Rehab Planned for Mudpies Site
Another downtown property is likely coming back to life as a mixed-use development. Bear Den Properties, LLC purchased 173 Elm Street near Broadway one week ago for $205,000 (far right in entry image). The four-story building had been owned by Mudpies Children's Museum.
Mudpies sold the building and is focusing their efforts to establish a permanent children’s museum in Buffalo elsewhere. 173 Elm was the long-time home of the Erie Canal-era Jansen Bros. Harness Shop.
According to new owner Barrett Price, plans for the 13,824 sq.ft. property will be “market-driven.” Price owns Bear Metal Works located on Milton Street in the Seneca/Babcock neighborhood. He may move the offices for his growing precision metal fabrication business to Elm Street with the machine shop remaining in its current location.
“The building will be rehabbed and the use will be market-driven. It is a great location with high visibility,” says Price. One possibility Price is considering is residential units on the upper floors. The purchase also included two vacant lots on Michigan Avenue.
Broadway has seen several redevelopment projects in recent years. Roger Trettel rehabbed The Buehl Block at Broadway and Ellicott into a mix of commercial and residential space. Jean Elsinghorst renovated 138 Broadway and has leased three residential lofts in what many thought was a ‘fringe location.’ Across the street, Choco-Logo rehabbed 141 Broadway where it operates a factory and retail store.
“I live here and will continue to live and work here,” says Price. “I have plans to continue investing in the city’s future.”
173 Elm joins a growing list of downtown buildings being purchased by smaller investors buying into downtown. “There’s a renaissance going on,” says Price.
Get Connected: Bear Metal Works, 716.824.4350
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Comment Options
Texpat10
Get these suckers fixed up and it'll be a great addition and help to move toward achieving critical mass!
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Andrew
Rehab all of them!!! Lofts and condo's all around!!!
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Biniszkiewicz
That price seems like a pretty good buy for the size and location of the buildings involved.
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blackrocklifer
Great old buildings. the Jansen brothers and its neighbor date to the 1840's. The brick parapet walls extending above the roof was a common style that has mostly disappeared from Buffalo. There are a few left in the near east side and one at Niagara and Virginia. Prima Pizza on Chippewa is another and we have a couple here in Black Rock. In the 1970's there were many buildings of this style in the area of the Elm/ Oak arterial and it is too bad they were replaced by the suburban style office buildings that look so out of place in our downtown.
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buffaloweiner
More development along Elm and Oak mean that the city should really think about downgrading the Elm/Oak arteriole and upgrading the Jefferson/Hamburg corridor between the Kensington and the I-190 so that downtown Buffalo doesnt end because on an artificial high traffic barrier.
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mybuffalo
oh really weiner haven't seen you type that 10 million times haha
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allfit
Yes Buffaloweiner, shut off the arteries to Downtown and watch the city die. Good plan, as always.
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buffaloweiner
allfit, no one is talking about shutting off the arteries of downtown, but merely distributing them and redefining them to be more than urban highways placed on glorified urban streets at the expense of other streets that are equally important to the downtown grid.
allfit...sorry you cant understand that..maybe I need to write at a lower reading comprehension level...but I suggest reading slower and using a dictionary.
If your still confused then have someone else read it to you and explain it.
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