As one former catholic school building crumbles, another has taken a step towards reuse. Architect Karl Frizlen and contractor Paul Johnson's 257 Lafayette LLC purchased the former Catholic Academy School on Friday. The pair paid $200,000 for the property and plan to convert it into a mix of commercial and residential space.
The three-story, 1928 school building on Lafayette Avenue near Grant Street will be transformed into 20, two-bedroom loft apartments and 11,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. Johnson and Frizlen will also be relocating their offices into the building and Frizlen's wife will run a day care center there.
"Our goal is to reinvigorate a school that has been empty for nearly three years," says Frizlen. "We see the area close to Grant Street as coming back with an interesting mix of immigrants, younger families and Buffalo State College students. There's quite a bit happening there."
The project carries a $3 million price tag.
Grant Street is coming back but it needs ALOT of help. This area is benefiting because LaFayette has always been more stable than the surrounding neighborhood...in a way it pulls in the Elmwood, Delware, Chapin, Richmond, Colonial Circle into Grant (so its natural that LaFayette would lead the revitalization of Grant).
This is also a lesson as to what the restoration and redevelopment of the Richardson Complex could do to pull the Delaware, Elmwood and Richmond retail and culturals down Forest to Grant.
The only other street that I think comes close to being able to pull Delaware, Elmwood, Richmond to Grant is West Ferry.
But the BIG pull for this area continues to be the redevelopment of the Richardson and the expansion of Buffalo State to Niagara and Tonawanda Street.