The current stadium never sparked much development. Will the new one?

Aside from the handful of game days each year, Highmark Stadium is in a pretty sleepy neighborhood.

There are a few restaurants, a motel and the SUNY Erie campus across the street. A cluster of single-family homes are nestled next to the home of the Buffalo Bills .

There's no hotel. No shops. No bustling retail complexes like the ones outside other NFL venues. Little has changed in terms of economic development since the Orchard Park stadium opened in 1973.

"We were a Super Bowl team for four straight years," said Don Lorentz, executive director of the Orchard Park Chamber of Commerce. "We had the top team in the country. Why didn't we have a hotel?"

Officials and business leaders are hoping the new $1.4 billion stadium will spark a wave of development that the previous venue never did, but with ECC taking up most of the land around the project site, there's little obvious space for further development.

There are, however, many unanswered questions that need to be addressed before development dreams can come true.

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Restaurant news of the week

• Another Allentown restaurant is on the market, this one for $1.3M
• Sandwich shop to add its fourth (and largest) location
• Jewish deli to open in Theater District space
• New Taproom to bring self-pour option to Tonawanda
• Cornhole club to open in Middleport

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Tesla fires workers at Buffalo factory

More than 30 workers were fired at Tesla ’s Buffalo factory Wednesday after workers informed CEO Elon Musk of their intent to organize a union. Tesla Workers United, the group of organizing Tesla workers, started in the autopilot division of the factory, but its members have been reaching out to employees throughout the plant the last few days, building support for a union, according to an organizer working with the Tesla organizing committee. ?|? Read more

The company, however, responded with a statement that the terminations were part of a six-month performance review cycle and had nothing to do with the talks of unionizing. The review includes a rating of 1 to 5 for every employee companywide, according to the company. ?|? Read more

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M&T ends longtime sponsorship of Shea's

After more than 30 years and millions of dollars, M&T Bank has officially ended its partnership with Shea's Performing Arts Center . The Buffalo-based bank on Feb. 10 notified the downtown theater it would not renew its sponsorship for the Broadway Series for the 2023-24 season, an investment that totaled about $4 million over the past 30 years. M&T did, however, leave open the possibility of resuming that partnership in the future. ?|? Read more

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Lawsuit alleges financial misconduct, harassment by CPA firm owner

A minority partner of Buffalo accounting firm Dansa D'Arata Soucia LLP has asked a judge to expel the majority owner from the firm or dissolve the business, according to a petition filed Feb. 2 in state Supreme Court. Daniel Garigen, who owns 40% of the company, has accused Eric Soucia, who is managing partner and owns the other 60%, of siphoning firm money into his own 401(k), according to the petition. ?| ?Read more

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Fast-growing startup spearheads a workforce development nonprofit

As Viridi Parente CEO Jon M. Williams began rapidly growing his company, he knew he’d need a robust workforce. And he also knew that he wanted that employee base to come from the business’ local community on the East Side.

“The challenge with our (workforce) system is that access to work is a two-way negotiation: employer and employee,” Williams said. “You have to basically address all the issues that they each have in order for that to be successful.”

The solution? GreenForce Training & Staffing ?| ?Read more

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This Weekly Edition was compiled by Sara Paulson Meehan. Questions? Comments? Concerns??Send them to [email protected].