Central Terminal Restoration Corporation
Scott Field of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County bought the building in August 1997 for the purchase price of $1 and assumption of approximately $70,000 in back taxes. Shortly afterward, the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC), was formed and currently owns the Concourse, Tower and Baggage Building.
The CTRC is a non-profit, volunteer organization whose goal is to preserve the Terminal and help promote it as a viable redevelopment opportunity in the City of Buffalo. The CTRC received money to restore and relight the exterior tower clocks located on the 10th floor, relighting them on October 1, 1999. Also in 1999, a state grant for $1 million was obtained to begin the process of sealing and protecting the complex. The top of the building was re-lit starting on May 11, 2001. In 2003, the building was re-opened for public tours.
Currently, the Buffalo Central Terminal is host to approximately twenty major fund raising events each year. Work continues to progress and new areas of the building are cleaned up and reopened to the public each year. Since 2003 over 90,000 people have visited the building. This is more than the local Frank Lloyd Wright properties of Western New York have had. The building has been a host to tours, art shows, local political events, train shows, annual Dyngus Day and Oktoberfest, weddings, as well as a temporary art installation by controversial artist Spencer Tunick in 2004.
The clock in the center of the concourse, sold by earlier owners, was located in Chicago in 2003. In late 2004, the clock was purchased for 25,000 USD through fund raising organized by WBEN and a donation from M&T Bank. The clock was on display in the Terminal during the 2005 event season. In the fall of 2005, it was relocated to the lobby of M&T Center in downtown Buffalo, where it remained until spring of 2009. The clock was then moved back to its original location in the Terminal concourse where it will sit permanently on public display.
In November 2005, Red Scream Films LLC shot their first feature film Prison of the Psychotic Damned in the Terminal. This ultra-low budget film details what happens when a group of dysfunctional ghost-hunters decide to spend a night in the long rumored to be haunted structure. A benefit sneak-peek screening of the film with all proceeds going to the CTRC was held June 23, 2006 at 6pm. The film company returned to the Terminal in August to shoot part of their third feature "FrightWorld".
The paranormal investigators, The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS), visited the terminal for about a week in June 2008 and aired their findings on Ghost Hunters (Episode 417 - "Speaking With the Dead"), September 24, 2008. Footage taken during this investigation shows that, aside from the main concourse, the entire complex is still currently in a state of heavy disrepair. The spin-off show Ghost Hunters Academy visited the terminal for the episode broadcast December 2, 2009. On October 31, 2010 (Halloween), Ghost Hunters aired a live 6-hour broadcast from the station.
The Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, in cooperation with local, state, and federal government representatives, is working to position the Terminal to be Buffalo's high speed rail station. Buffalo, New York is part of the Empire Corridor, one of only ten Federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States.
Read more about this topic: Buffalo Central Terminal, History
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