While plans are underway to rethink and possibly repurpose the Scajaquada Expressway, a local developer is looking to rethink and repurpose an adjacent industrial property. Savarino Companies is proposing a 66-unit residential building on a site located at the south end of Bush and Howell streets in Black Rock, dead end streets that run off of Amherst Street west of Wegmans.
A two-story masonry building currently occupies the property, a historical structure sitting on property that has been subject to extensive environmental remediation due to past heavy-industrial use. The building itself has been altered over time, suffered damage from a fire last year, and sits atop dirt that requires remediation.
Officials with Savarino Companies, with an extensive history of adaptive reuse projects including White’s Livery Apartments, Five Hundred Seneca, Cobblestone Lofts and McDermott Lofts, told a community meeting on Monday that due to the environmental issues on the site, the building cannot be repurposed.
The Savarino proposal includes a four-story building with 54 parking spaces – 43 on the garden-level of the building and an 11-space surface parking lot north of the building. Plans call for 55 one-bedroom and 11 two-bedroom units and both first floor and fourth floor amenity areas including an outdoor fourth floor patio area overlooking Scajaquada Creek. Elev8 Archicture is designing the project.
The well-located site is close to commercial, religious and recreational amenities including public trails and sports courts and is within walking distance of two grocery stores, the Elmwood Arts District, and Buffalo State College.
Savarino has submitted for City entitlements including required trips to the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board, both expected in May.