Last week I spent some time traveling around the city with a handful of Buffalo’s latest real estate investors. The Sacramento/Buffalo contingent has been busy buying up seven impressive properties. I had the chance to check out two of the recent acquisitions – an apartment building located at the corner of Lexington and Ashland and another pair of apartment buildings found at 1106-1110 Main Street. All total, this group of investors has acquired 200 units in a very short time period, and their intentions are to fix them up and rent them to quality tenants.
I spoke with Dane Chapin and Adam White, Managing Partners in a real estate firm called Barons of Buffalo, who told me that they have been in the process of re-working 50-60 of the units in their possession. Many of the units had major plumbing issues while others needed to be completely overhauled. The two buildings that I mentioned above have already seen an increase in occupancy since the new team has taken over. The Main Street buildings have seen 32 units (4 remaining) completed, a task that has bumped up the occupancy rate from 50% to 95%. “Many of the tenants that have rented those units are orderlies at the Medical Campus,” Dane told me. “If you drive by at night you will see that the buildings are now completely lit up. And on the inside we installed new kitchens and baths. On Lexington we have been busy adding maple detailing to the rooms and granite counter tops to the kitchens. We also redid the hallways. Some of the rooms were filled with garbage… can you imagine in that neighborhood?”
After work is completed on the interior of the 220 Lexington building the team is going to replace the sidewalks (and that’s not even their job!). “We want this to be a very welcoming setting for our existing commercial tenants (Kuni’s, Wild Things, and Shakti Yoga),” Adam said. “We also want to attract a corner café where the Lexington General Store was. It’s a beautiful 1600 sq.’ shell that we have stripped down to its original state. Even the original crescent window is now visible.”
Stay tuned for further developments from Barons of Buffalo. They are keeping an open eye on further property acquisitions – the Buffalo market is looking prime for out-of-state investors who are finding Buffalo a very attractive market.
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