Buffalo's Rich Products Customer Innovation Center turns a once-underused space at the company's headquarters into a place built for making things together.

The $3.2 million redesign gives customers and employees room to test ideas, solve kitchen challenges and show what new products can do.

At its heart is a culinary innovation studio equipped for commercial and home cooking demonstrations, product showcases and hands-on collaboration.

Photography and video areas make it possible to create content on demand, from training sessions and webinars to podcasts and live events.

Video walls, wide screens and smart displays support those presentations whether customers visit Niagara Street or join from farther away.

That flexibility matters for a global food company whose customers may need to see an idea work before bringing it to their own kitchens.

Still, the appeal of this food innovation center is not just its technology.

Putting cooks, customers and product teams in the same space creates opportunities for the kind of practical feedback that can sharpen an idea.

It also gives Rich's a more vivid way to demonstrate the food and expertise behind its products.

For Buffalo, the project carries meaning beyond the kitchen.

Rich Products has called the city home since 1945, and this investment adds to its plans for the Niagara Street campus.

Those plans include moving its ROAR Logistics business to the former Oliver Gear Building at 1120 Niagara Street.

The company has also acquired the historic Curtiss Malt House property at 1100 Niagara Street, though its eventual use remains unclear.

Together, the projects put fresh attention on a stretch of Niagara Street already tied closely to the company's history.

The redesigned center is the most immediate expression of that commitment: a working space where hospitality, food development and customer needs meet.

For a family-owned company with deep Buffalo roots, opening that space to collaboration feels like a fitting next step.