Buffalo News planting Pegula seeds for Arena District? Or Delaware North?

So this morning, Tim O'Shei who at times writes about the Bills/Sabres from a business perspective, dropped a gushing article about the The Hub in Boston. This is the entertainment district around TD Garden that the Jacobs family built up.

It could just be a random puff piece done in the local news due to it being a project from a company HQ in Buffalo, but could it mean more? Consider:

• The Sabres' lease expires in 2025. So, a renovation project of some scale with county funds is going to be pitched.
• Delaware North is HQ in Buffalo and recently lost the contract for the new Bills stadium to Legends, which NFL owner Jerry Jones owns.
• The area around the arena has had quite a bit of development, considering what was there before, since it opened, but is still surrounded by parking lots.
  Delaware North has experience managing arenas, hotels, casinos, and event venues around the globe. So, an arena district project would be something they have experience with.
• Delaware North has also made clear it wants to keep the contract for the Sabres arena. After all, it would look pretty bad that a local concessions company with their HQ in Buffalo doesn't have the contract on either the Bills stadium or Sabres arena.

IDK, maybe it's just me, but I read this as seed planting in the media for an eventual pitch to build out an arena district as part of an arena renovation project. I can't tell who is trying to plant the seeds, however. This feels like something other than a move the Pegula family would make at this time, but who knows? The Bills stadium isn't even completed yet, and they are taking some heat with PSLs at the moment. The clock needs to start on the Sabres arena.

Could this be DN making a pitch to Erie County directly to take over the arena and become the landlord for the Sabres (who will have trouble selling/relocating) as a way to not only guarantee the arena contract but also give Pegula a little payback for selecting Jerry and Co. for the arena?

Could it be DN making the pitch on behalf of the Sabres to the county to give a different voice to the project? It's one thing for Poloncarz to talk about how there is no money for the Sabres (read: Pegula) on the arena, and now that the Bills stadium deal is done for him to take shots at how the Pegulas run it (which he is doing now) but it's entirely different to shoot down public comments from one of the last major companies that have a HQ in the region.

Now that the Buffalo News has move off it's complex and the Bills stadium location is locked in, I think some of the land speculation down by the arena has lost value. The land around KeyBank was one of the original locations proposed by NYS back in the day. I've always felt that land speculation held back development down there. Maybe without a major arena or stadium being built, those parcels could be consolidated or developed around.

Would be cool if they filled in those parking lots (while keeping the cobblestone streets) with something.

For three decades, the Bruins and Delaware North have been vying to turn this arena section of Boston into a vibrant place where people spent time – and money – even when there’s not a Bruins or NBA Celtics game at the TD Garden.

They did it, and that’s why Jacobs is standing here today, looking out his 14th-floor conference room at sweeping views of the city, and talking about “community.”

Years ago, he added, “there was nothing here but (subway) lines and a highway.”

It was a problem that should sound familiar in Buffalo, where progress has been made in the Canalside neighborhood near KeyBank Center, but the streets are nowhere near as busy as they are on game nights.

Today, in a similar neighborhood of Boston, there’s much more. A renovated arena, a hotel, multiple restaurants and a food hall, a luxury-living apartment complex, a cinema, a grocery store, and the office tower Jacobs is standing in now.

With those things come what you need most: People. Every day.

Early on, and long before Charlie Jacobs’ involvement, Jeremy Jacobs set a vision for turning Boston’s arena section into something more. In 1995, the Bruins opened the new TD Garden, replacing the now-demolished original arena. About five years later, Charlie Jacobs moved to Boston full time to lead the Bruins.

By 2013, the younger Jacobs was overseeing a series of massive construction projects: a $70 million renovation to TD Garden in 2014, which was followed by another $100 million renovation in 2019, and an overhaul of the in-arena entertainment system in 2021.

Those projects, for the most part, were contained to the arena experience. But during the same period, Jacobs was leading a project broader in scope: building a mixed-use complex that would see activity every day. This was a goal his father set when the Bruins and Delaware North built the new Garden in the mid-’90s. “The only way we really could justify the new building was by having the opportunity to develop this other space, which would give us the economic lift,” the elder Jacobs said.

This vision would eventually become the Hub on Causeway, named for Causeway Street, which runs in front of the arena. Delaware North teamed with developer BXP on the project, which cost more than $1.1 billion and was privately financed.

Work began on the Hub project in 2013 and finished in 2019, although the pandemic delayed the opening of some parts of it to 2021. Today, it includes places to live, eat, shop and work. Jeremy Jacobs is especially struck by the inclusion of the office tower, which is affixed with the name of its leading tenant, Verizon, and is 100% occupied.

An arena project done right can connect different parts of a city. That’s what is happening in Boston.

“The North End of Boston is right there,” Jacobs said, pointing to the historic neighborhood that includes Paul Revere’s house. “The West End is to our right,” he added, motioning toward the waterfront neighborhood dotted with museums and galleries.

Before this, foot traffic was sparse outside the arena on event nights. Tourists and residents would spend time in the West End along the Charles River, and in the historical North End both for the history and the bars and restaurants. But the arena was a deadened space that separated the two.

Now, Causeway Street is busy daily. Boston’s historical neighborhood is more tightly connected to the city core, because people can walk from one to the next and find places to stop, shop and eat.

Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who later became President Biden’s secretary of labor and now heads the NHL Players Association, called the Hub on Causeway a “gateway” into the city. “It’s one of the first things you see when you’re heading into Boston from the north,” he said.

As Boston mayor from 2014 to 2021, Walsh worked with Jacobs on the project.

“It really has enhanced that whole neighborhood,” Walsh said. “It was great before, but it’s enhanced it a little more. People can walk. Boston is becoming more and more of a walking city … (and) it’s opened up a lot of opportunities for people to explore Boston and see other parts of Boston.”