Elmwood Avenue Progress

Elmwood Avenue, the Elmwood Village, the neighborhood and the "Elmwood Strip" (probably my least-favorite accepted term for our part of Buffalo's West Side) continues to undergo many changes, with businesses and new residences opening, closing and sprouting up, and one development is causing many of us residents and businesspeople to cheer.
The northwest corner of Elmwood and Bryant was the home of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, then the catchy corporate change to KFC, for years; after several health citations and plumbing problems, the restaurant closed a couple of years ago, and deteriorated further.
Developers came in with plans for a multi-purpose property, anchored on a Coffee Culture shop to go along with residential and business uses. It appeared to be a pretty good plan, but as too often occurs in Buffalo, people began to wonder if and when plans would convert to action.
That conversion has not only started, but is going strong, as repeated drives and dog walks by the property have recently shown. At first, the elevator tower and staircase shot up kind of like oversized chimneys, then the foundation appeared and now, the girders of the first and second floor are being constructed, along with flooring for those levels. A large crane is also active at the site.
Obviously, these are observational reports, and I have no official information yet on the schedule of work or businesses opening, but if we see or learn more, I will tell more.