BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A new market analysis recommends Buffalo add a new full-service downtown "headquarters" style property to better position the city as a destination for meetings and conventions.
Buffalo's longstanding hotel shortage is costing the Queen City tens of millions of dollars in lost business, according to the new independent market analysis that Visit Buffalo released Wednesday.
The study, conducted by HVS, said that downtown Buffalo needs a full-service hotel with at least 400 rooms near the Buffalo Convention Center and found that Buffalo has lost an estimated economic impact of over $57 million over six years due to insufficient hotel capacity.
"This situation is pretty dire," said Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo.
The hotel shortage will be on full display next month during March Madness, when one of the men's college basketball teams visiting for the tournaments will be forced to stay 20 miles away in Niagara Falls due to a lack of qualified hotel rooms in Buffalo's downtown corridor.
"Because we don't have a full-service hotel that can satisfy the needs of the NCAA, one of those teams has to go to Niagara Falls this year," said Kaler.
WATCH: Study recommends new hotel in Buffalo as shortage costs millions in lost business
The study recommends a new upscale "headquarters" property that would host meetings, events and conventions. Kaler said the region is missing out on significant revenue tied to conventions because of limited hotel inventory.
The shortage has been exacerbated by the closure of the Buffalo Grand in late 2021, which closed more than 400 hotel rooms.
"Just on meetings and conventions alone, we lost over 30 pieces, almost 40 pieces of business that would have brought in nearly $60 million of economic impact in future years," said Kaler. "So, that's money that is left on the table."
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan acknowledged the inventory issue on Wednesday and agreed that a new hotel could be a big part of the solution.
"We need more hotel rooms downtown," he said. "We recently tried to bring the state Democratic convention here. The answer was not enough rooms."
Ryan said the city faces two main challenges with the hotel shortage.
"The Buffalo Grand is offline. We need these rooms back online, and we're all rooting for Doug Jemal to finish the Statler because that will come with a couple hundred rooms too," Ryan said.
WATCH: With downtown businesses relying on foot traffic, more rooms would open doors
With Downtown businesses relying on foot traffic, more rooms would open their doors.
"We're kind of limited by capacity in terms of events we can host here because of that lack of that type of hotel," Nick Schabert, General Manager of Prova in Fountain Plaza, said. "The more people you can get down here, the better off all of us will be."
Prova opened in 2024 and has seen things ebb and flow.
"But now what we're seeing the past six months or so is really an incredible resurgence," Schabert said.
They’re a hit at lunch, but closed on the weekends.
"That's where you see downtown take a hit a little bit," he said. "There's not as much action down here, even with the skating rink out front and other stuff that might be going on, that's important, I think, to build foot traffic on weekends."
With more people coming to work downtown in person, there's momentum, and he's hoping we can build on that.
