Buffalo Theatre: Higgins announces planning has started for potential renovation/expansion

By Mike Desmond
(Image above courtesy of iloveny.com)

A Theatre District meeting about the problems in the neighborhood was told last night that another major project is in the works to help with difficulties.

Shea’s President and CEO Brian Higgins told a packed house in the Shea’s Smith Theatre that he had met with state officials that morning about tentative plans for renovating the facility.

Look for more coverage of Investigative Post’s Tuesday night “State of the Theatre District” on The Buffalo Hive later this week.

It’s 110-years old and was once well-known as Laube’s Old Spain restaurant.

Currently, it’s used by Second Generation Theatre and O’Connell & Company.

Shea’s officials have said for a while that the theatre was next on the list for major work, once the massive $35-million project adding a wing to the Shea’s landmark Mainstage is done.

That’s scheduled for Curtain Up! 2027 in September of next year.

Construction work is days into that project.

That’s on top of the $5 million dollar renovation of Shea’s710 Theatre, just down the block.

Speaking to a meeting sponsored by Investigative Post, the former congressman said the early stage concepts call for much more than just renovating the Shea’s Smith

“This needs to be addressed. The building is 110 years old. There’s some structural challenges and we look at that as an opportunity to do more than reconstructing. What is here, we’re going to do that. But, we’re looking at residential going up as well.”

He says details are fuzzy but told the meeting it might be as much as six-stories on top of Shea’s Smith, possibly aimed at housing for artists and the artistic community.

Architects from Carmina Wood Design are working with Shea’s on the project.

It’s major work, with massive vertical steel beams interfering with some theatre sightlines and something would have to be designed to deal with them.

Cost estimates are well down the line, although there would likely be a request to Albany for dollars, like those Governor Hochul announced last week for the Mainstage project.

Much of the meeting dealt with the need to have more people living in the theater neighborhood and more people visiting.

MusicalFare Artistic/Executive Director Randall Kramer pointed out the Shea’s 710 Theatre had 5,000 customers last year and after the reconstruction and his company moving it this season, the building is on path for 35,000 customers this year, with Jesus Christ Superstar opening next week.

Higgins says the rebuilt Shea’s Smith would also do that.

“We want to contribute to adding pedestrian density to the Theatre District. And, Theatre District needs more consumers. And, where you have commercial viability without, you don’t,” said Higgins.

More housing brings more people living in the neighborhood and potentially supporting more businesses.

Higgins pointed back to his work on the Buffalo Waterfront and how it showed what could be done, “This is about vision and execution and whether you’re developing a waterfront of whether you’re developing a Downtown area or the Theatre District, it’s fundamentally the same. So, what you have to do is have the discipline to create momentum and sustain that momentum toward the goal of new possibilities.”