On the Market: Richmond Methodist Episcopal Church

I hope this doesn't get gutted in the sale process.

It would make a great arts center.

here is a better idea. Karpelles is better for flex use space like office or residential...so switch places

A conversion similar to the Bryant Parish Condos a few blocks up the street would be really cool.

This space is beautiful but Buffalo has so many spaces that are beautiful and would lend themselves to art spaces. This is incredible space but is it better than art space in grain elevators on the waterfront? They can't all be art spaces.

$815k is too much. It's worth no more than half a million. And no, you don't get all the money you put into renovations back...

Sorry to hear that they are abandoning the concept.

On a practical note, do the funders get their money back? What happens with the $400k funds that came through Ryan?

Hopefully, they can purchase a space in the theater district, and create more density there.

That price is pretty steep and raises a number of questions about the degree, if any, to which Alleyway is obliged to repay grants. Depending on who purchases the building, there would be significant public and foundation investment being transferred to a private individual or corporation.

That said, having the building change hands is probably the best thing for Alleyway and the community. It was a noble concept, but hardly something the community was crying out for.

oh, and $815k is over ten times what they paid originally paid for it. if memory serves, the congregation sold it for alleyway for only $75k. seriously.

The price actually isn't bad, but then I'm in Washington, DC. There are much smaller houses that go for that much money. It would be a fantastic dream house, but I bet the utilities are bitch. Then again, if you install some solar panels on the roof, and some geothermal heating, it might be downright affordable.

The last thing Buffalo needs is more overpriced apartments. Jesus Christ, it's like the city is killing itself to out price it's own residents.

Well if I wasn't in 6th grade in 96 I would have paid a dollar for that gem!!
[deleted] $800k is rediculous. This ain't DC or NYC.
How about someone put a brewery in this beast!? Not a new idea, but a great one!

Well, I'm the real estate agent who sold this building to Neal Radice back in '96 for that $75k (plus $20k for the organ; that was a separate deal, for whatever sake of accounting . . .)

All you people complaining about the price need to go look again at how much has been invested in the property to date: $1.5m. A lot of that went toward solid infrastructural improvements that will be required of anyone changing the use or making it public assembly (non religious; change of use, therefore must comply with current code)

Also note: "deeply discounted sales price may be available to arts organization." Reason? Some of those grants must be repaid if the place doesn't become a performance center, but will be forgiven if it crosses over the finish line.

Now, as to why it should be a performance center:

-Sight lines are spectacularly good. Truly outstanding.
-acoustics: absolutely topnotch. So much better than the typical church.

It took me a long time to convince Neal to come see the place. I'd taken through dozens of potential buyers (including one very real businessman who wanted to gut it and use it for a warehouse for the Walmart bound key chains he manufactured on Parkdale). Only after he came and saw how perfectly it would convert to theater did Neal decide to take the plunge.

I could write more about the design and have before, but short story: it's called an Akron design, from an architect named Ackerman. Got this all from the organ tuner who filled Neal and I in on the history of such a design. Anyway, these churches became popular from the 1880s until the 1920s (prior to amplification). The acoustics are awesome. You can speak from anywhere in the sanctuary and be heard clearly everywhere else. No bouncing echo. No harsh sounds. Acoustically, these churches are spectacular. Not at all like the typical Catholic Church, laid out in a cross, where acoustics are horrid for the spoken voice.

It's like theater in the round, almost. Take a square. Put a dome on it. In one corner of the square, place the pulpit/altar (stage). Radiate pews around that, in a circular fashion, on an incline. Ditto for the round balcony. If you go inside the main sanctuary, folks, you can see why it screams: performance space!

The adjacent space (Sunday school/second auditorium space) could make a great apartment or condo conversion. The main sanctuary space would be a very tough conversion to residential for a number of reasons, including window availability.

hello, mansion on delaware?

http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article1010352.ece

What coincidence. I was walking by here with my wife and daughter and I just walked by here yesterday and we were wondering what the deal was with this place. We have lived only a block away for two years, and while the lawn gets mowed, nothing seems to happen with it. Thanks for doing my research for me!

