Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Developer Douglas Jemal is seeking to preserve and revive the Civil War-era Italianate home at 204 High St., also known as the Meidenbauer House. (Mark Mulville/Buffalo News)
Developer Douglas Jemal is preparing to start the cleanup and removal of debris from a collapsed garage at the two-story Meidenbauer House in the Fruit Belt, as he proceeds with plans to save, renovate and revive the 150-year-old structure.
Jemal, who stepped into a void earlier this year after the latest effort to save the house was doomed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, plans to stabilize the structure before seeking input from the community on a future reuse. He is seeking permission from the Buffalo Preservation Board this week to start the initial work.
The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week.
The Meidenbauer House is a 5,400-square-foot combination of two Italianate brick houses, located at 204 High St. and 291 Maple St., that date back to 1870. The endangered 19th-century structure, which is a local landmark and part of the High Street Historic District, was originally built by a German malting family when the Fruit Belt neighborhood was home to breweries.
The city took ownership in 2005 and issued four requests-for-proposals to rescue and redevelop the property since then. But developers, preservationists and neighbors have disagreed about what to do.
The Fruit Belt Community Development Corp., an affiliate of St. John Baptist Church, sought to tear down the building for a parking lot next to a planned grocery store, but that plan was derailed by local opposition.
Most recently, Dr. Greg Daniel's Kanaka Partners was named designated developer in 2020, with plans for affordable housing for employees of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. But the project was delayed, and then Daniel pulled out after his option expired last fall.
The former Buffalo Police Headquarters at 74 Franklin St.
Separately, Jemal's Douglas Development Corp. is also asking for Preservation Board approval to add the words "Police Apartments" in two lines of aluminum signage to a new steel canopy in front of the former Buffalo Police Headquarters building at 74 Franklin St., which Jemal converted into 114 apartments.
Also pending before the Preservation Board when it meets this week:
Some of the original car dealership showroom facade hidden by a wall at what was the old Record Theatre on Main Street.
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
I've been a business reporter at The Buffalo News since 2004, now covering residential and commercial real estate and development amid WNY's resurgence. I'm an upstate native, proud to call Buffalo my home, and committed to covering it thoroughly.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
The developer who has an array of projects in Buffalo wants to add the endangered 19th-century brick structure to his list of properties to rescue, and the city – which brought him to look at the site – is happy to oblige.
The Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture has offered to buy the city-owned Meidenbauer House for a symbolic $1.
Uncertainty looms among several of the 134 structures in the city – theaters, industrial buildings, houses, neighborhood bars and schools – that have local historic status.
Dr. Greg Daniel's Kanaka Partners has been named the designated developer of one of the oldest structures in the Fruit Belt neighborhood.
This is a plea for anyone — developer, preservationist, prospective homeowner — to save the Meidenbauer House, one of the historic structures in Buffalo’s Fruit Belt. Built in 1865, the Meidenbauer House is part of the neighborhood fabric. The Fruit Belt is feeling both the advantages and disadvantages of abutting the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, which is fast turning
Completed and fully opened in early November, the four-story art deco structure at the corner of Franklin and Church streets is now home to 114 residential units.
“As soon as everything is cleaned up and ready to go, we’re starting,” he said, estimating the project would be completed within 15 months of beginning the
The Florida Street Duplexes, St. Paul’s Catholic Church Complex, the Visco Meter Factory and Buerk Tool Factory building. and the Levi J. and Frances A. Pierce House in Forestville have all been nominated.
The development team originally planned to renovate the buildings into an entirely commercial project, but switched gears to market-rate, then affordable housing after Covid-19 struck.
The redevelopment group that is buying the former Record Theatre complex has signed four retailers as the first tenants for space in the new $6 million mixed-use project. GObike Buffalo and Reddy Bikeshare, Gutter Pop Comics, a new record shop and Fry Baby Donut Co. will occupy more than half of the available commercial space, helping to reactivate the
Kerry Traynor of KTA Preservation Specialists is asking to expand the Genesee Gateway Historic District boundaries to cover another 16 properties on three streets.
Developer Douglas Jemal is seeking to preserve and revive the Civil War-era Italianate home at 204 High St., also known as the Meidenbauer House. (Mark Mulville/Buffalo News)
The former Buffalo Police Headquarters at 74 Franklin St.
Some of the original car dealership showroom facade hidden by a wall at what was the old Record Theatre on Main Street.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.