Owner of Cobblestone District Properties Sues Buffalo

The fight over the future of a pair of buildings in the Cobblestone district that burned under “supsicious” circumstances in June is still flaming hot.

Last week, Darryl Carr and his Park Avenue Estates LLC filed a lawsuit against Buffalo officials, seeking to win permission once and for all to tear down the structures at 110 and 118 South Park Avenue. The city is currently under orders to perform stabilization efforts on the buildings to prevent them from becoming a bigger hazard to the structures around them and people nearby.

“The parties agree there is imminent danger to life, health, and surrounding properties because of the fire damage. Yet (officials) are insisting (Carr) spend more than the property is worth to perform "stabilization and partial demolition" rather than the "controlled emergency demolition" recommended by Carr’s engineer, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed last week is considered an Article 78 filing and put in place a temporary restraining order preventing the city from doing any work at all on the buildings. But Carr also is asking the Erie County Supreme Court to tear down the buildings in keeping with the city code, which states that “every wooden or frame building with a brick or other front which may hereafter be damaged by fire or otherwise to an amount not greater than ½ its value may be repaired or rebuilt; but if such damage shall amount to more than ½ of such value thereof, exclusive of the foundation, then such building shall not be repaired or rebuilt but must be taken down.”

The estimated cost of those repairs and partial demolition efforts is between $350,000 to $1 million.

The lawsuit is trying to secure a temporary restraining order to stop any work from starting on the buildings and to overturn the July 15 ruling that requires Carr to have the work completed.

When the fire happened in June, just a day after a fire now declared arson destroyed the beloved Pink in Allentown, Carr told reporters he purchased the buildings several years ago with a clear vision in mind.

“I basically purchased these buildings demo-ready and hired these architects—world-class architects—to reconstruct the buildings that are in a new state and develop something that would be able to pay for all the reconstruction,” he said at the time. “I wanted to take the buildings down. I wanted to dig a hole, clean up the entire property, and start from scratch.”

Housing Court Judge Patrick M. Carney is set to hear motions about whether to stabilize or demolish the buildings on Friday.