A charming three-story building at the southwest corner of Grant Street and Potomac Avenue is coming back to life. The 6,000 sq.ft. building has 2,200 sq.ft. of commercial space and two vacant upper floor apartments. It had been owned by Katherine Martino and was the home of Phil Martino’s West Side Appliance and Furniture. It sold in February. The new owners are gutting the building and plans call for commercial space on the ground floor and two to four upper floor apartments.
Arthur Dent has some details on BuffaloHipStar:
Today, I was pleasantly surprised to see an abandoned building at the corners of Grant and Potomac being gutted. Several days ago, this building was totally boarded up and was one more unoccupied/rundown building adding to the negative perception held by many of this historic business district. Now, it is a symbol of a district on the rise.
One of the workers was nice enough to take a minute to speak with me about the project. The worker informed me that the current property owners are rehabbing this building with the intention of turning it into rentable apartments. Unfortunately, he did not have any more information on the project, but did say they are making a great deal of progress.
I for one am impressed with all the positive progress being made to breathe life back into the Grant-Ferry business district, which started a few blocks away at the corners of Grant and Lafayette. A few days ago, I wrote an article about all the activity-taking place at that corner. This building being rehabbed is more evidence that the positive work done at that end of the strip (Grant and Lafayette) is starting to spread. I highly recommend that you take a trip and see it all for yourself. You will be just amazed at all the progress.