There’s an ever-growing list of historic properties that have found new life as residences, hotels, restaurants, offices, or a combination of these uses. But one building has not been so lucky. The E.B. Holmes Machinery Company Building at 55-59 Chicago Street sits forlorn and in shambles despite new development taking root on nearby properties. The Cooperage complex seemed to have a brighter future in 2005 when the site was purchased by Newark Niagara LLC, headed by preservation architect Clinton Brown, for $30,000. In 2008, Brown announced a reuse strategy for the property and went to work on development plans.
Brown knew he was working against time to both stabilize the building and put together the funding to adapt it for new use. The Preservation League, a non-profit based in Albany, provided a $200,000 what was envisioned as a short-term loan in October 2008 under its Endangered Properties Intervention Program. The program allows the League to provide direct action and assistance when historic buildings are threatened with neglect and demolition. At the time, the Cooperage was just the third project to receive assistance and the first in western New York.
The E. & B. Holmes Machinery Company Building is a roughly rectangular building composed of three primary sections of four-, three- and two-stories, which encircle a central courtyard. These segments of the building reflect the various additions and changes which the building underwent throughout its 150 year history. Holmes was known for its woodworking machines, including those involved in barrel making.
Clinton Brown’s $6.6 million Cooperage plan called for 22 market-rate, live-work lofts as well as two or three commercial retail spaces. The complex has been vacant since 2001 and time and weather had taken a toll on the property.
The oldest portion of the building, known as the Mill Building (c.1870s), is a four-story rectangular brick structure. Two, three and four-story additions were added on over time. The Mill Building suffered a partial collapse to the eastern wall of the structure in 2007. This eastern wall now lies in ruin, along with portions of the northwestern corner and the fourth floor.
The Preservation League’s bridge loan was configured to provide bridge financing—short-term loans to get preservation-oriented development projects to the point of construction. It provided assistance with things like predevelopment work, design, and emergency stabilization that are necessary to moving projects forward, but can be tricky to pay for in the early stages. Select demolition of the building’s collapsed portions was completed.
Construction on the rehab was expected to start in 2008, with the first units ready for occupancy by late 2009. Brown was never able to cobble together financing or a development partner to pull off the project.
In February 2009, Metro Contracting & Environmental Inc. filed a $149,000 mechanics lien and in May of that year filed a Lis Pendens. In April 2011 and February of this year there was a payment motion filed on the lien according to County Clerk records. In January 2013, Safespan Scaffolding LLC filed a $563,000 mechanics lien that appears to be unresolved.
While the website for the Cooperage remains active, the project appears to be dead. That cannot be said for the neighborhood. Public and private sector investment has sprouted on surrounding blocks. In 2011, Buffalo River Fest Park opened and it has snowballed from there. The Seneca Creek Casino opened in 2013 and last year work started on the Ohio Street makeover. Ellicott Development has plans for 21 residences and restaurant space at Chicago and Ohio streets and has plans to construct an office building on property to the south of the Cooperage. Savarino Companies and Frontier Group of Companies are planning 78 apartments at Buffalo River Landing to be built on the site of the Erie Freight House. RiverWorks is still under development on nearby Ganson Street and Ballyhoo recently opened in the former Malamute building. The neighborhood is one of three areas being considered for a new football stadium.
There have been rumors of the Preservation League exploring foreclosing on the property but one source says the non-profit is very reluctant to take title to the property without a new developer lined up to hand it off to. The League last week said they would have someone with knowledge of the project get back to us. They did not. Clint Brown did not respond to an email inquiry.