda, Md., firm is part of the planning and development team.

"There has to be growth of the city and the region," McCauley said. "In our market analysis, we didn't think of this land as a piece of dirt. We thought of it in terms of long-term opportunities."