Prolific redeveloper Rocco Termini is apparently heading out of town. Downtown that is. Termini is scheduled to present reuse plans for the FWS building at 1738 Elmwood Avenue to the Black Rock-Riverside Good Neighbors Planning Alliance on Wednesday night. The redevelopment is expected to involve a restaurant along with apartments.
Termini has done extensive work downtown, converting seven properties into a mix of retail, commercial, hotel, restaurant and residential space. After tackling his largest project to date, the transformation of the Lafayette Hotel, Termini was expected to turn his attention to transform the mammoth AM&A's Department Store into hotel, residential, restaurant and entertainment space.
The AM&A's project hinged on an increase in the New York State historic preservation tax credit cap that has apparently died on the Governor's desk. A few weeks Termini said he would be walking away from that project if the tax credit cap wasn't lifted and he'd shift the planned AM&A's uses to a new project. It is unclear whether some of those uses and users are now heading to North Buffalo asTermini is also rumored to be piecing together a new project downtown.
The FWS complex contains 85,000 sq.ft. of space in a series of two and three-story buildings built around a central courtyard. It was designed by Esenwein & Johnson for the General Railway Signal Co. Gurney Becker & Bourne is listing the property with a $899,000 asking price.
Entry image by Gurney Becker & Bourne. Aerial from Bing.
There are tons of great industrial buildings around these rail lines. Hopefully this is one of many reuses in the future.