Court ruling puts city closer to taking embattled Cobblestone District properties

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, on a vote of 4 to 1, denied Darryl Carr and Park Avenue Estates’ request to overturn the Common Council’s rarely taken March 7 decision to seize 110 and 118 South Park Ave. The ruling said the city was within its right in deciding to pursue eminent domain in order to prevent further deterioration of the properties and to enable development.

“This is a huge victory for the Cobblestone Historic District,” Fillmore Council Member Mitchell Nowakowski said. “Oftentimes in preservation, you are dealing with a lot of losses, but today is a victory, even though we are not out of the woods yet.”

The Brown administration, whose attorney Michael Perley successfully argued the case in court, was encouraged by the court’s decision.

“We always viewed these as important buildings to preserve, and it finally came to the point where we needed to pursue eminent domain in order to preserve this building,” said Brendan Mehaffy, executive director of the Office of Strategic Planning. “This was a good first ruling for the City of Buffalo.”

Carr said the decision will be appealed.

He purchased the 1869 building at 118 South Park Ave. in 2003 and the 1852 building at 110 South Park Ave. in 2008. He has long sought to demolish the two buildings to make way for a development project centered on a skyscraper on the property, while retaining some of the original façade. 

“We are reviewing the court’s decision with our legal team, and are encouraged by the reasoning of the dissent, which concluded that the City of Buffalo’s proceedings were not in compliance with the law,” Carr said.

“We are confident that, upon review, New York’s highest court will agree with the dissent and will annul the city’s attempted taking to protect the rights of all New…