‘Tis the season for gift giving and inside Santa's bag are presents galore for local economic development and real estate insiders.

Santa, being his generous self, has even offered a sneak preview of gifts he may be delivering this year. Among them:

• To Tom Dee, Jordy Levy, Larry Quinn and the rest of the crew at Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp.: the ability to build the next phases of Canal Side minus the fishbowl existence and publicly directed lightning rods that have plagued them in recent years.

Few projects have garnered as much publicity - good, bad and ugly - as Canal Side. The Erie Canal Harbor Development folks have spent more time defending themselves than focusing on the task at hand - building out Canal Side. Their latest, re-tweaked development plan seems to satisfy many people. However, Levy has acknowledged that Canal Side will always have critics and naysayers, no matter what happens there.

• To Statler Towers: a chance. And, money.

Architecturally and historically, the building deserves a chance to survive. Statler City LLC, the Mark Croce-Jim Eagan tandem, presented a reasonable alternative with an incremental development plan based on market conditions and not-unattainable expectations.

Here's the rub: Saving the Statler ain't cheap. Santa and his merry elfs couldn't produce enough money to make the building economically viable.

True, Croce and Eagan are asking for $5.2 million in public-sector help to finance emergency repairs for the Statler. The question, though, is what about future phases? Will there be additional asks for more public dollars?

No matter who is doing the talking, a soup-to-nuts rehab of the Statler is expected to cost about $100 million. Santa's gift bag isn't that big, is it?

• To the AM&A's Main Street store: Much like Statler City, developer Rocco Termini is going to need a lot of public-sector help to make his planned $70 million rehab of the former department store a viable project. And a chance, too.

Much like the Statler scenario, Termini's plan may be the last hope for the building and all that could save it from a date with the wrecker's ball. Is there public-sector money out there for the AM&A's project? One would hope funds and financing packages can be found.

Termini's game plan includes bringing a 117-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel to the building, senior apartments and corporate offices for the Hamister Group. If he succeeds, AM&A's will go from being an eyesore to something that creates new jobs, adds to Buffalo's tax roll and changes the face of a key Main Street block.

Combined, the Statler and AM&A's will require some heavy lifting from cash-strapped Albany at a time when there is a new administration but a lot of the old problems. Both will be good, early tests for how the Cuomo administration views Buffalo.

Besides money, maybe Santa can muster some clout for the AM&A's project.

• Santa also is checking his gift bag to see if there are enough votes in Albany to get the support UB 2020 needs to move forward. And making sure lawmakers have strong backbones to challenge downstate leadership.

On paper, the promise of UB 2020 is impressive. Unfortunately, until state lawmakers give the University at Buffalo the autonomy it needs to set its own tuition rates and other measures including flexibility in determining its own spending and contracting policies, UB 2020 remains in limbo. It has the ability to be a transformative project for this region. Let's hope Santa can help deliver on that promise.

• As a gift to both the United States and Canada, Santa should be looking for a stocking stuffer that will allow plans for the expansion of the Peace Bridge to finally move forward. Granted, he has been trying to deliver that gift for nearly two decades. And while the Canadians have gladly accepted it, this side of the border has been Scrooge by threatening lawsuits and putting up roadblocks for everything from the bridge and plaza design to determining whether the project was a danger to migrating birds.

Canadians continue to scratch their heads about it all.

The bridge is as much about economic development as architectural significance. The economic impact comes from a functional bridge that allows traffic to cross from Fort Erie to Buffalo in a smoother, less-congested pattern. That attracts the eyes and attention of logistics firms and all those with ties to cross-border issues.

The Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority says that with a little political and private sector-led push on the U.S. side, it could start the bidding process in 2011 and, maybe, have the new span ready by 2018.

Perhaps Santa can deliver that gift this year -and we won't return it.