"Actually it was probably something well north of that," said Tim Clark, head of the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission. "These guys tend to spend a ton of money in a short amount of time."

And, because "reality shows" don't qualify for state incentives for filmmakers, which can include sales tax exemptions, the economic benefits came with little public outlay beyond traffic control.

Clark said the standard formulas used by governments and tourism bureaus to calculate the economic benefits from a visiting film crew are "a conglomeration of factors" that account for direct spending and a further multiplier that reflects how that money is later respent as it ripples through the community.

Much of the labor and a good portion of the materials for the reconstruction of the home owned by the Delores Powell family on Massachusetts Avenue were donated. But, Clark said, the ABC production team that came into Buffalo to film what became a special two-hour edition of the home makeover program numbered around 100 people, each of whom spent an average of 10 nights in local hotels.

The hotel stays were extended beyond what they normally would be for a typical episode because producers decided to double the length of the program and dispatched a smaller crew back to Buffalo to film additional interviews.

They, along with volunteers, were fed once or twice a day by the producers' catering operation, which purchased food and supplies locally.

"You can't imagine the amount of food they go through," Clark said.

Those doing the building and those filming it burned large amounts of diesel fuel in their trucks and generators. They rented some 30 cars and vans and hired a handful of local Teamsters to drive some of them.

"They were constantly zooming over to the Galleria or the Boulevard Mall," Clark said. "They were buying things for the house and, even though they brought their own tools, they had to buy more or replace some of them."

And, when off duty, visiting crew members spent a lot of their own money at Buffalo restaurants and clubs or at tourist attractions such as Niagara Falls.

"The production crew was dumping a lot of money in the Chippewa area," Clark said. "These are young guys on an expense account."

Clark also said that the producers made it a point to spread their largess around to a variety of suppliers, electing to buy such things as diesel fuel and groceries from more than one local vendor.

And, even after the economic impact of the show's production has rippled out of the local economy, Clark said, the round-the-world showings of the program, in 58 languages in at least 69 countries, will tell Buffalo's story to the world.

"It truly is a worldwide thing," he said. "They get to see the people of America doing admirable things for one another."