Have been wanting to weigh in for a day or so -- glad I waited until seeing the information from Bini which really reinforces what I was thinking: that this property really makes the most sense as a community arts center and performance space. Certainly, far more sense than trying to convert it to housing, which is far, far from a highest-and-best use.

I was at a community announcement and tour of this building shortly after moving to Buffalo, and my impressions were that it was a perfect setup for performance space, as Bini says, and also lots of great spaces & rooms for related uses like art classes, gallery space, music classes, writers workshop, and community meeting rooms.

The location is also at a crucial node to bring people together in the community. If Main Street is seen as a dividing line of sorts in Buffalo -- and it unfortunately is -- Richmond Avenue also "divides" the area most consider the Elmwood Village from the area most consider the "west side". Everyone reading knows that there's a difference between housing quality, quality of life, income, etc. between those two areas. A community arts center on Richmond would help bring together people from both of those areas and build "social capital."

While it's unfair to volunteer others, I'd love to see an organization like PUSH take this on. They have a great volunteer base, and have demonstrated with their projects around Massachusetts and Chenango, the Net-zero house, etc. that they have the capacity for larger property redevelopment projects. This building is just a few blocks from those projects, at the circle where Massachusetts and Ferry meet Richmond. It's well within walking distance of the areas that PUSH principally serves, both north and south of Ferry. And in terms of potential for volunteer instructors in writing, music, visual arts, performance, etc. the surrounding neighborhood (on both sides of Richmond) is full of artists, writers, and musicians who live within walking distance. And "walking distance" is important, as the location doesn't have a lot of on-site parking.

An arts center at this location would also add to the cultural theme of Richmond -- a connecting corridor between Symphony Circle and the Richardson-Olmsted Complex.

I'd love to know if that makes sense to others, as well. But in a sense, I'm betting that my case has already been made (much better), and accepted, given the amount of grant funding that was awarded to Alleyway's project. Instead of turning our back on that collective community investment, and turning away from the dream, it sounds like what we need is a fresh injection of energy, staying power, and -- surely -- funds to get this project up and operating with a long-term, sustainable plan for the future.

With the economy picking up (yes?) and the city solidly on the comeback trail, I'd love to see that happen. I bet others would, as well.

Karpelles in Allentown is to far away from the Culturals. This church would be far better space for them and their current building is actually perfect for conversion to office/residential.

I say swap the buildings.

Also, Albright Knox has a classical arts collection that they arent displaying. Its sitting collecting dust until they de-acquisition it to buy modern crapola. This would make a great space for them do display it.

Also, the Richardson Romanesque of this Medina Sandstone fits perfectly with the Richardson Complex but since its on Ferry, it would make a perfect lecture/conference facility for Medaille, Canisius and Buffalo State...heck Karpelles could even join in to share.

Speaking of the Albright Knox...they want to expand...if they joined in to share this building as a conference center then they could demolish their own auditorium and expand their museum space without eating into delaware park.

Off topic but...Whats wrong with sharing. With ECC and UB in need of a downtown medical library, why cant the downtown library expand and provide it?

Where are the visionaries to take Buffalo to the next level? Where are the leaders of our local institutions to execute these ideas?

With all the momentum Buffalo has...it still cant bring public, private and corporate together as well as Rochester...and thats just pitiful...Buffalo has so much more to offer than Rochester...yet we dont offer it.

For anyone who has never been inside of this building, the auditorium is one of the great interior spaces in this city. And as stated above, the Akron plan of the sanctuary and its adjacency to the 1881 chapel does not lend itself readily to residential conversion.

I had the priveledge of walking the building a few weeks ago and am still awed by the quality of the design, the restraint of the detailing and the pedigree of the families who donated the windows. It would be a tremendous architectural loss to see the sanctuary eliminated to accommodate apartments.

I have been in this church, and yes the sanctuary is fantastic. However, if after all these years and all that money, if Alleyway couldn't make it work as a performance venue, why would anyone else want to try?