Rising gas prices force business' hand

By Craig Learn and Taylor Steinberg
Bengal News Reporters
 As gas prices rise in the United States, West Side businesses may be forced to take action.
 According to buffalogasprices.com the national average price for a gallon of gas in the second week of March in the United States is $3.53, and the average for a gallon of gas in Buffalo is $3.70. There are several businesses on the West Side that have already been affected by the increase in fuel prices.

Vincent Guercio says gas prices prompted a hike in lettuce costs

 One of those businesses is Guercio & Sons Inc. located on Grant Street.
Guercio’s is a supermarket that sells classic Italian foods and other grocery needs. At the same time the store is a wholesale store that caters to various Buffalo businesses.
 Its wholesale products are rising in price because its fuel prices have risen 50 percent according to Vincent Guercio, manager of the store. This has not made Guercio raise his prices in the grocery store itself, but it could very soon.
 One example of a product that has risen in price is lettuce.
 “Take for instance roman lettuce, roman hearts used to be, around this time of year, maybe $26, this year market price is $52,” Guercio said. “It’s because of gas.”
“Right now we are not implementing any delivery charges as of yet,” he said. “But we are looking at the options of delivery fees, possibly reducing routes or possibly laying people off, driver wise.”
 Guercio also said his store might consider consolidating how many deliveries they do in one trip. For example, the store might pack as many deliveries into one truck as it can to save money. Right now Guercio’s delivers as far out as East Aurora and Angola.
 Rising prices are even affecting smaller businesses like New To You, a thrift store which sells used clothing and appliances at reasonable prices for West Side residents.
 The store provides free pick up to those who donate, and free delivery for residents that do not have a vehicle.
 The biggest cost for the store comes from pick-ups of donations according to Kim DeFlyer, executive Director for New To You.
 Right now the store is only making deliveries three days a week because of the gas prices said DeFlyer.
 The store does not want to raise its prices.
 “Boy I hope not,” she said, when asked, “If anything we would like to lower it, put things on promotion so we can give things to them cheaper, especially if its something we have an over abundance.”

 DeFlyer explains what her business will do if gas prices continue to rise.


 Sweetness 7 Café on the corner of Grant Street and Lafayette Avenue is another business affected by the rise in prices. It uses Guercio & Sons Inc. for many items.
 Owner Prish Moran said no matter what she will not switch to a different distributor because she loves Guercio’s.
  It is not the rising costs of food that puts the big hit on Moran’s business, but rather the gas bill.
 “Most directly is my heating bill, my gas bill, I use my gas for heating and for cooking,” she said.
 Moran has two cafés, one on Grant Street the other on Parkside Avenue. She said she has double ovens on the Grant Street store and one huge oven at Parkside Avenue and those are what are driving up her gas bill.
 Moran said prices have gone up on everything, even the basics.
 “All the staples, milk, butter, eggs, flower, everything has gone up and I don’t mean a nickel or a dime, like $20 a case for butter, that’s huge for a restaurant,” she said.
 Her vender prices have gone up as well, but there are ways around that.
“All of the delivery charges have gone up for all of my venders because their gas prices have gone up,” she said. ”But the only thing I’ve done is made half the amount of trips so we just order more at one time now.”
 Moran said she has seen a decrease in business since the gas prices rose on her Parkside location but an increase in business on the Grant Street location because the majority of customers walk or bike to the restaurant.
 The thought of raising prices in Moran’s stores does not cross her mind.
 “It has not, in all honesty it has not,” she said. “I haven’t even thought about it, I really haven’t. I feel strongly about the reality of how much will someone really spend for cup of coffee.”

Edited by Ariel Hofher and Corey O'Leary

Businesses work to improve the West Side

By Jeffrey Heras and Kevin Hoffman
Bengal News reporters
 In an area that was once thriving with business, prosperity and positive feelings, the current state of the West Side is one that falls well short of those standards. With a renewed effort towards bringing productive change to the area, history may very well be poised to repeat itself.

