City signs Webster Block over to Sabres

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The ink is drying on the deed of the Webster block Friday afternoon, after the city signed it over to Terry Pegula and the Buffalo Sabres.

   PHOTOS | Check out new renderings of the Webster Block plans

Just over one year ago, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said he was going to send out a request for proposals for the Webster Block. Friday, it officially belongs to the Buffalo Sabres.

Brown signed over the deed that will eventually become the $172 million HARBORcenter.

Brown said, “It represents tremendous additional progress in the City of Buffalo. A wire transfer will be made with approximately $2.2 million being transferred to the city, going into the city’s general fund account.”

Buffalo Sabres Chief Development Officer Cliff Benson said, “It’s a great day for us, a year ago it was a dream. We stood out on the deck and thought ‘gee, I wonder if we could put something on that piece of ground over there.’ I look at today as very much, the end of the beginning.”

The Sabres are targeting September of 2014 for the opening. That includes the two hockey rinks, retail shopping, parking spaces and sports bar. The hotel has a tentative opening for the spring of 2015.

Brown says the speed of the project was aggressive from the start, something Buffalo needed. Brown said, “We wanted to move quickly, we wanted to send a message to the people of Buffalo and western New York, and to the development community around the country and internationally, that Buffalo is a good place to do business.”