With Mark Croce and James Eagan stepping up to submit a bid to buy the Statler tomorrow, the head of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership has a better idea for the landmark: Demolition.  Instead of encouraging private investment, Andrew Rudnick, who apparently was speaking as BNP president when talking to The Buffalo News, says a vacant Statler site may be an incentive for development. 

The News' Matt Glynn has the head-scratching quote:

"It can't stay the way it is," said Andrew Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. "It's a huge, vacant property in a strategic location, even before the [neighboring] federal courthouse is finished and occupied.

"At the same time, I don't know if the public cost that's inevitably part of its redevelopment is something we can afford," Rudnick said. "At some point, does the community have a serious discussion about the cost of reuse versus the competitiveness of a vacant site?"

"The Aud when it was standing was a barrier to development. The vacant Aud site was an incentive for development. We may have to come to that same thinking about the Statler, just given what everyone believes is a minimum of $100 million of subsidy that would have to go into it, at a tough time for any subsidies."

Croce and Eagan have not publicly disclosed their intentions for the Statler, but a mixed-use project that will be completed in phases is expected.  The development team has also not publicly asked for a subsidy.  On the eve of a sale, the Partnership's advocacy for "increased private sector investment and jobs" seems to have gone sideways.