Judy Frizlen of The Rose Garden Early Childhood Center

 Since he opened the Meating Place in 1975, moving it to 185 Grant St. in 1986, Jimmy Lorigo said retail activity on the West Side has declined. He added that many of the shops have packed up and moved rapidly and to a point that there are just a few businesses left.
 The area, according to Lorigo, was a place where people would go out and shop in an atmosphere like that of an outside shopping mall. But the business atmosphere changed when crime issues that started in the late ‘70s and ‘80s caused many businesses to depart from the West Side.
 “It was always a good business area until the residents started moving out and then you see a decline in business and then you see your old time customers who keep coming back, but even some of them have passed away or even faded away,” Lorigo said.
 Throughout the years, Lorigo said that he has seen his business expand on the West Side by adding a storage facility in back of his five-story brick building.
 Lorigo states the business climate in the West Side has improved, but it will still take some effort from residents, business leaders and local politicians to work together to reduce the crime in the area in order to create a place that people will want to live and work in.
 He said that the advantage of getting the business community together is that they can work together for a certain goal, but the difficulties that can arise come from the language and cultural barrier can halt such a process.
 According to Dr. Gary S. Welborn, vice president of the Grant-Ferry Association, it is important to improve the business climate in the area. In order accomplish this task, the association has thrown its first business mixer to cater to establishments located on the West Side.
 Welborn believes the quarterly mixers will help the business owners get to know each other, make connections, and break cultural barriers. With everyone working together, the idea of a “global commercial marketplace” will be more easily obtained.
 Judy Frizlen, director of The Rose Garden Early Childhood Center located at 257 Lafayette Ave. agrees that people in the community have to work together. She added that many new immigrant businesses bring valuable richness in diversity to the West Side that any business community can benefit from.
 “I think that immigrant businesses bring a strong work ethic, a real enthusiasm to embrace the opportunity,” she said. “I think that it is more of a benefit to have other cultures, which makes it interesting. I really think that the West Side’s renewal will be assisted by the immigrants.”
 Frizlen opened her business in September 2009. She was a witness to what she calls a positive business climate, and was quickly enveloped with support from Guercio and Sons and Sweetness 7. She was encouraged to put her business on the West Side because she saw that business leaders like Prish Moran, owner of Sweetness 7, had great success. With just one year in business herself, Frizlen said that she has experienced success by expanding the number of children that attend her day care.
 “I can’t think of a place I would rather be than the West Side, I am really glad that we came over here,” Frizlen said. “I think there is this feel that something is about to happen.”

Judy Frizlen, on improving conditions on the West Side:


 Frizlen said she was motivated by results of recent study about child care.
 “There was a Cornell study linking quality childcare with economic renewal. If a city wants to have vital businesses, you have to have childcare. More than 50 percent of the work force is now women and women will do better at their jobs if their children are well tended,” she added.
 The New York Main Street program is expected to award $500,000 in grants for the revival of downtown areas through commercial and residential improvements such as façade renovations, residential buildings, interior upgrades and streetscape improvements. Specifically, the grant will target the areas located between Delevan and Auburn avenues.
 Lorigo said that there is hope that the grant will change the business climate throughout the West Side. If the money is used well enough to show big improvements in the area, more money could possibly be awarded to the West Side community to continue similar renewals in other parts of the area.
 “I would love to walk down to that Somali Star to get my curry chicken and pass thriving businesses and other people walking down the streets and to see the streets cleaned up to have people feel safe,” Frizlen said.

Edited by Heidi Friend and Kristine Starkey

Healthy menus lead to healthy choices

David Simpson, owner, Dolci Dessert Bakery & Gelateria

By Antoine Darden and Saintia Dorestal
Bengal News reporters
 Restaurants on the West Side may be adding nutritional facts to their menus, according to the new Healthy Choices program in Erie County.
 The program, which is organized by the county Health Department and the Western New York chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, will allow restaurant owners to add nutritional facts such as the calories, total fat, cholesterol and protein.
 Although this may sound like a great plan for those who are looking for healthy options, some restaurant owners fear the program may take business away.
 “I don’t think people would order food from us, once they know how much fat and calories are in it,” said Dana Hernandez, who sets up events at the Niagara Café.
 The initiative is similar to the law that was passed on Nov. 8, 1990 by President George H. W. Bush, which required manufacturers to provide consumers with the nutritional content of their product.
 The new local initiative will not only provide consumers with information about the foods they are eating but it is also an opportunity for restaurant owners to publicize their healthy menu options, said Cheryll Moore, coordinator for the Erie County Department of Health.
 The facts will be added using the free software called “Menu-Calc,” which will calculate the nutrition results using a method called database nutrition analysis.
 Robert Free, president of the local chapter of the restaurant association said the Healthy Choices program, does not endorse the items the restaurateur picks as the healthiest choices.
 Free said that if owners wanted to they could put prime rib on the healthy menu. It’s more a matter of giving people information on what they are eating.
 Dave Alessi, manager at La Nova Pizzeria on West Ferry Street, said if the company had to add the nutritional facts themselves it would be tedious and costly.

