A Native American group is eyeing the Central Terminal.
But it's not the Seneca Nation. And it's not interested in building a casino.
This group would like to see the art deco landmark transformed from a train depot into a training center for Native American athletes in the United States.
Besides rescuing the building, the project would make Buffalo the premier location for Native American athletics, regularly drawing people from across the country for clinics, tournaments and more.
Canada has something comparable.
"In Canada, it's called the Aboriginal Sports Council," said B. Allen Brown II, who is involved with the project. "It would be akin to the NCAA. What the NCAA is to college athletics, the Aboriginal Sports Council is to Native American youth athletics in Canada.
"We are going to establish the U.S. arm of that over here."
Brown and other members of the Buffalo Sports Society say the project would put Native American athletes in the United States on a level playing field with their counterparts north of the border.
"It would really help Native American athletes stateside compete with Canadian athletes," said Guy G. Patterson Jr., president of the group. "It would give us a program base for future training of aboriginal athletes. They never seem to get into international world championships because the funding structure isn't there."
Officers of the Buffalo Sports Society concede their plan is just a concept right now, but they expect planning will kick into high gear next year. They have not yet met with Russell Pawlak, president of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., the group that owns the building, or government officials, whose help they say would be essential in making the idea come to life.
If the Buffalo Sports Society is able to bring its ideas to fruition, the sports center would be left as a legacy of the North American Indigenous Games, which will put Buffalo, the host city, into the national spotlight in 2005.
That event is expected to bring $40 million to the area and draw more than 6,500 athletes, which is equivalent to the number of men who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
That level of participation and interest likely would carry over to the training facility the group wants to locate in the Central Terminal.
Native American athletes currently rely primarily on their own tribe to provide training facilities and resources, according to Rickey L. Armstrong Sr., president of the Seneca Nation of Indians.
The proposed center in Buffalo would be a "self-contained urban campus" that would serve as a magnet to athletes across the country, group leaders say.
The Buffalo Sports Society sees the Central Terminal as the perfect location for the athletic center, which would be just one of several entities to occupy the historic landmark. Others could include a hotel, restaurants, a museum, offices and condominiums, group leaders say.
They see the project as one that would be developed in phases, gradually renovating various parts of the terminal as particular companies or groups are ready to move in.
"It's so huge, you have to have multiple uses," said Brown, treasurer of the Buffalo Sports Society, which is managing the 2005 North American Indigenous Games.
The crux of the plan lies in one particular use: bringing trains back to the station, as well as drawing buses, trolleys and more, he said.
Brown, the former chief operating officer of Pioneer Railcorp, has 20 years' experience in the commercial development of railroad systems throughout the country. He has seen many communities save their depots from the jaws of neglect and disrepair.
"When I first saw the Buffalo terminal, I thought it was a travesty that no one's doing anything with it," he said. "You look at towns smaller than Buffalo, they've managed to do a creative reuse project with their depots."
In larger communities, the key has been transforming the depot into a transportation hub, said Brown, who is currently the president of Railmark Holdings, an Illinois company.
He said that although the initial idea sprang from the Buffalo Sports Society, a nonprofit group, the actual implementation would be handled by his company and Patterson's, the Patterson Consulting Group.
He envisions the project happening in phases, finding tenants or part owners over time - filling the main floor of the terminal first and working up from there as funding and interest roll in.
The project would cost an estimated $25 million just to get the terminal in shape to attract initial tenants, Brown estimates. Some of the funding could come from government grants, and some in the form of rent or in-kind contributions from tenants, he said.
The key is not finding one company or group that has enough money to renovate the entire building, he said. What's important is drawing together community support and coordinating the efforts of many entities that would each play a role in renovating part of the terminal.
Brown envisions bringing Amtrak back to the station - something that Pawlak, of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp., says is possible.
"That would not be completely out of the question," Pawlak said. "Amtrak said they could make a stop there again, that would not be a big deal."
Brown said he would also like to see city buses and national bus lines using the terminal as a base of operations. Money is available for much of the preliminary work from the federal Department of Transportation's multimodal transportation fund, he said.
He acknowledged that the terminal's location - several blocks from downtown - could be seen by some as a drawback. He thinks the situation could easily be addressed by having a bus or trolley shuttling people between downtown and the terminal.
Brown also said he realizes some people have concerns about the condition of the neighborhood surrounding the terminal. He said he has encountered similar situations in other communities.
"Everywhere there's been redevelopment of the depot, the areas have cleaned up around them," he said.
Brown said the project would work best if the city took the lead. That would open the door to more funding possibilities through the state and federal government.
"There's money out there to help cities with this," he said.
He recognizes, though, that the city has its hands full with the control board and other issues. That could mean someone else would need to step up, he said.
"I would be interested in leading an effort on it. I have the experience and the background to pull it off," he said.