Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation is hard at work turning Bethune Hall at 2915 Main Street into 87 market rate, loft-style apartments. Since the $15.5 million project is using historic preservation tax credits, it is being done in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.
The landmarked four-story structure was designed and built by Lockwood, Green & Company in 1915 for the Buffalo Meter Company, a manufacturer of liquid meters. In 1971, the State of New York acquired the building from The Singer Company, as successor to Buffalo Meter Company.
After a rehabilitation in 1973, the SUNY School of Architecture and Design moved into the building and renamed it Bethune Hall (named after Louise Blanchard Bethune, architect of the Lafayette Hotel, the first professional woman architect in the United States).
Classes ceased at the building in 1993 and SUNY had been using it for storage until it sold it in April 2006 to a downstate buyer. Ciminelli purchased the property in 2011.
![bethune22]8.jpg](http://www.buffalorising.com/assets_c/2013/01/bethune22%5D8-thumb-550x305-36763.jpg)
Carmina Wood Morris designed the renovation work.
Get Connected: Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation, 716.631.8000
Dear Citizens of Buffalo,
Sorry you have to live in a community so backward that it sees projects like this as progress.
You are all welcome to move to Lackawanna, where we know what progress comes through demolition.
Sincerely,
Mayor Geoffrey Szymanski
Lackawanna
Thats why Bethlehem Steel co. was demolished? Just throw away old bulings with value. I think this is a great idea because you know where Bethlehem Steel was will be empty for years to come. Lets work with what we have... it looks like progress to me.