Dave Alessi, on the new menu initiative in Erie County:

 “I have 55 subs on my menu and 30 different pizzas, calzones and the other stuff,” Alessi said.
 With the initiative being voluntary and limited in budget, restaurant owners will have the option of choosing up to four items on their menu.

 David Simpson, owner and manager of Dolci Dessert Bakery & Gelateria on Elmwood Avenue, which not only serves pastries and cakes, but also soups and breads and vegan and health-food items, hopes to be among the first to make the additions to his menu.
 Moore and Free said they hope to see the project expand. It will target 200 local restaurants and provide the service free of charge for the first two months using a $25,000 state grant.
 “I think it’s a great educational opportunity for consumers,” Moore said. “It’s also a great opportunity for restaurants that otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to do this because of cost.”

Edited by Caitlin Behm and Tiffany Monde

Bazaar expected to bring buzz to West Side

By Ashley Brown and Brittany Sherman
Bengal News reporters
 The aroma of exotic foods fills the air. Pedestrians can’t help but stop and stare at the colorful and intricate fabric and jewelry. The sound of eclectic music spills into the streets, creating a unique ambience.
 This is the scene that is hoped to be set by the West Side Bazaar, a project that has been a work-in-progress for some time by several West Side organizations and investors.
 The idea behind the project is to help provide business and entrepreneurial skills as well as opportunities for the refugee population, and build up the West Side’s commercial district.
 The Westminster Economic Development Initiative and Niagara Common Councilmember David Rivera have played key roles in the development of the project.



The bazaar has faced a couple of hurdles that have delayed the unveiling of the unique business on more than one occasion. The primary issue that has been faced is establishing a location.
 “We’ve been trying to find buildings, but no building has opened up,” said Kirk Laubenstein, legislative assistant to Rivera. “We’ve been waiting on the Heal closing because they just closed, but the building needs a lot of rehab. We’re at least hoping for a temporary location while Heal does the rehab for their building.”
 If plans go through as hoped for at the Heal building, the Bazaar will be housed at 240 – 244 West Ferry Street. It will be the tenant on the first floor of the building.
 The bazaar aspires to feature the diverse cultures and ethnicities that make up the West Side community and draw in commercial business.
 “The idea is to have a smaller type of a Broadway market,” said Laubenstein. “You would have vendors and small booths selling food, hand crafts, jewelry, primarily focused on refugees, but not limited to refugees.”
 Bonnie Smith, the Economic Development Director for the WEDI, expands on specifically what vendors will be featured at the bazaar.
 “We have Anthony from Liberia, who is importing beautiful clothing and fabrics from Liberia,” said Smith. “We also have Marta from Peru, she’s a trained chef and she’s doing Peruvian food, and hopes to start the first Peruvian restaurant in Buffalo.”
 This business will stand out from any other bazaar, flea market or farmer’s market in the area because it primarily focuses on the West Side’s refugee and immigrant population. The vendors will offer an international mix of commodities and goods.
 There’s much more than just finding a location and the adequate funding that has gone into this project. WEDI, the lead agency in the bazaar, has helped refugee and immigrant vendors understand the business aspect of the project.
 “We’ve been part of the workshops and developing the workshops for the vendors,” said Smith. “Our workshops have been on sales tax, insurance, importing and general business know-how.”
 Building up the commercial district in the West Side community has been a primary motive for the Bazaar.
 “As you see over on Elmwood, as goes the commercial district so goes the neighborhood around it,” said Laubenstein. “Our goal is to have a vibrant neighborhood and a vibrant neighborhood includes good commercial districts.”
 Smith believes that the future for the West Side is looking bright. She hopes that with some assistance, the refugee population can turn this into a thriving community.
 As of now, the Bazaar is looking for a temporary space until renovations are complete at the location on West Ferry. The hope is to have an opening at a temporary location in December.

