For more than 20 years, the sprawling AM&A’s department store building has been a derelict hulk in the center of downtown Buffalo, a sign of retail days gone by and repeated failures to redevelop it.
Most recently, the vacant complex has been languishing as the centerpiece of a bitter court fight, as two rival groups of Chinese investors from Queens battle for ownership.
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In the meantime, its tax debt on the property is approaching $250,000, and somebody – whoever owns the building – owes the city for hundreds of thousands of dollars in stabilization repairs to the underground utility vault under Washington Street that shut down that thoroughfare for more than a year.
Now, local business and political leaders say they’ve had enough.
They’re calling for the city to seize the building through eminent domain or a tax foreclosure in hopes that it could finally kick-start a renewed effort to redevelop the property.
“It’s a huge blight on downtown,” said Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski, who is running unopposed for a redrawn district that will encompass part of downtown Buffalo, including AM&A’s.
“The AM&A’s building is a large footprint,” he said. “If we’re going to get downtown activated and dense, we need to have housing, and I don’t know why we sit around and allow this building to just be a blight on our community for decades.”
Major downtown developers and…
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