A group of experts representing ULI visited Buffalo, New York, last November to make recommendations for reviving the city’s Jefferson Avenue Corridor, the main thoroughfare of a historically black area that has suffered a decline in commercial, social, and civic activity and engagement as the result of decades of disinvestment and a recent racially motivated shooting.
The panel’s recommendations included raising awareness about the city’s $300 million planned and past investments in the area to foster hope and trust among residents. These initiatives include deploying pop-up retail and food trucks to build commercial momentum, and enhancing awareness of existing financing tools and social impact capital sources that could support Black-owned businesses and increase the stock of affordable and workforce housing. Such strategies aim to make a foundation for lasting, equitable growth along the corridor.
Established in the mid-1850s on Buffalo’s East Side, the Jefferson Avenue Corridor evolved from a three-mile-long residential thoroughfare into a vibrant commercial district that served as the economic and cultural backbone of Buffalo’s growing Black community through much of the 20th century. As the city’s manufacturing base eroded after World War II, however, Jefferson Avenue faced mounting challenges. The construction of major highways, particularly I-90 and the Kensington Expressway, accelerated this decline by physically dividing neighborhoods and enabling white flight to the suburbs—a pattern further exacerbated by discriminatory lending practices.
The corridor’s struggles intensified after the summer 1967 race riots, which damaged numerous properties on Jefferson Avenue, further destabilizing the local economy. In 2022, a white supremacist opened fire at the Tops Friendly Markets store on Jefferson Avenue, killing 10 residents and injuring three others. The attack devastated a community already grappling with decades of economic challenges.
For Reverend Mark Blue, president of the Buffalo Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Jefferson Avenue isn’t just another urban corridor in need of revitalization—it’s home. Born and raised in Buffalo, he witnessed firsthand the historic thoroughfare’s vitality. “Jefferson Avenue was the center of what’s happening in our community,” Blue says. “It had barber shops, clothing stores, gas stations, auto repair shops, grocery stores, mom and pop stores . . . . It was thriving.” He remembers landmarks such as the Apollo Theatre cinema (now home to a media center) and now-demolished icons such as the local Sears, Roebuck & Co. store and the War Memorial Stadium, former home to the Buffalo Bills. Deaconess Hospital served as one of the main medical centers for the area from 1895 until its closure in 1986. “It was a great place to live,” Blue says.
Under Blue’s leadership, NAACP Buffalo recognized an opportunity to catalyze positive change on Jefferson Avenue. The organization turned to ULI’s Advisory Services Program to provide community-driven recommendations for revitalizing the Jefferson Avenue corridor because of ULI’s track record in the region and success with Advisory Services Panels focused on community revitalization in nearby Rochester. “We did not want to bring someone unfamiliar,” Blue says. “ULI has worked in the Buffalo area, they’ve worked with the city of Buffalo . . . this is in their wheelhouse.” By working independently of city government, he adds, the NAACP could retain control of the initiative while still collaborating with the municipality, with the intention of keeping residents’ interests at the forefront of development decisions.
In November 2024, NAACP Buffalo sponsored a ULI Advisory Services Panel in partnership with the Buffalo Urban League, with support from the municipality, a local organizing committee, and other community stakeholders. The ULI Foundation and ULI Western New York regional satellite of the ULI New York district council also supported this effort.
Tyrone Rachal, president of Urban Key Capital Partners and ULI Atlanta District Council chair, headed the panel. He was joined by panel members Dionne Baux, chief programs officer, Main Street America; Dr. Lorin R. Carter, founder and chief executive officer, C-Suite Equity Consulting; Justin Chapman, senior development executive, The Integral Group; Caressa Davis, director of community partnerships, St. Louis Development Corporation; Juanita Hardy, managing principal, Tiger Management Consulting Group; Sherry Okun-Rudnak, principal, BAE Urban Economics; and Mark Sherfy, development services group leader and vice president, BHC.
Adam Walters, partner at the Buffalo office of Phillips Lytle and the chair of ULI Western New York, played a key role in facilitating the panel’s work. Members of ULI Western New York and the NAACP met regularly to help with the planning process for the panel, which involved extensive stakeholder engagement, Walters says: “We helped compile the stakeholder list, invited people to stakeholder meetings, and facilitated panel interviews with more than 100 people.” The local organizing committee, which consists of community stakeholders, worked closely with the local ULI team to provide guidance and input throughout the process.
Several themes emerged from the stakeholder interviews that helped the panel to understand the community’s specific needs and challenges and to shape its recommendations.
