Some times buildings just out live thier useful existence and they need to be torn down. It happens.

But PURPOSEFUL neglect is disgusting. The city has to find a away to force these owners to better maintain thier property. This owner has made no attempt to use the building, lease the bldg or fix it.

He allows the building to fall into utter disrepair, he tears it down, and now he sits on the land for a MUCH lower tax rate. We should dramatically raise the property tax rate for someone who behaves like this.

David Shifrin, you are a scum bag and no friend to buffalo.

what could really help prevent this would be the adoption of a two rate property tax structure. While not raising taxes overall, it would put much of the tax burden on land value, not improvements, so it would cost much more to let a building be neglected and incentivize rehabiliation and new development on underused lots.

In contrast to the conventional equal rate system which applies the same tax rate to land and improvements, a revised 2-rate property tax structure taxes the assessed land value of each parcel at a higher rate than the building assessment. In principle, this heavier tax on land taxes mainly the site value (or speculative value) created by the community at large through the presence of infrastructure, transportation improvements, and nearby private building activity. Suppose a lot in a prime location appreciates in value at the rate of 10% per year. A 1.5% conventional tax takes only a fraction of the annual gain, leaving the owner with a net “windfall” of 8.5% per year. ~ Tom Gihring, Portland State University

How is it that there are no consequences for allowing a building to rot to a state of no return. He has robbed neighbors of their own property values because of proximity to this building to say nothing of the imminent danger to pedestrians all these years.

Ok, Tech Associates wanted to demolish this building 10 years ago, and preservationalists stepped up, and said no. Obviously, for all who live in Buffalo, you know that this building has been in shambles for years. If they would have been allowed to demolish back in 1997, like they wanted to, there is a very real chance that Clover would have already COMPLETED their mid rise condo development slated for that area, creating a real gateway for downtown. Instead, as usual, Buffalo is 10 years behind were they should be, which I guess is a decade or so ahead of the norm, so I maybe we should be happy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Everything in the city of Buffalo is old, so, should we save everything...continue to live like it's still 1950, and watch the rest of the country advance prosper? Just because it's old doesn't mean it's worth saving...

some good points genghis..........

i think the general attitude is this building DID need to be knocked down.....and there is a (i believe) a bright future for this lot of land.

BUT instead, if this owner developed/used this building 10 years ago.....we'd have an asset in the vernor bldg. Instead, he let it rot for 10 years. who wants to develop or open up a business next to a rotting bldg?

thats my issue, demolition by neglect. purposeful neglect.

No one seems to back asking the most important question; why is it more valuable to demolish buidling, than save them?

From the corner of Main and Edward to the first building on that block, the land cumulatively represents about 7 buildings that have been demolished over the past 25 years. The land that the Vernor was next to on its left was where the Schmidt Building was until it was demolished last year. That property has been turned into a parking lot. I bellieve that it's quite possible that someone will try and create a parking lot out of the entire tract. They'll say, as has been said repeatedly in the past, that it's "just for the short term".I don't know what's worse for the first impression people from out of town get of Downtown Buffalo when they come off the 33 and down Goodell to this block;a lumpy field with the derelict Vernor as the sole building on it or a big parking lot.

Are we sure the owner paid for the demo and we taxpayers did not?

I'd like to see his fat lazy butt in jail.

Wow, is this the same blog site that posted a letter from Carl Paladino, where people responded, claiming preservationists should be banned from the city? I guess we pick and choose which extreme to support depending on the time of day...

On a side note, I'd love to see a modern, yet very urban mixed use structure constructed in this area to contrast the neighboring buildings

Way cool aerial shot of the immediate neighborhood - right here...

You think demolition by neglect is a problem along Main Street - try venturing further East...Transfiguration Church, German Roman Catholic Orphan Home, Woodlawn Row Houses, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart...dozens of architecturally significant smaller churches, too numerous to list...

So it goes...

It would appear that the readership of this journal believe that every building in Buffalo is worth saving. This one was falling apart, and had become yet another eyesore that had been neglected for decades. I cannot comprehend why there was so much resistance to it being pulled down. This is the ultimate example of the attitude problem Buffalo has. There's a basic economic problem here, and the city is shrinking. Rather than accept it and try to make the city work as a smaller entity, people live in the past and demand that every building that hasn't collapsed yet be preserved and turned into a "mixed use" building.

It would have been nice to see this building get renovated, but it has been sitting for over years 20 vacant!! I'm GLAD to see something happen. This is PRIME property downtown! We need more people LIVING downtown; not more vacant, run down abandoned buildings. Some people I understand wanting to save certain buildings, but this had to go. It will be replaced with apts., condos & 1st floor retail. Somebody is going to be INVESTING here, so the question is simple would you rather see ANOTHER run down abandoned building downtown or a new mid-rise building with residence LIVING and increasing/developing the downtown ECONOMY? It's a no brainer guys! Downtown is the key to restore this region, and development WILL come, so lets think MORE about the future not the past.

I believe Ben Obletz floated a plan not to long ago....i think. for mixed use, low rise condos. thats what i'm hoping for at this point. i'm also hoping the city hold them to certain building standards so that this new construction reasonably resembles what was there. I'm sure the obletz family would do a good job.

Lets hope.

