Plans for thirty townhouses units on Lakefront Commons in Waterfront Village have been blocked by neighbors who claim the freshly designed units would not ‘fit in’ with their units, some of which date to the mid-1980’s. Judge Gerald J. Whalen has sided with residents who have a covenant in their CC&R’s regulating exterior appearances of the buildings within the development, a private cul-de-sac located between LaSalle Park and the I-190.
Author: Thomas_Dooney
Less than a week after the Preservation Board voted unanimously that a significant portion of the GLF Grain Elevator Complex on Ganson Street should not be demolished, the owner is getting its way. Ontario Specialty Contracting (OSC) took its case to City Permit and Inspections Commissioner James Comerford and got a green light to begin wrecking. Ontario Specialty Contracting had applied to the Buffalo Preservation Board to demolish sections ‘B’ and ‘C’ of the Agway/Cooperative Grange League Federation (GLF) Elevator at 327 Ganson Street. A 2002 historic resources survey determined that the structure was eligible for the state and national…
Crestline Development LLC is seeking to demolish two buildings along Michigan Avenue downtown. The pair of buildings are behind the recently opened Lofts @ 136 project between North Division and East Eagle streets (see 2009 story here). The owner purchased the properties containing 17,000 sq.ft. of space in 2004 for $105,000. Empire Building Diagnostics applied to demolish the structures in January on behalf of the property owner. Crestline owns a non-descript property at 151-53 E. Eagle that it claims to want to redevelop but the Michigan Avenue buildings are said to be in the way from formulating a reuse plan.
A Boise, Idaho-based developer is hoping to bring a European-style market to downtown Niagara Falls, New York, at least for the holiday season. ‘Niagara Holiday Market’ will be a European-style, outdoor/indoor holiday themed market featuring world-class offerings of regional, national and international goods, foods and entertainment. The Market would be located along historic Falls Street, running from 3rd Street to Niagara Falls State Park in a mix of indoor and outdoor venues. It would debut November 26 and run through January 1, 2012. This won’t be a Christmas craft bazaar. Brix and Company is expected to bring in a number…
Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation’s plan for 85 lofts in the vacant Bethune Hall at 2915 Main Street has taken two steps forward. The Buffalo Preservation Board signed-off on the adaptive reuse project last week and the Planning Board certified the environmental document yesterday. The Planning Board is expected to give its final blessing to the project on March 15 allowing construction to begin in the spring. The four-story building, to be renamed Bethune Lofts, is located next to Bennett High School and close to the LaSalle light rail station. Designs are in the preliminary stage, but the project calls for all new windows,…
The owner of the former Riverside Men’s Shop at the corner of Ontario and Tonawanda streets wants the three inter-connected buildings demolished. Charlie Faso applied for demolition permits to take down 783-89 Tonawanda Street and 190 Ontario Street in late January. The Buffalo Preservation Board at its meeting last week unanimously voted to “recommend not to demolish” 783 and 789 Tonawanda Street but allowed a rear structure at 190 Ontario Street to come down citing its poor condition. From Faso’s written statement submitted with his application: The building has been completely stripped of all its interior value by vandals over the…
IMMCO Diagnostics, a worldwide leader in autoimmune diagnostic products and services, has invested $1 million to relocate and operate its expanding UNYLAB Transplant Immunology, Immunogenetics, and Diagnostic Immunologytesting and consulting services to the Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott Street on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The new site opened today and houses 20 IMMCO employees with plans to increase this number by 20 percent by the end of the year. Along with the move, UNYLAB will now officially be named IMMCO Diagnostics. IMMCO Immunogenetics performs comprehensive HLA tissue typing services and disease susceptibility testing for conditions suchas celiac disease. IMMCO…
The removal of the remnants of the Caulkins Building at 85-89 Genesee Street last year serves as a potent reminder of the fragility of the historic buildings throughout the Genesee-Ellicott-Oak neighborhood, and how a few previous well-intentioned yet misguided steps can create significant challenges for the preservation and reuse of buildings throughout the area. Throughout its more than 100 year history, spanning four generations, the Caulkins Building represented a unique example of commercial architecture designed specifically for the photography industry. Jennifer Walkowski, an Architectural Historian with Clinton Brown Company Architecture, prepared the application necessary for the designation of the Genesee…
Local Development Firms Sees Sale as First Step in Economic Rebirth of Idle Industrial Property Great Lakes Industrial Development LLC has sold the former Bethlehem Steel Galvanized Product Division Complex to Metalico, Inc., a New Jersey-based metals recycling and fabricating corporation. Metalico, a publicly-traded company which operates five Western New York facilities in Erie, Niagara and Chautauqua counties, has acquired the site that most recently operated as the ArcelorMittal galvanizing plant. The $3.2 million transaction which closed today includes the idle 177,500-square-foot plant building, situated on a 44-acre site, at the corner of Route 5 and Lake Avenue, on the border…
Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation, one of Western New York’s leading full service real estate companies, is proceeding with its plans to purchase and renovate the former Buffalo Meter Company Building, also known as Bethune Hall, located at 2915 Main Street. They anticipate closing on the contract for the four-story, 98,000 square foot building by mid-March and commencing restoration and renovation this Spring. Up to 85 market-rate lofts are planned for the vacant property. “With the existing owner’s approval, we are working concurrently on pre-construction items before closing in an effort to expedite the project,” said Tim Vaeth, Vice President of…