Two of downtown’s heavyweights are butting heads over a prime Court Street surface parking lot. Main Place-Liberty Group and Carl Paladino’s Ellicott Development are fighting over a City-owned parcel that Ellicott needs to construct an office building, and Main Place-Liberty Group wants for a parking ramp. Main Place-Liberty, its lawsuit contesting the City/Ellicott property sale dismissed, is now offering the City over $1 million for the site.
Ellicott Development has been trying to build an office building at 50 Court Street since the late 1980’s.
Owning half the needed site, Paladino agreed to pay $700,000 for the City-owned portion in 2006 with development deadlines built into the sale agreement. Patrick Hotung’s Main Place Liberty Group countered with a higher offer which was rejected. Off to court they went.
The Buffalo News has the run-down:
In the latest skirmish, Buffalo businessman Patrick Hotung charges developer Carl P. Paladino has missed several key deadlines tied to the construction of an 11-story office tower on city-owned property at 50 Court St. Hotung, general manager of Main Place Liberty Group, is calling on the city to void its 2006 agreement to sell the vacant land to Paladino for $700,000, and entertain his higher offer of $1,275,000.
Under the agency’s lawsuit-stalled performance timeline, Paladino has until mid-July to deliver full construction documents. The land agreement allows the developer to pay a $10,000 fee to extend the deadline another 60 days.
Hotung contends Paladino should have met planning deadlines despite the litigation, but said he’d accept the July deadline.
“At least Carl would have deadline,” the Main Place Liberty Group executive said. “And when he fails to meet it, we stand ready to build a parking ramp on the site.”
The downtown titans cannot even agree on deadlines. Hotung is sticking to the July deadline, Paladino claims the clock does not start until 90 days after the date of the Courts of Appeals notice to seek U.S. Supreme Court review, or late-October.
While the project has been tied up in the courts, several significant downtown office tenants that may have been looking at 50 Court have landed elsewhere. Ellicott Development now faces a changed downtown real estate market with several proposed office buildings currently being marketed.
Paladino is now proposing a smaller, seven-story, 225,000 sq.ft. building. The previous plan, teaming up with McGuire Development, was for an 11-story glass clad office building designed by Kideney Architects with 335,000 sq.ft. of space and underground parking.