
Stabilization Efforts Begin for Cobblestone District Buildings
Despite the protests of the buildings’ owner, two historic structures in Buffalo’s Cobblestone District are now getting some much-needed repairs to stabilize them.
Heavy machinery arrived at the location of the two buildings, burned in a fire deemed “suspicious” by officials in June last week.
Darryl Carr, who owns the property at 110-118 South Park Avenue, near KeyBank Center, has been fighting with the city about the two pre-Civil War buildings for years. He wanted to tear them down and build, in their place, a 55-story tower building for residential and retail space; the city has fought his efforts by claiming the structures are historic and must be preserved.
Even before the fire in June, the buildings had fallen into a state of disrepair. Last month, the Buffalo Common Council voted to approve a contract worth $395,000 to make repairs to stabilize the buildings before any other action could be taken, but with the caveat that Carr would be billed for the contract and work.
The work will involve partially demolishing some of the building to stabilize it and remove some excess weight and materials, followed by restoring part of an exterior wall that had been cut through by an excavator when the building was on fire on June 18.
Carr remains determined to see his vision through and continues to promise to fight the city’s stabilization and preservation efforts.
“I have control and ownership of the buildings, although it doesn’t seem that way,” he said recently. “The city has come in to stabilize buildings that are basically being held together by sand and inertia because the mortar is completely gone.”
The repair work is expected to last another week or so.
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Gallery Credit: J.R. Militello Realty, Inc.
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