The beloved Market Arcade is getting a new owner. Prolific property buyer Nick Sinatra has struck a deal to purchase the through-block terra cotta beauty in the Theater District for $1.4 million.
The Buffalo New has the story:
Sinatra & Co. Realty has agreed to buy the buildings at 615-623 Main St., in the Theatre District, from the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, which currently holds title to the property. The deal was negotiated at fair market value, based on “substantial due diligence” by Sinatra and following a “thorough and competitive” request-for-proposals process, according to a memo from BURA general counsel Scott C. Billman to the BURA board, provided to The Buffalo News.
Under the agreement with Sinatra, the firm will relocate its main offices from its current home at 3350 Delaware Ave. in Kenmore, and will invest in significant capital improvements, including restoring the interior and exterior facades. Public access to the building, including the first floor “thoroughfare,” will be maintained.
The City had put the property up for sale in August with a $1.8 million asking price. The 76,000 sq.ft. complex is made up of three buildings anchored by the three-story atrium that connects Main and Washington Streets. There are a mix of office, retail, restaurant, cultural and service tenants in the complex. Sources say there were four bidders for the property.
Completed in 1892 and design by Edward B. Green and William S. Wicks, the Market Arcade is the city’s only historic covered shopping arcade. Matching elevations on Main and Washington retail much of their original Neo-Classical architectural elements. The facades are tan-colored Roman bricks and most of the ornamentation is terra cotta.
The Market Arcade, like much of the Theater District in the late 1970’s and much of the 1980’s, was vacant and decrepit. Consentino brothers’ Dynamic Enterprise Inc. started renovating the three buildings in the late 1980’s after building the hotel at the corner of Main and Chippewa Street. That work stalled and eventually the City completed the work in 1995 at a cost of approximately $10 million.
The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency is expected to approve the sale at its meeting tomorrow.