A residential project planned for the site of the Erie Freight House on Ohio Street has a new look and a new name. Freight House Landing has been renamed Buffalo River Lofts and will now have a more modern/industrial appearance. The project will still contain 78 units on four floors above ground-level parking.
441 Ohio Street LLC purchased the Erie Freight House property in March 2012 from Great Lakes Fibres Corp. The circa-1868 building is a two-story heavy timber frame structure with 550 feet of Buffalo River frontage in the reviving Ohio Street corridor. The development team is a partnership made up of contractor/developer Sam Savarino and Frontier Group of Companies, LLC (formerly FFZ Holdings).
Engineers determined the Freight House to be “very poor” with several minor collapses as well as areas of major collapse. The City had condemned the building as unsafe to occupy. The Buffalo Preservation Board recommended denial of the developer’s demolition request. The Buffalo Common Council considered the Preservation Board’s recommendation and studies provided by the development team and approved the demolition in November.
The five-story building will feature secured ground floor parking for 67 vehicles, and 64 one-bedroom and 14 two-bedroom units on floors two through five. A small amount of office space and a fitness center will be located on the second floor. There will be two rooftop patios for tenants and public access along the riverfront.
The project architect, Chaintreul Jensen Stark Architects (CJS), has incorporated the look of nearby industrial sites into the new design (see below). Two stairtowers will be sheathed with polycarbonate paneling and back-lit with LED lighting. The façade will be a steel wall panel system with aluminum clad windows.
441 Ohio Street LLC has reached an agreement with Preservation Buffalo Niagara on a protocol for the salvage, inventory and storage of remnants of the former Erie Freight House for possible reuse or repurposing at another time and place.
Demolition work is expected to start shortly and construction on the new building will begin this spring.
Industrial Neighbors Above, Project Design Evolution Below