The Buffalo News | Slow train coming: Developer plans to transform DL&W Terminal into waterfront concert venue

Developer Sam Savarino plans to turn the second floor of the DL&W Terminal into a waterfront music venue a stone’s throw from where Canalside Live ended its annual summer concert series in 2019.

Savarino plans to employ the site's 40,000-square-foot outdoor deck, which he said can likely accommodate 4,000 to 5,000 people, for the new venue expected to open in 2025. Plans also include live music events inside on the building’s second floor. Working with Project for Public Spaces – which created the "cheaper, lighter, quicker" concept used at Canalside – Savarino also envisions an 8,000- to 10,000-square-foot public market, artists’ studios and food stalls along with a moveable stage for concerts, festivals and special events.

"Our intent is to make a public space in the size and scale and characteristics of great and successful public places in other communities," Savarino said.

Savarino said there's a need for a music venue between the 400-capacity Buffalo Iron Works music club the developer owns in the nearby Cobblestone District and the planned 8,000-capacity amphitheater at the Outer Harbor.

"There's a big hole in the middle. One of the things missing with the loss of Thursday at the Square and the Canalside concerts is a place with easy entry and an easy place to meet people," Savarino said.

He said he believes the new music venue on the second floor exterior deck of the building where the train line ends – overlooking the Cobblestone District on one side and the Buffalo River on the other – will fill that hole.

Reuse of the DL&W Terminal has been a long time coming. The lower floor serves as Metro Rail's Yard and Shops complex, but the second floor has been vacant since the last Erie-Lackawanna passenger train left the station in 1962.

After $52 million in preliminary improvements, the NFTA will now use the $30 million recently approved in the state budget for 2022-2023 – the estimated price tag for all of the work – to repair and restore the train shed's second floor.

“We’ve been (planning) for this together since well before Covid,” said Josh Holtzman, who started as event manager at Buffalo Iron Works eight years ago before becoming part owner with Savarino. Twenty6 Productions, which Holtzman runs with business partner Grace Vesneske, will be handling the booking and production for the DL&W concerts.

The two of them visited the Cherry Street Pier in Philadelphia to see how an old train station terminal was turned into a mixed-use event space that included a farmers' market and an outdoor concert venue.

Then, at Savarino’s suggestion, they traveled to Hong Kong to see another terminal with multiple functions that is open daily and draws large numbers of people.

“That trip was huge, because it underlined something Sam says often – that you can get a lot done with a very little space, and you can also fill a big space with a lot of little things,” Holzman said.

That fit in with their goal of creating a year-round entertainment venue that can go from using a mobile stage in the summer to moving indoors, along with other activities going on simultaneously.

Holtzman and Savarino said the DL&W Terminal will work as “something in the vein of what Thursday at the Square was,” with lots of parking available because of proximity to KeyBank Center and also access to rail.

“What other event space has a subway that comes right to its front door?” Holtzman said. “You can hop on the light rail anywhere along the line, and if you take it to the end, you’ll be dropped off right at the concert.”

Holtzman said that like at Iron Works, there will be a commitment to local artists and bands touring for national acts as well as the opportunity to headline events “scaled to their needs.”

That’s a significant concern of regional musicians, who have long argued that a “Buffalo renaissance” needs to include new opportunities for them. 

“On paper, this all sounds super cool, but as a musician, I’m not sure where it’s going to help our scene,” said Geno McManus, a full-time musician with 25-plus years experience. “I don’t think any local bands can draw 5,000 fans unless it’s tied to an event. Opening for a national can be fun and helpful, but those slots never pay anything, so it’s a bit more of a ‘for the glory’ deal, as opposed to a ‘get paid for working’ deal.”

Still, McManus said he thinks the venue itself has a lot to like about it so he’ll be watching with interest.

“I’m very interested in this project, and I think most of the musicians in the community will be, too, as long as the local involvement is handled in a fair way,” he said. 

For James Seney of Amherst who said he attends about 100 shows a year, the promise of an easy-access, mid-sized venue in the Cobblestone District is enticing. 

“The question for everyone in the Buffalo area should always be – ‘How can I get close to the water, and have a great time while doing so?’ This venue sounds like it will answer that question,” Seney said.