NFTA Port Terminal Building (Buffalo, New York)

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Consisting of two separate terminal buildings, the NFTA Port Terminal Building was built by the Ford Motor Co. in 1930-31 as a fully modernized panel stamping and final vehicle assembly facility. Intended to accept shipments of auto parts from Detroit-area factories for assembly and distribution, the factory's location on filled-in outer harbors land proved unsuitable for its stamping operation, whose dual hydraulic stamp presses had the unnerving habit of punching themselves through the floor with heavy use. Citing that the plant was “no longer advantageously located in relation to the rapidly-growing markets and is not large enough to permit expansion,” the company decided to sell the property in 1958. At that time, 1,260 employees were employed at the facility, which boasted an eight million dollar payroll. When the company announced that production from the facility, as well as many of the machines, would be moved to an assembly plant in Lorraine, Ohio, some employees followed the work there, while others stayed in Buffalo. After the assembly building was closed, the former Ford Motor Company plant was subsequently used as the Port Authority’s Port Terminal in 1960. From it’s opening in 1931 till it’s closing in 1958, it is estimated that nearly 2 million automobiles were assembled at the plant.

Utilizing existing access to highway, rail and lakes trade lanes, the facility like much of the Port of Buffalo was heavily utilized until the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and subsequent decline in the American Freight Railroads significantly cut into the facility's inbound and outbound lake cargo volume.

Eventually closing down operations as a city-run port facility, the terminal building was purchased in 1967 by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which having no use for the expansive building promptly offered it for commercial lease. Used as a frozen-food packaging plant by Buffalo-based Freezer Queen and a distribution center for Tops Supermarkets until 2007, the building was last used as the headquarters and production facility for the now-defunct Nanodynamics Energy Corp which vacated the building in early 2009.

As part of a streamlining effort towards land-based operations by the NFTA, the Port Terminal Building was listed for sale in July 2011 and is presently slated for remodeling and reuse as part of a planned residential complex onsite.

www.nfta.com/property_management.asp