For the second time in less than a week, a Niagara Square area property has changed hands for a million dollars or more. Last Friday, Bashar Issa purchased the parking lot where he anticipates constructing the City Tower project. Yesterday it was your tax dollars doing the buying.
The General Services Administration purchased 108 Delaware Avenue and adjacent 95 Niagara Street for $1.45 million. The properties were purchased from One Twenty Delaware Inc. and will be cleared to prepare for construction of the new federal courthouse.
The lots are adjacent to 120 Delaware, the former Erlanger Theater. That building will face the wrecking ball but not before a few of the building’s architectural features are removed and saved for a future unknown use.
Photo: Buffalo as an Architectural Museum
According to the Buffalo as an Architecture Museum website, the Erlanger Theater was built in 1927 by Statler Hotels, Inc. as a complement to the Statler Hotel located directly across the street. It had a capacity of 1500.
The architects for the building were Warren & Wetmore of New York City. Other buildings in New York City by the firm include Grand Central Station, New York Yacht Club, and the Belmont, Ambassador, Ritz Carlton, Commodore, Vanderbilt, and the Biltmore hotels.
The theater closed in 1956. A Rochester purchaser scheduled it for demolition. In 1959, Darwin R. Martin, son of Darwin D. Martin, purchased the building and gutted the theater to create commercial office space. Longtime anchor tenant Lawley Insurance Group moved to an expanded Pleu Building in early 2006.
The $120 million, 10-story glass clad courthouse is expected to be open by mid-2010.