這對我來說是一篇有趣的報導
這已經是我看過的第二篇有關報導
當然這也因為我的背景關係
雖然如此
但一間企業的存廢竟然對一個已發展的城市有著如此深厚的影響
以致水牛城的市長也要開腔「哀求」匯豐留在水牛城
究竟大企會否關注這種問題
還是會趁火打劫呢？
這些我都不會知道
另一方面，運用政治壓力去逼使大企作出讓步又是否正確呢？
假如大企搬去其他城市，其實也幫助了其他人
要大企留在水牛城也只是一種既自私又一廂情願的想法吧
妥協果然是一門藝術呢……
HSBC's exit would leave a ghost town
HSBC's exit would leave a ghost town
Business First - by Gary Burns
Date: Monday, January 10, 2011, 12:02pm EST - Last Modified: Monday, January 10, 2011, 2:43pm EST
Flash forward for a moment to 2013. Picture HSBC Tower as it looms over downtown Buffalo. It juts skyward like a gigantic tombstone, marking the city’s former majesty, while the empty streets and deserted buildings below echo with the ghosts of yesterday.
That bleak scenario, or one like it, could unfold. Yes, Buffalo boosters, that image is not a fantasy from Never-Never Land. It is instead an honest description of what might lie ahead as the clock runs down on HSBC bank’s lease on the tower, which expires in 2013.
The Phillips Lytle law firm’s future in the signature downtown structure is similarly in doubt.
Thousands of downtown jobs are at stake, should HSBC absent itself from its present home. If it goes, vast, empty swathes of Class A office space would be created. And that would surely siphon off many business tenants from elsewhere, who until now have accommodated themselves in Buffalo’s many older buildings, some of which are historic.
Down the line, the chain reaction of relocations and vacancies would create a wasteland of empty, old buildings.
That’s just what we need, right? More empty old buildings. Picture the Statler Hotel scenario times 100. What then?
There are other possibilities, of course. And some of them are nowhere near as dark. There is, for instance, the talk of HSBC integrating with the Canal Side development.
We’ll see.
Meanwhile, in the here and now, Mayor Byron Brown says he is concerned. He has asked the Buffalo Niagara Partnership to come up with a strategy for the downtown commercial core.
Somehow, I’m not reassured.
Other voices, like those of developer Rocco Termini and, to a lesser extent, Carl Paladino, have also expressed their deep concerns. Termini, especially, has been forthright in his willingness to tell it like it is (or would be), if commercial tenants flee their present digs to relocate in the HSBC Tower.
One thing is certain: If Buffalo’s preservationists are worried about an abundance of vacant old buildings now, well, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Flash forward for a moment to 2013. Picture HSBC Tower as it looms over downtown Buffalo. It juts skyward like a gigantic tombstone, marking the city’s former majesty, while the empty streets and deserted buildings below echo with the ghosts of yesterday.
That bleak scenario, or one like it, could unfold. Yes, Buffalo boosters, that image is not a fantasy from Never-Never Land. It is instead an honest description of what might lie ahead as the clock runs down on HSBC bank’s lease on the tower, which expires in 2013.
The Phillips Lytle law firm’s future in the signature downtown structure is similarly in doubt.
Thousands of downtown jobs are at stake, should HSBC absent itself from its present home. If it goes, vast, empty swathes of Class A office space would be created. And that would surely siphon off many business tenants from elsewhere, who until now have accommodated themselves in Buffalo’s many older buildings, some of which are historic.
Down the line, the chain reaction of relocations and vacancies would create a wasteland of empty, old buildings.
That’s just what we need, right? More empty old buildings. Picture the Statler Hotel scenario times 100. What then?
There are other possibilities, of course. And some of them are nowhere near as dark. There is, for instance, the talk of HSBC integrating with the Canal Side development.
We’ll see.
Meanwhile, in the here and now, Mayor Byron Brown says he is concerned. He has asked the Buffalo Niagara Partnership to come up with a strategy for the downtown commercial core.
Somehow, I’m not reassured.
Other voices, like those of developer Rocco Termini and, to a lesser extent, Carl Paladino, have also expressed their deep concerns. Termini, especially, has been forthright in his willingness to tell it like it is (or would be), if commercial tenants flee their present digs to relocate in the HSBC Tower.
One thing is certain: If Buffalo’s preservationists are worried about an abundance of vacant old buildings now, well, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
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