 Edited by Allison Dunckle and Kaitlin Fritz

Merging old and new through business group

By Mike Gambini and Ken Obstarczyk
Bengal News reporters
 The West Side is home to a diverse population including Puerto Ricans, African Americans, Eastern Europeans, Asians and Somalis.
 Welcome to the Grant Street business district.
 Helping to bring synergy and cohesion to such a diverse area is the Grant-Ferry Association headed by Kathleen Kinan and Gary Welborn.
 Since taking over the association from founders Bob Franke and Mike Rizzo, Kinan and Welborn have begun to implement a plan that not only merges a melting pot of businesses, but incorporates an equally diverse campus, Buffalo State, which has plenty of resources to share.
 “My vision is that Grant Street can be a global commercial strip,” said Gary Welborn, vice president of the Grant Ferry Association, and chair and associate professor in the sociology department at Buffalo State.
 “I think Bob from the beginning had the idea of tapping into those communities, trying to get some entrepreneurs from those communities to anchor in with businesses,” he said. “That has happened but it can go further. We want to create a commercial strip that is organically connected with the community around it.”
 Welborn said the biggest challenge facing the association moving forward is connecting the new businesses that have sprung up, to the old businesses that have been a mainstay for over 60 years. Due to the diverse community, there is very little connection, he said.
 Grant-Ferry Association has an idea to overcome this hurdle. They plan to hold a series of business mixers with the first one taking place on Nov. 3 at G & L Flooring, 200 Grant St. Welborn said the mixer will be a great opportunity for businesses like Guercio & Sons, Sweetness 7 Café, Hatimy Market and the African Market Center and Deli to associate.
 Paul Murphy, owner of G & L Flooring, stopped short of saying he wasn’t pleased with the way the previous regime operated the association, instead, he said he is looking forward to a fresh start.
 “The mixer will hopefully bring people together under a friendly atmosphere seeing what people’s goals are for the future,” Murphy said.
  “I have met with Kathy and Gary on numerous occasions and discussions have been positive. Hopefully new leadership will change things,” he said.
 The Grant-Ferry Association is also looking to extend its reach to Buffalo State.
 Welborn hopes that students, faculty and staff will venture off campus for an experience that is unlike what they may be used to.
 “Grant Street is a unique shopping area that offers students, faculty and staff an experience much different than a shopping mall or commercial strip,” Welborn said.
  “The businesses reflect the identity and ethnicity of the groups in the area and that is something important to recognize,” he said.

Edited by Heidi Friend and Kristine Starkey

Proposal gives Horsefeathers new life

By Marc Lucarelli, Tiffany Monde and Kori Sciandra
BengalNews Reporters

Karl Frizlen, president of The Frizlen Group Architects, is investing $3.8 million into 346 Connecticut St., the building formerly known as Horsefeather’s Architectural Antiques. A specific closing date has yet to be identified, however, after the process of closing with the chosen lenders has finished, the project will be underway. Frizlen is hoping for a mid-summer start date.

There are two hurdles that Frizlen must clear before he is able to go ahead with the project. To get final approval for the project Frizlen must receive clearance for an amendment in the zoning code for the building and needs to secure the state historic tax credits that are an essential part of the projects funding.

Connecticut Street falls under C-1 Zoning codes. This zone applies to areas easily accessible and useful for retail. A meeting to finalize the approval of the zoning for the building is in place for next month.

Tax credits are a dollar amount that comes off of the taxes a developer will have to pay on the property. They are in place to promote development by saving the developer money on taxes as an incentive for their expansion of business. By not having to pay as much in taxes, it allows the developers to focus on running the business and getting return on their investment.

“Even though the store front is slightly modified, enough of it is still there, most of the street lost its significance so it’s a key connection to the past,” Harvey Garrett, executive director of the West Side Community Collaborative, said.

The West Side Collaborative is a collaboration of over 30 West Side nonprofit community and faith-based organizations.

Harvey Garrett talks about tax credits:

“The building is iconic because of the magnitude, density and value of the building,” Frizlen said. “It is important to redo and save this building.”

