The deal to purchase the historic Calumet Building from current owners Mark Goldman and Arthur Ziller has officially closed. New owners, the law firm of Kenney Shelton Liptak Nowak LLP, will relocate their offices to the second and third floors of the building. The firm currently leases 12,000 square feet of space in the Rand building for its Buffalo offices. The move to the Calumet provides more office space for its 50 person staff. The building was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The $705,000 sale, which was finalized on December 30, follows plans presented to the Planning Board in October by Carmina Wood Morris Architects. The Preservation Board approved the project as presented in November.
Plans call for an urban courtyard to be constructed in the current back patio area that was utilized by the recently closed La Luna Nightclub as well Bacchus Wine Bar & Restaurant, which will continue to serve as the first floor anchor of the building.
The revamped courtyard, located off of Franklin Street, will serve as the main entrance for the law firm and feature grass and perennial landscaping as well as the addition of a three-sided glass elevator lobby. A staircase will wrap around the elevator.
Windows will be replaced throughout the building and the existing murals will be removed. Unsightly restaurant exhaust equipment will be relocated. An outdoor patio bar is possible depending on the needs of the future tenant of the vacant nightclub space while a rooftop patio has been proposed in the final design. Construction is expected to begin shortly.
At last the building is out of the hands of Goldman, for all the press he has recieved as some sort of savior or pioneer he was actually a very poor operator and even poorer caretaker of this outstanding building in a prime location.
Gotta agree. Those upper two floors have been vacant for at least a decade. Was that space even marketed? It is such a prime location, one would think there would have been demand.
They were vacant due to the fact there were NO windows. Just open space allowing the elements in for years! But hey, at least we are allowing him to decide the fate of our Water Front.