Mark Croce’s plans for a boutique hotel at 504 Franklin Street are apparently gelling. The downtown restaurateur and property owner was approved for nearly $6 million in community revitalization tax credits for the project. Croce purchased the six –story, terra cotta clad building at the corner of Franklin and Huron six years ago.
The Erie County Industrial Development Agency approved Croce’s request for tax credit funding. Business First’s James Fink has the details:
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said he was pleased the ECIDA initiative may kick-start Croce’s project, which has been in the economic development pipeline for more than three years.
“We do need more hotel rooms in downtown,” Brown said. “More hotel rooms open the door for more convention business.”
The project carries a $15.46 million total development cost and is expected to create 25 full-time jobs and 40 part-time jobs.
The Curtiss Building has been vacant for more than five years and was last used as the local headquarters for the Church of Scientology. The church has since moved to a new location near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Community revitalization tax credits are available to eligible businesses within Buffalo’s Renewal Community zone and are designed to stimulate economic investment. It is one of 40 areas in the nation selected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to receive special federal tax incentives.
Croce’s 72-room hotel would join two other Huron Street hotels- the Hyatt and the Embassy Suites under construction at the Avant.