A shabby motel on Main Street has a new owner. Dr. Fadi Daghe’s D&S Capital Real Estate II LLC purchased the Buffalo Travel Lodge property at 1159 Main Street near Dodge for a whopping $1,666,980.57 today. According to The Buffalo News, Dagher is planning to build a new hotel on the site that would cater to visitors to the nearby Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
Buffalo Tourist Lodge was built in 1965 and expanded in 1971. It contains 72 rooms in two separate buildings and is unlikely to be missed. Several years ago Savarino Companies proposed purchasing the property and constructing a two-story, 30,000 sq.ft. office building. That deal fell apart.
^^ Previous Owner’s Plan ^^
In 2011, previous owner Fouad Bou-Jaude obtained City approvals to construct a three-story, 60 room Sleep Inn on the site designed by Silvestri Architects (above). The plan included 7,700 sq.ft. of office space in a two-story wing of the building fronting Main Street.
According to The News, “Dagher and his partner now hope to follow through on that plan and are already engaged in a feasibility study to ensure that they are pursuing the best brand for the site.”
Dagher, a Kaleida Health transplant surgeon, has a growing real estate portfolio locally. He is part of an investment group that purchased the Grand Island Holiday Inn in 2012 and in February bought 50 and 60 Lakefront Boulevard in Waterfront Village for $7.2 million.