Buffalo bringing new life to Canalside: Revitalization of Erie Canal launching tourism revolution
Here's a brief excerpt:
"Buffalo’s waterfront is now a mixture of brand spanking new structures and looming icons of a long-gone transportation era. Billionaire Terry Pegula owns both the Sabres, and the Buffalo Bills of the NFL. He built the $200-million HarborCenter complex next door to First Niagara Center (new home of the Sabres).
HarborCenter has two NHL-size ice pads that seat up to 2,000 spectators, plus two destination restaurants. One of them — a sports bar named 716 (Buffalo’s area code) — has two-storey ceilings and one of its 70 TVs is almost the size of a drive-in theatre.
This past fall, a 205-room Marriott Hotel opened in HarborCenter. There is also a six-storey indoor parking garage.
On the corner of HarborCenter, facing the canal skating rink, is a Tim Hortons restaurant/museum. Patrons sit on replica seats from the old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the walls are covered with Tim Horton memorabilia. He was playing for the Sabres when he died in a car crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way in 1974 while returning to Buffalo from Toronto."
