“The Next Great Residential Area in Buffalo”
Among the many unique sections in the city, there is one area that is grossly under priced, under appreciated, and on its way to becoming the next desirable residential area. A few of the individual efforts to revitalize this community have recently been featured on BRO. I am referring to the Kleinhans Community, which is traditionally known as the area from West Ave. to Symphony Circle and from Hudson St. to Porter Ave.
The reasons that this area is so poised to take off are numerous. Its location is ideal in that it’s within walking distance to the Elmwood Village, Allentown, LaSalle Park, and Downtown Buffalo. The housing stock is comprised of architectural gems that can be had for a fraction of the price of nearby homes in the Elmwood Village and Allentown. The individual success stories, such as the Pennsylvania St. rehab by Jen and Jared have collectively played a significant role in the area’s rise. However, the dedication of the Kleinhans Community Association has been the driving force that continues to make the most out of the area’s positive attributes.
The KCA is a very active community group led by Chris Brown, who many of you have probably read about in other posts here on BRO. Chris and the KCA have been instrumental in creating a strong sense of community, in addition to encouraging owner occupancy in its neighborhoods. In my recent conversation with Chris, his passion for both Buffalo and the Kleinhans Community was evident.
When I asked Chris to give me an example that would best typify the growth of this neighborhood, he couldn’t stop at just one. He told me several stories about young homebuyers who recently purchased homes in the area with plans to remodel their houses from the studs up. My favorite example was the story of a young couple in their twenties who purchased a massive brick home with the intention of turning it into both a personal residence and a bed and breakfast.
While these types of major projects seem financially daunting for a typical homebuyer, they are made possible in the Kleinhan’s Community by low initial purchase prices.
From a fundamental real estate perspective, this area is mirroring the re-birth that occurred in the residential section of Elmwood Village in the late 90’s. In 1998, the average sale price on Lancaster Ave. was $77,833. A nice home on that street now sells for well over $200,000. What happened on Lancaster Ave., happened throughout the Elmwood Village. An influx of people began buying homes, making substantial improvements and actually stuck around, solidifying a strong community. This is beginning to happen in the Kleinhans Community right now. Chris put it best when he said that “people are taking on houses and turning them into major projects. That wasn’t happening five years ago… part of the reason is that you can get the same benefits of living on a street like Irving Place for at least $100,000 less.”
While Chris hopes the area stays affordable for the indefinite future, it’s only a matter of time before the area’s housing prices catch up with the price trends of the Elmwood Village and Allentown.
The major investments people are making in their Kleinhans Community homes are just one part of the area’s rebirth. In addition to residential improvements, a group of activists have presented a plan to Mayor Brown called the Wadsworth Street Improvement Plan. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Wadsworth St. connects Allen St. to Symphony Circle. Creating a more beautiful link between the Kleinhans Community and Allentown via Wadsworth St. to Allen St. is instrumental in tearing down any final psychological misperceptions that exist about the Kleinhans Community.
If you are looking to buy an undervalued home in a great community that is well on its way to becoming a truly desirable section of the city, you better act soon. While the chance to buy a real bargain in both the Elmwood Village and the eastern sections of Allentown is largely gone, it won’t be long until the neighboring Kleinhans Community catches up.
If you are interested in moving to the Kleinhans Community, contact Jeff Krampen (Phone- 716-578-7527) with Polis Realty, which has worked with the KCA in bringing new residents to area.
Chris Brown is one of our most unsung heroes and Kleinhans deserves the props. I much prefer seeing BRO feature neighborhood and real estate underdogs like KCA than easy sells like the "grand old lady" on Linwood seen elsewhere on BRO today.
How about starting a Cheap, Cool House of the Week feature--houses outside the 14222 zip code?
As I predicted the residential renaissance has crossed the Richmond barrier!
The next major street running parallel to Richmond is Grant! Good news for the Grant Association.
The next major street running parallel to Richmond in the west village is Niagara Street
As predicted, Niagara Street is going to be targeted with major developments of office buildings with riverfront views presently anchored by HealthNow, Rich's, former Bristol Myers Factory and GM Powertrain.
How is the First Pres Church doing with raising funds for repairs?
Wow. I was actually looking at that same Google Maps image yesterday. What a coincidence. I'm an expat, currently in my mid-20's and in graduate school. I moved away three years ago for school and because of my the way hiring works in my profession (academia) the chances of moving back to Buffalo are slim until retirement. My husband asked me the other day whether we should buy a nice, but inexpensive, house in Buffalo now and hang on to it so we could use it in the future for holidays, visits, and maybe retirement. I immediately thought of this area because of it's proximity to Kleinhan's, and because it isn't yet experiencing the property value increase that, say, EV is.
If we found a house in the 40 to 50 thousand dollar range that had enough good raw qualities and character to it, we might be tempted to buy and renovate. The problem is that I don't want to become a problem. I live about six hours away. I visit Buffalo once every 4 months or so, but could visit more (say if I were using weekends to work on a house). Would I be more of an absentee owner than anything else? Would I be leaving my property a sitting duck for vandalism and deterioration? If I fixed and then rented would I be just another out-of-town landlord? If I was already in Buffalo and could live in the house it would be one thing, but since I'm no longer local, I feel conflicted.
We love the idea of investing in Buffalo (for both Buffalo's financial health and ours) and having a home base in Buffalo from which to enjoy all we love (too many things to list). But my husband and I really don't want to create more trouble than already exists or that we can possibly fix.
Thoughts?
Curious Expat - Your thoughts and concerns are legitimate. The fact that you are thinking about those types of issues leads me to believe that you would be a caring property owner.
