Allentown Site Sold
A vacant Main Street building may be on its way to reuse. Greenleaf Properties purchased 916 Main Street in mid-September for $70,000. The company has not revealed its plans for the property but Greenleaf is primarily an apartment owner and management firm. According to the firm's website, Greenleaf has been involved in real estate management and development since 1986. Their current inventory consists of approximately 40 buildings and over 350 units in the city.
Greenleaf purchased 916 Main Street from the estate of Robert Wulbrecht. The three-story building is adjacent to the city-owned and collapsing Bosche Building at 918 Main Street (right, photo below). Sources say Greenleaf may be interested in that building as well.
The four-story Bosche building, built in the early-1890s as a carriage repository, was designed by prominent local architect Cyrus K. Porter. Due to a fire, the roof of the building has a large hole in it and the upper floors are collapsing. Nearby residents and the Allentown Association have been meeting to come up with a viable re-use plan for the historic property, or at least the facade. In 2004 the City applied to the Buffalo Preservation Board for approval to demolish 918 Main and was turned down.
If Greenleaf takes on both properties, their future could be bright. Many of Greenleaf's apartments are in renovated buildings where the original character is retained and kitchens, bathrooms and mechanical systems are upgraded. The firm also has several loft apartments with high ceilings and skylights. Their properties are concentrated in the Buffalo State, Linwood, Elmwood Village, Delaware Park and North Buffalo areas.
The property was listed by Chris Malachowski of Hunt Commercial Real Estate.
Get connected: Greenleaf Real Estate, 716. 885.8538
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Comment Options
Ike
hopefully any reno work will get rid of those horrid street front brick walls
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Buffalo21stcentury
As I have said many times before....the Borsche Building facade should be saved and thats it. Demolish the rear and rebuild it and a new building will be better than the old.
Finally with the expansion of the Life Sciences Campus it is not just viable but profitable to save the facades of some of our historic street scapes..still much work remains to be done on Main Street!
(but losing the Borsche and losing that streetscape would be a major loss to the future of Main Street which has more than enough empty lots for modern/contemporary infill.)
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STEEL
It will be a great shame if the city allows that building to be demolished.
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phrank
I think a big issue with these properties is access to the rear of the buildings. Demolition of the rear while saving the front is impossible unless you can get to it from behind. These need to be saved!
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RaChaCha
This location has everything going for it: it’s part of a block with outstanding, cohesive architecture. It’s across the street from Metro Rail, and next door to the striking Red Jacket, at a major gateway to Allentown. It’s surrounded by those achingly beautiful, vibrant streetscapes which make people smitten with Allentown. And it’s right next door to a vanishing breed: a fully-stocked urban arts supply store -- in My Fair City we have but one left, and nowhere near this good.
Also, it’s just up Main Street from the Granite Works, another situation - like the Bosche/Summit Building - where City-owned, neglected buildings came to the brink of demolition, despite their architectural significance, economic value, and reuse potential. The situation with the Bosche/Summit Building makes one wonder if any lasting lessons were learned at City Hall from Granite Works.
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RobH
Greenleaf? Be afraid. Very afraid.
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sonyactivision
It was such a shame about that fire. Now the above commenters are right: the rear of the structure/s should be removed and replaced but that could be too expensive for Greenleaf so if there's any way to salvage the floors and restore them as they are (sans hideous bricked lower storey) then godspeed to them. Buffalo is watching...
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Andrew
Both these projects would be great for the neighborhood. Investment needs to push past main st and into the fruit belt area. With the hundreds or thousands of doctors and other professionals working in that neighborhood its amazing that its so decrepit still
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