Frizlen proposed that the building consist of a local food market, including a farmers’ market, apartments that will rent between $1,000 and $1,400 a month, office space and food production and processing.

The building was previously used as a warehouse to store furniture and antiques. It has been vacant the past two to three years.

The 16 apartments consisting of 3 bedrooms to 4 bedrooms are intended for the use of student and faculty housing.

The main floor will host a food market including a bistro and micro stalls, which will allow customers the option to watch the food preparation process before purchase. Food for production will include sausage, yogurt and salsa.

Frizlen is looking to work with 15 vendors total and has closed a deal with 6 vendors to 8 vendors. Some vendors include White Cow Dairy, a dairy farm in East Otto and Pasta Peddler.

Wine aging and mushroom growing will take place in the basement as well as the placement of a stationary exercise bike that will generate electricity for the first two floors of the building.

Business blooms on Connecticut Street

By Kyla Goodfellow and John Fetter
BengalNews Reporters

A burgeoning retail strip of Connecticut Street is attempting to upend the West Side’s long-lived bedraggled reputation. Recently the street has seen its share of new restaurants, retailers and even luxury apartments.

The latest retail addition is Bella Tootsie a shoe-spa-boutique, located a few blocks from D’Youville College, that specializes in ladies heels, sandals, and boots, as well as mini pedicures and toenail art. The proprietor behind this creative endeavor, Annette Caldwell, said that although her boutique is seen as a surprising addition to the street it has received a warm welcome from the locals, and has sales that reflect.

“Business has been great. It’s really picked up and has been very progressive. Which is the best that you can hope for,” said Caldwell.

Caldwell said she wants people on the West Side to view her store as a boutique that has obtainable shoes.

“I want people who think that they will be expensive to come inside and realize that they’re not. Just because it’s boutique and it caters to a boutique feel doesn’t mean it has to have those thousand-dollar boutique prices. I have shoes that they can afford,” said Caldwell.

Annette Caldwell says she has a lot of repeat customers:



Although sales are the number one goal, Caldwell said she hopes her store will help the neighborhood.

“I’d like to bring the area back to the way it was when I was a child. It was a little bit higher class, a little bit more boutiquish. For a couple years there, the early 2000s, it became a little rough and I’d like to see it go back to an area where people care about themselves, their appearance, and their neighbors,” said Caldwell.

Caldwell, who labeled Connecticut Street as “the up and coming Elmwood Avenue,” said she chose the location because she’s from the West Side and is aware of all the advancements being made. Caldwell said that in the last five years Connecticut Street’s storefronts have gone from 60 percent vacancy to 90 percent occupancy.

“There’s a great energy here now. It’s very positive. Everyone is looking forward to it getting better. Everyone’s helping out. Everyone looks out for each other,” said Caldwell.

Two people who have witnessed the ebbs and flows of Connecticut Street are the owners of the Golden Key tavern, Mary Moore and Louis DiPasgule—Caldwell’s mother and stepfather, and retail neighbors.

The Golden Key, located next-door to Bella Tootsie, is a well-known local bar that first opened its doors in 1936. Caldwell’s parents have owned The Golden Key for 17 years and say that in this time business has been up and down depending on what the economy is doing.

“If everybody’s got a job I’m busy. If they don’t have a job I’m not busy,” said DiPasgule.

Moore believes that this year business is 100 percent on the upswing with the arrival of the First Niagara Bank, West Side Neighborhood Housing Services and high-end residential developments.

Moore is very proud of her daughter’s achievements, saying she did it entirely on her own, without any public assistance.

“She worked 60 to 80 hours a week for two and a half years and saved all her money. She did this on her own,” said Moore.

One project that both the Golden Key and Bella Tootsie hope will work in their favor is the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Old Horsefeathers Antique Store. The building, located only a block away on Connecticut Street, will host an array of artisan food establishments, including an organic dairy bar and a pasta maker, as well as four floors of luxury apartments.

Although the street has a constant flow of traffic and pedestrians, Caldwell and her parents hope that the building will draw more people into their area.

“It’s definitely going to bring more traffic here and for me the more people that I get to go by the more people I’m going to get to come in and shop,” said Caldwell.

Caldwell believes that the new project will put Connecticut Street on the map.

“It will make it a destination.”