Well, to be perfectly honest, there are selfish motives too. Our initial thought was, how safe is an investment in a house that we won't be able to see everyday in a place where historic homes have already been vandalized (as we learned on the KCA website). And secondly we thought, are we really helping the neighborhood by potentially creating a target (empty home) for vandalism?
I guess it all depends on whether you would be looking to rent it while you are away. Maybe you could find a double, rent out the first floor and then have the second - or even third - floor available when you wanted to visit. I would imagine that the houses that have experiences problems are mainly vacant? I bet that if you talked to the Kleinhans Association they would tell you that the homes that appear to be lived in don't experience many problems. I have seen big upswings in that neighborhood due to some of the empty houses being filled with tenants. Being able to walk to the symphony and Front and Columbus Parks and having restaurants like Coda and Morning Glory around the corner is a dream. Allentown is within walking distance and the Garden Walk is growing there too. Even the Circle House was renovated this past summer.
This neighborhood is great for anyone not looking to own a car... I lived on Pennsylvania Street and the walk to the subway took me about 12 minutes in the summer and closer to 20 in the winter, BUT if you are lazy like I was most days you can just walk to the corner of Wadworth and jump the 7, it drops you right off at Allen Station. OR you can grab the 22 @ the circle and it drops you off at the Summer Best stop.. OR you can even just walk to the corner of West and grab the 3 downtown... Between these three options there is always a bus heading out from this neighborhood.
Plus Tops is only a couple blocks south on Niagara, there is a Laundromat at the corner of Penn and Niagara also, all within walking from Pennsylvania Street. It really was an easy life without a car there for a year. But that’s just my pedestrian perspective of the neighborhood.
I cant wait until the area from Niagara Street all the way to Jefferson is stabilized and redeveloped....these are great neighborhoods...with alot of potential for jobs and corporate offices etc.
Downtown needs to grow east and south....the westside and northside are pretty stable and mostly historical districts
Curious Epat
No academia jobs in Buffalo?? Whaaaaa? I don't get it. Sounds like you are falling for the negative nellie talk.
I'm in the humanities, so if you want a tenure track appointment you go to where it is, not where you'd like to be. Thats the way it works, sadly.
Abd there are no humanities in Biuffalo....Whaaaaat? You are kidding right?
Well, there are, but in an extremely limited sense. I'm working on my PhD in History, which means I will be looking for a tenure track (not adjunct) appointment in a research university or quality 4 year liberal arts college. But beyond just that, my specialization is in Early American Civilization, specifically in European imperialism and the settlement of the southern colonies and the Caribbean and also the removal of indigenous peoples. I don't just have to look to see if a Buffalo college or university is looking for someone to "teach history" broadly. When a department gets permission to hire a tenure track faculty member, they advertise by specialty. So I'd have to get lucky enough for UB or Canisius or Buff State to not only be hiring a for tenure track position, but also they'd need to be looking for someone who teaches Early American Civilization, in the year that I finished my dissertation and went on the market. If I got an interview and performed to their satisfaction, I'd then have to be vetted against at least two other candidates by a hiring committee of department faculty and at least one Dean.
So you see, it's not just "there's humanities here." The stars basically have to align for a newly minted PhD just to get a tenure track job, much less one in the geographic location that they desire.
I suppose that I could get any number of adjunct positions, and struggle to eek out a career, but I refuse. Sorry if the last sounds snotty, but it's a point I won't negotiate because adjuncting comes with zero health, retirement, or professional benefits and corrodes our universities for both us and our students.
Listen, if anyone is REALLY interested in buying in this area forget Polis and contact Lauren Kostek at Hunt. She LIVES in the neighborhood and has contributed significantly to moving in new homeowners. She can and has made things happen for people who want homes.
Does Chris Brown have walking tours through the neighborhood like David Torke has bgen doing on the East Side? that might be of help to someone like EXPAT. In this way should could get a close-up perspective and ask some candid questions about blocks etc. Just a thought.
As a recent resident of this area, I'd say your are absolutely correct. this is the next wonderful residential district in the city. The Allen Elmwood neighborhood is quickly extending westward in many areas, from the West Village and Johnson park, to Cottage St and Days Park, to Pennsylvania St. Great Work on Pennsylvania St, the area looks great all the way to Niagara St.
I'd like to float an idea here for the city, I think some capital investment in Virginia St would go a long way toward anchoring the lower West Side. Virginia has a lot of traffic and a lot of character, and the streets around it are experiencing great new investment. if Virginia could be targeted for some roadwork, new sidewalks, trees and planters, the investment would multiply as more people start buying homes and becoming active in the community.
I'm keeping my eye on this area as I consider where to buy my own home.
Matt,
What you've heard is true. Re-investment in the neighborhood is happening, and Chris Brown is truly the champion you descirbe him as. He has helped generate positive change and interest in the area, and help get the ball rolling on several important projects. In our case, renovating the brick home you heard about is going to be both personally fulfilling, while helping both Allentown and the KCA at the same time. No, we aren't independently wealthy. Getting a home at a distressed value and renovating is the only way this story is going to happen. We hope to provide BRO with another great before and after story as this is truly a monumental task, and we want to encourage others to move here and do the same.
Chris Brown does lots of tours (mainly in the summer) and he will show you my house as well as Lauren Kostek's. That is what makes this area so fantastic. I have never lived in a place were so many had such a personal investment. Sheesh, I'll give a tour! But I'll make so the last stop is at the Coda! Once you eat there you'll never want to leave the area!