Rocco Termini does not give up. He will do whatever it takes to see through one of his development projects downtown - last week, he nearly got arrested.
This happened around work on the Webb Building, downtown’s last great Richardsonian Romanesque building. The Webb has stood for over 130 years, but just one year ago it was in great danger of collapse. Left to rot by the previous owner, the roof had long since caved in, and the floors had pancaked. The walls were the only things holding each other up. Rocco purchased the building, and in the last 30 days, floor joists have been reinstalled, stabilizing the structure, and a new roof will be put on this week. It was the floor joists that led to the problem with the building inspector. He insisted that such work went beyond the building permit’s demolition and stabilization. Rocco refused to stop work. The building inspector called the police. Eventually it was worked out that in the case of this type of building’s construction, stabilization must include floor joists and roofing. The point of the story is that given such delays and problems, most folks would have run away screaming long ago. But not Rocco. His passion for downtown keeps him going.
Around 80 people attended a talk by Rocco Termini Saturday morning at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center. He shared the anecdote above to make the point that we must never give up trying to save a building. He argued that the preservation community in Buffalo needs to be proactive in order to accomplish its goals. Too often preservationists are only reactive, responding when plans to demolish a building are announced. While fighting demolition plans have resulted in many significant victories over the years, including the ECC City Campus and the Guaranty Building, far more must be done to give our built environment the protection it needs.
Rocco outlined several other steps he believes the preservation community must take.
Buildings must be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This makes the building eligible for federal historic tax credits, which can provide up to 20% of a project’s financing. This is critical to a project’s financing. If a developer in Buffalo could convert a 100 year old warehouse into loft apartments and then charge New York City or Boston level rents, the project would pay for itself. However, rents in Buffalo aren’t nearly that high, even for luxury apartments, and rent income alone may cover about half the cost of the project. Historic tax credits help cover that financing gap.
Unfortunately, many developers are reluctant to use such tax credits. The New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) must approve all plans, to be sure the building’s historic character is not compromised. SHPO has a negative image in the development community, because guidelines are strict, and many believe that SHPO demands will make the project much more expensive and troublesome. Rocco argued, however, that dealing with SHPO is really not so burdensome, that one just needs to take a little more time to negotiate. The officials at SHPO are just as anxious to preserve that building, and they know that unreasonably expensive requirements can kill a project. A developer and SHPO can work together.
We need a New York State historic tax credit. While a limited tax credit was passed last year, it is focused on residential restoration, and commercial projects are eligible for a maximum $100,000 credit. In a multimillion-dollar project, this will be of negligible help. Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has held up a more generous tax credit bill for years, worried that it would lead to runaway gentrification in New York City. An answer to this concern is to limit the tax credit to cities with populations under 500,000. As Rocco said, Buffalo needs gentrification.
The preservation community needs to meet as soon as possible with Daniel Gunderson, newly appointed Upstate Chair of the Empire State Development Corporation. Preservationists, developers, and preservation architects must make the argument that preservation is an economic development tool. Gunderson’s support may help get a state historic tax credit and other important legislation passed.
We need to educate our building inspectors in preservation and restoration. Building inspectors are the people who make recommendations to judges on whether a building needs to be demolished. Their orientation is toward problems in a building, not opportunities. They also may not be aware of possible solutions to many of these problems. As a result, the city’s inspectors are too often ready to declare a building in need of demolition. Rocco said, “Any building can be restored. It just depends on whether we want to get it done and at what cost.”
We also need to educate developers. The market downtown is in old buildings. The demand for downtown housing is tremendous; Rocco gets 5 or 6 calls a day. However, these people want to live in old buildings. They want a brick wall or huge windows. If people keep tearing down old buildings, especially for parking, there won’t be old buildings left to develop. Which has more value, a restored building yielding rents, or a parking lot?
We must also enforce code enforcement. Too many buildings are owned by out of town landlords who don’t care what happens to the city. Speculators hold onto others, waiting for a sale price they will never get. Finally, some are refused a demolition permit, and leave the building to rot, hoping it will collapse of its own accord. In all of these cases, the building owners are putting no money into maintenance. So many of our buildings, buildings that could be converted into housing, offices, shopping, are being allowed to slowly fall apart. Why is this important? Because this is our city, and those buildings are part of our future, or they will be if they survive long enough. Any property owner has a legal responsibility to keep up his property. This means a roof with a hole in it must be fixed. A broken window must be replaced, not just boarded up. It does not matter if the building is vacant. The city inspection department must vigorously pursue and enforce all building violations. Fines must be raised many fold. It is often far cheaper to just pay the fine than to make the necessary repairs. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Most of all, Rocco urged the preservation community to “Never give up.” He sure doesn’t.
This lecture was given as part of the Downtown Revealed lecture series. It was followed by a tour by Denise Prince of the Old Federal Post Office/ECC City Campus, one of Buffalo’s best examples of adaptive reuse. This lecture series is sponsored by Buffalo Tours, a joint production of Landmark Society and Preservation Coalition.
Next Saturday, March 3, will be Art Deco in Buffalo, the fifth installment in the series.
Irene Ayad, professor of architectural history, will talk about Art Deco. This will be followed by a tour by David Granville of perhaps Buffalo’s best example of Art Deco, City Hall. The whole program starts at 10:30 AM at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main Street. Cost is $10.