What's remarkable to me is that a company like Titan can pull up on a public street in the middle of the afternoon, block traffic for hours, move private cars, arbitrarily close sidewalks, open fire hydrants, and menace citizens without repercussions. Scooter does scum bags a disservice by comparing them to Cleveland resident David Shifrin.

And why was no evidence of asbestos removal required before the demo? The whole thing stinks.

Buffalo is a DEAD City. We let things rot and have no laws against it. Look at the rest of Main Street. BOARDED UP BUILDINGS, ALL along the so called Pedestrian Mall, A DEAD MALL, which is very ironic because the Mall Owners are on the Buffalo Place Board, you know, the group who says they try to keep Downtown Clean, Safe, and Fun? LOL. Nice try, Downtown is a SH*t HOLE! What do you expect people to do downtown? During the day time? ...With no shops, no action, one rinky movie theater, a bus system that runs on it's own schedual (whats the point in them even printing up times, if they NEVER Follow them), bad a*** kids who like to hog up every corner in the downtown area, panhandlers who harrass the shi* out of every freaking person who comes downtown, NEVER A COP Around to take control of the rift raft in this city till someone gets robbed, shot or stabbed, and even then they take their time to SHOW UP! So yeah, one less building, another empty space, another place for the bums to park their asses and jump from out of the garbage that will soon fill this lot up to harrass passer bys.

This is the exact thing that makes me never want to waste my time and education on returning to the city to try and improve it.

Wow that was fast WCP, Way to stay on top of things....

Ive gone from a Buffalo Booster to thinking Buffalo is simply loosing its heart and soul....to benign neglect and apathy....no one is going to tell me that there is not a solution to these problem properties and problem property owners (whether banks for individuals or corporations)....these are solvable problems...and the fact that we will not learn from other cities and solve these problems....says more about our future than anything good we can do!

If we cannot solve our own problems....thru management, planning, legislation and enforcement then why in the world should anyone invest their life savings and future...so what they can loose it all...while the rest of the world leaves them behind!

the fact that Buffalo lets things like this happen routinely.....just says that Buffalo really is an utterly soul less and dead city!

Helen, from what channel 7 news says, they're going to finish it 1.5 weeks from now.

Sad that it is gone. Took a long walk yesterday from North Buffalo to see it one last time. It will be even more sad if that site sits vacant with a leasing sign parked in the middle of it for years.

**20 years** oops

how come the front facade of the building couldn't be kept? was it too expensive or even considered? the building next to tempo on delaware kept it's front portion and demolished the rest. their currently adding a structure behind it for something. the bottum line is that it still fits with the neighborhood in its original style.

It is the city's own fault, show me one "invester" that is scared of a scant $1,500 fine?

Well that sucks! From a Buffalo Rising dubbed Obstructionist... Maybe they should have considered a Bass Pro for it... tee hee

Sal, it has worked in harrisburg and pittsburg, and they were not strong markets either. This wouldn't remove all value from improvement, but lay it on the building. The Vernor's building i believe was assessed very low, cause of the poor condition of the building. If most of the taxes were from land value, it would have been much higher and had removed the incentive for Tech to just sit on the property and let it deteriorate.

Jet2Vegas..........I"m against raising and adding taxes. But I'm also against purposeful neglect of our bldgs.

Do YOU have a better idea on how to prevent what just happened to the Vernor Bldg?

I agree RPresktop, this is a golden opportunity for this block to really take off. Honestly, I thought it would be years (if not a decade) before it was demolished, then out of the blue one day the demolition crew shows up. I haven't felt anywhere near this optimistic about the 700 block since the Sidway was renovated. I think we'll be seeing renderings and plans hopefully by the end of the year by someone to build something on that site and/or the Schmidt site.

This may actually be a law......I don't know.

But if an owner isn't using the building, leasing the building, caring for the building then they should suffer a much much higher tax rate. I think a law like this would have prevented the owner of the vernor bldg from sitting on it for years and years. if you aren't going to use the bldg or have a plan for it, the city needs to do whatever it can to get those owners to sell there buildings, not just sit on them. Insurance companies do something like this.... you pay a higher rate on empty buildings.

charles shifrin most likely used this property as a huge tax write off every year.

Regarding The Church...while I'm thrilled it has been saved (and looks great)...from what I understand, they'll never recoup the money they sunk into it. Smart move? I don't know.

Nick wrote "what could really help prevent this would be the adoption of a two rate property tax structure."

It is an interesting concept, however in Buffalo a lot more land is property tax free as it is owned by governmental agencies, religious organizations and non-profits. In addition, many properties have a negative value and can't be given away. Property tax structures in general assume that land has value.

Thank god for a smart demo, finally. Hopefully we can see a mixed-use condo development, with parking, to go along with traffic on Main St. Move on - develop - build - invent. That's how Buffalo was built in the 1800s.

To be progressive, you must change. We cannot save everything. Donn Esmonde is the preservationist that I love to hate - save everything, keep complaining, armchair developer (see the BN today). It is his opinion, but merely encourages the masses of people who obstruct change and re-development in the city.

When it comes down to it, those who let buildings rot must be dealt with - punished, esp. when there are specific laws set up and they are blatantly disregarded. Those who re-use and re-develop should be rewarded with tax breaks and future inclusion in other city planning or preference on other properties.

The rest is just opinion - something we will ALL never agree on completely.

Can't we spend just as much energy supporting successful developers, instead of discussing what went wrong or why it isn't "perfect"?