The city of Buffalo thought long and hard prior to allowing Seneca Gaming Corporation to purchase Fulton Street, and build the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino. The approved arrangements were agreed upon in 2006, and included setting benchmarks for how many new jobs the casino would create, how much marketing would be invested in attracting new business to the area, and how traffic would be routed to ensure that the casino would not disrupt the local community.
Along with specific benchmarks, Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino agreed to further support the local economy by welcoming local food and beverage vendors in an effort to blend in with the community as well as celebrate local business owners.
In March 2014, Buffalo News performed an analyst to see if Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino was living up to the benchmarks they had agreed to. While many aspects of the original agreement have been executed, not all have. And at this point in time the City of Buffalo has taken no formal steps to enforce the benchmarks.
One of the reasons some benchmarks have not been met is that the casino is smaller than originally planned, meaning that benchmarks such as employment openings are not able to be fulfilled. The casino originally estimated that it would create 1000 new full-time and part-time jobs, but currently has a need for staff about half that size.
However, some benchmarks have not been reduced, even though the overall size of the casino is smaller than planned. Seneca Gaming Corporation has a total of three casinos, and spends approximately $160 million annually in marketing. While some of this marketing is local, some of it is nationwide and global and per the agreed upon benchmark, at least $1.7 million in marketing will be invested in the Buffalo casino.
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