The first was what Rachal calls “strategic connectivity”—the need to better integrate and communicate ongoing city initiatives. The panel identified several themes, including the need to better leverage and communicate past and planned city investments, which total more than $300 million in and around the study area.
“Often, when you’re in the community, you don’t see the connections that the city is trying to achieve,” Rachal says. “One of our overarching recommendations was to build off of these city investments in a way that strategically connects them in a cohesive manner and intentionally communicates progress.”
A second theme centers on strategic leadership in public/private partnerships. Rachal says that the stakeholder group has expanded beyond just the government and private developers. “In this case, you have philanthropic partners that are anxious to see where they can fit in,” he says. “You’ve got the public sector, the private sector, philanthropy, nonprofits, and ultimately, the people who are being impacted.” The panel emphasized equitable development as a significant part of strategic leadership, so that benefits are distributed among current, new, and returning residents of the study area.
Bright spots
Already, there are bright spots along the corridor. In 2021, People Inc., a nonprofit health and human services agency serving people with intellectual and physical disabilities, completed the Jefferson Avenue Apartments, a mixed-use building combining commercial space with more than 90 residential units.
In 2022, Say Yes Buffalo—a nonprofit organization that aims to remove barriers to educational attainment, workforce participation, and economic mobility for students in public and charter schools in the city—opened its office on the street, with affordable housing on the upper floors. The Buffalo Urban League has plans to construct a $25 million headquarters on Jefferson Avenue, potentially including a business incubator as well as administrative and program spaces.
On the housing front, the corridor faces both opportunities and challenges, with a median household income of $37,005 along the Jefferson Avenue corridor, compared to $48,179 for the city. The panel recommended pursuing mixed-income development strategies to support various income levels while preventing displacement. They suggested leveraging Buffalo’s Unified Development Ordinance for strategic densification to provide attainable housing for the “missing middle” and implementing creative anti-displacement strategies, such as tax relief programs for property owners.
Buffalo has some of the oldest housing stock in the country, Blue says, and so, the initiative aims to leverage existing county and city programs to help current residents stay in their homes through renovation and repair support. “We need mixed-income housing, not just apartments,” he says. “Apartments do not build wealth for individuals . . . . They build wealth for the developer and whoever takes over after that.”
Commercial market analysis
The panel’s high-level commercial market analysis revealed average rents of $14.52 per square foot, with a notably low vacancy rate of 0.9 percent. The panel recommended pursuing interim activation strategies such as pop-up retail and food trucks, aligning larger development phases with planned infrastructure improvements, enhancing awareness of existing financing tools, and exploring social impact capital sources.
Although the city has committed to significant physical infrastructure improvements—including two funded streetscape improvement projects scheduled for 2025 and 2027, and a major sewer project also scheduled for 2027—the panel highlighted the importance of “community infrastructure,” as well. This infrastructure includes workforce development programs, economic development initiatives, and ways to ensure the built environment aligns with community desires.
To help with workforce development, the panel recommended expanding access to government-sponsored training programs, partnering with local businesses and community organizations, and establishing career pathways focused on trades, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Panelists placed particular emphasis on supporting Black-owned businesses, noting their historical significance to the corridor and the current challenges, which include persistent discrimination and limited access to capital and financial resources . They recommended forming a coalition of economic development agencies and implementing equitable incentives for minority-owned and local businesses.
Noting that art and culture can help heal the community, the panel pointed to cultural institutions such as the Buffalo Black Achievers Museum and recommended exploring such strategies as developing a historical walking tour, enhancing streetscaping, and implementing year-round programming to attract visitors.
Immediate action items
The panel concluded with immediate action items for the next six months, including forming a coalition to support business attraction and retention, developing a rebranding strategy for Jefferson Avenue, creating resource databases, and commissioning a market study and property inventory.
The final report from the ULI panel is expected soon. The local organizing committee’s first meeting after the panel’s presentation in early 2025 was well attended, Walters says, and it intends to meet monthly to maintain momentum and create subcommittees to address specific aspects of the implementation plan.
A measured, incremental approach is crucial for success, Blue says. “We want to make sure that we can work on one project at a time and have that come to completion, then work on the next project,” he says. “We’ll stack them up, so people can see the progress.”
Since 1947, ULI’s Advisory Services Program’s panels have been bringing together experts from ULI’s diverse membership—developers, planners, financiers, market analysts, economists, architects, designers, and public officials—to provide practical solutions and objective, unbiased advice not available from any other source. To learn more about the Advisory Services Program, visit https://americas.uli.org/programs/advisory-services/.
