The Buffalo Planning Board on Monday night approved four projects valued at more than $121 million that would create over 250 new apartments in two former schools, a former grain silo warehouse and two of the Richardson-Olmsted Complex buildings.
SAA-EVI, Community Services for Every1 and Generation Development won the green light for their respective plans to redevelop the former School 44, the St. John Kanty Roman Catholic Church Lyceum building and the Perot Malting complex at Silo City. The board also recommended approval by the Common Council of an adaptive-reuse permit for Savarino Companies to redevelop Buildings 9 and 13 on the Richardson-Olmsted Campus.
Developers want to transform the former Public School 44 into a modern apartment building with support services for residents.
"The projects were pretty significant," Planning Board Chairman James Morrell said.
School 44
SAA-EVI, led by David Alexander and Ernst Valery, want to convert the former Buffalo school at 1349 Broadway, at Person, into 65 units of affordable housing. The 130,000-square-foot building on 2.65 acres will include a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with half of them reserved for victims of domestic violence, who will receive services through Catholic Charities.
People are also reading…
The $26.8 million project, which will benefit from historic tax credits, will be completed in accordance with federal and state preservation standards. Plans by Carmina Wood Morris also include new windows and a new roof, plus 80 parking spaces, landscaping, lighting, and new playgrounds. The historic smokestack in back will remain.
"It’s a great project. I can’t wait to see it up and running," said Planning Board member Martha Lamparelli.
The project – which had previously been approved in 2017 – was originally conceived by developer Rhonda Ricks, who partnered with SAA-EVI, until she died from cancer in 2019. SAA-EVI took up the project in partnership with Stratford Capital Group.
"We believe that everyone deserves to have a great place to live, regardless of their income level," said SAA-EVI developer Connor Kenney.
Apartments at the Lyceum
The former school or Lyceum building of St. John Kanty Church in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.
Community Services for Every1 is teaming up with Rochester-based Edgemere Development to renovate the 57,870-square-foot former East Side school and community center building of St. John Kanty into the Apartments at the Lyceum.
The developers are also buying 10 adjacent vacant parcels from the city for parking and greenspace, which will be combined to create a 1.45-acre property.
Located at 97-101 Swinburne St., in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, the project for low-income residents would include 26 one-bedroom and 11 two-bedroom apartments, with 12 units reserved as permanent supportive housing for survivors of domestic violence. Four units would be set aside for those with mobility impairments, while two would be reserved for people with hearing or visual impairments.
The $18 million project will be funded with historic tax credits, as well as money from New York State Homes and Community Renewal and Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative.
"It’s a fabulous project," said Planning Board Vice Chair Cynthia Schwartz. "You’re saving a beautiful building."
The church will continue using the facility's commercial kitchen for up to 90 days a year for cooking, baking and other programs.
Silo City
Generation Development is moving to the second phase of its Silo City redevelopment, with a $50 million adaptive-reuse plan to convert the historic Perot Malting building into 92 apartments and 20,000 square feet of commercial and amenity space, including a wellness and fitness center, exhibition gallery space and a resident lounge.
The project by partners Marvin Wilmoth and Anthony Ceroy is adjacent to the American Malthouse complex, where work is already underway on the $65 million first phase of redevelopment, after receiving approval less than 18 months ago.
Workers will clean and restore brick, replace all windows with aluminum-clad wood windows and keep about one-third of the old equipment in place, as a historic display for residents and visitors, said architect Paul Lang of Carmina Wood Morris.
That was mandated by the State Historic Preservation Office, which is overseeing the preservation work with the National Park Service, so the project will qualify for tax credits. The developers will also use "several industrial components" as part of the publicly accessible greenspace and landscape features between the two silo projects.
"It's a super-cool project," Schwartz said.
Richardson-Olmsted
Developer Samuel Savarino plans to spend $26.4 million to convert the easternmost two buildings at 444 Forest Ave. into as many as 71 apartments, some of which will be affordable housing. The developer is still finalizing the mix of units and rental rates.
The project will use state and federal historic tax credits, and will comply with preservation standards. Exterior changes would be minimal, and the project already received approval from the Buffalo Preservation Board.
"Another great project," Morrell said.
Delaware Consumer Square
The Planning Board also approved a restructuring of the tax parcels that comprise Delaware Consumer Square at 2658 Delaware Ave. DLC Management, which owns the 22.57-acre plaza, wanted to consolidate the properties from nine to five, while reorganizing them so they are consistent with actual use. That will make it easier to finance or sell one of the parcels in the future, officials said.
The overall perimeter boundaries remain the same, and no changes were planned for the site. DLC is also demolishing one of the retail buildings and replacing it with a new Chick-fil-A restaurant, but that's a separate application.
"As you drive by the center, it’s going to look exactly the same," said attorney Francis Gorman III of Harris Beach, representing DLC. "There is no physical change planned to the shopping center as part of this application."
The Planning Board also:
- Approved a coastal consistency determination for Benderson Development's planned new 1,600-square-foot Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop at 380 Niagara St., replacing a former Goodyear Service Center.
- Approved a modification for James Panepinto's new warehouse for his Pinto Construction Services at 132 Dingens St., with a prefabricated "warm white" steel structure with a flat roof instead of a red building with a fabric roof. The height also lower and one of the ramps was eliminated.
And it backed special-use permits for:
- A new banquet hall and events center called Cuzzin's Event Venue at 28 Memorial Drive, for baby showers and community programs.
- A new cigarette shop called Buff Puff City in a former cell phone store at 318 West Ferry St.
- Zahid Rahimi to open a Halal Mexican fusion and pizza restaurant called Chick Mex at 1456-1458 Hertel Ave., in a former pizzeria.
- Jose Casteneda, owner of Don Tequila Mexican Restaurant at 494 Franklin St., to set up an outdoor sidewalk cafe around the corner on Allen Street.
- Jack Syracuse, owner of Gecko's Bar & Grille at 1462 Hertel, who wants to tear down his current two-story building and put up a larger one of 4,400 square feet, with a first-floor dining room, a mezzanine dining level, and exterior patio space on both levels. The project will come to the Zoning Board of Appeals on April 21, but needs only administrative site plan approval from the city.
- Metalico to move its current metals recycling operation from South Park Avenue in Lackawanna to its Skyway Auto property at 637 Tifft St., where it will renovate the existing facility and construct a new 4,000-square-foot storage building.
