James Fink
Over the objections of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County Industrial Development Agency board of directors has approved an amended incentive package that will help finance the restoration of an historic structure in Buffalo.
Poloncarz was the lone vote against amending an already-approved inducement package for the developers of the 100 S. Elmwood building, a nearly century-old building that was brought back to life by local businessmen Anthony Baynes and Kent Frey. The pair invested $5.47 million to renovate the vacant, early-1900s building on South Elmwood Avenue, just behind Buffalo City Hall.
The package was approved by a 13-1 count by the directors during their Jan. 9 meeting.
The building is anchored by 26 market-rate apartments and will also house 10,000-square-foot of commercial space on its first floor.
The project qualified under the ECIDA’s adaptive re-use policy and, with the new abatement package, the developers will save $217,000 in sales taxes and another $50,000 in mortgage-recording taxes. The ECIDA first approved incentives for the project in November 2010.
Poloncarz said he objected to the abatement package because the building is targeting upper-income residents.
“I don’t believe this is the type of project we should be involved with,” Poloncarz said. “The benefit (tax breaks) are really just to its owners.”
Karen Fiala, ECIDA manager of tax-incentive programs, said the project was originally pegged at $3 million but the extensive renovation work coupled with meeting state historic preservation standards forced the costs to nearly double.
“The building was in worse shape than originally thought,” she said. “Their construction costs just about doubled.”
Poloncarz said he is not comfortable with that explanation.
“It makes me wonder if their business plan was accurate to begin with,” he said.
After the meeting, Poloncarz said he will look at each adaptive re-use and residential project on a “project-by-project situation.”
“This is not a low-income tenant project,” Poloncarz said. “There are members of the Buffalo Sabres living there. I’m not going to sit here today and say I’m against all residential projects and they are persona non grata.”
At the same time, Poloncarz did praise the ECIDA putting together an incentive package that will help the English Pork Pie Co. remain in Buffalo after considering an offer to move its operations to Youngstown, Ohio.
The company has agreed to move into a 37,000-square-foot building on the former Republic Steel property along South Park Avenue. The ECIDA incentives amount to approximately $7,000 on a $1.2 million project that could serve as an anchor of a future English Village development at the site.
The ECIDA incentives were unanimously approved.
“This is exactly the type of project we should be doing,” Poloncarz said.
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2012/01/09/ecida-oks-tax-breaks-for.html