Darryl Carr’s buildings in the Cobblestone District are still crumbling but has been talking about big plans for the site for years. In Monday’s The Buffalo News, Carr repeated his case for demolition of the buildings, retaining the facades along South Park Avenue, and constructing a 55-story building on the site.
Carr said he has a plan to integrate most of the property into his Unity Tower at Cobblestone Place project. The futuristic design calls for a mix of condos, hotel suites, shops, a rooftop winter garden and panoramic restaurant, along with an addition to the Cobblestone Bar & Grill, all powered by wind-driven turbines, geothermal and solar energy.
“I understand where all the preservationists are coming from, and I never wanted to demolish all the buildings,” Carr said. “But when I bought the buildings, I knew the center buildings needed to come down and the two buildings I could save were on South Park to incorporate into this project.”
Carr said he could revise his plan to stabilize the building if Housing Court forces him to, but hopes the judge won’t. He plans to propose the Unity Tower project to the Buffalo Planning Board in September.
A 2016 plan for his “Unity Tower” has popped up on the internet. The building was designed by Toronto-based LOH Architects & Associates Inc. While attractive, it is out-of-scale for its neighborhood and has as much chance of happening as Issa’s 40-story City Tower proposed for S. Elmwood Avenue and W. Mohawk Street in 2006.