180 West Utica Street

Both the houses were purchased by Kaleida from private owners in 2007/08 to expand parking on W. Utica for their proposed WCH Hodge Avenue clinic, ultimately never built. They were successful in grabbing 5 properties on this street by offering 2x market value, and in the case of 184, almost 3x ($150K vs. $65K). During the 3 years they held them, they exhibited reasonably attentive stewardship, partly because they had their roving security patrols and outward-facing RampCam. Our organization and others adamantly opposed these demos and were ultimately successful. In 2010/11 Kaleida decided to migrate WCH to the expanding Medical Corridor and sold all their residential properties on Hodge and W. Utica to Dan Saunders of Buffalo Land Holding (BLH) for cents on the dollar. The understanding was that BLH would rehab the properties and either lease them himself as investments, or sell. Dan did that with half; the other half, including 180 and 184, received no attention. His oft-stated plan for 184 was to eventually rehab and sell to his daughter and family, who was at that point in the military. Didn't happen. During this period, the intrusions and vandalism at 184 began. We would call Dan, we would call the police, we did whatever we could to keep the lid on. In Nov 2014, Dan sold the untouched properties - 2 on Hodge and 180/184 on W. Utica -- as a package to Nick Sinatra and Philip Nanula (Essex Homes) for about $500K.

Sinatra was in the middle of major acquisitions on W. Utica at that time, including 4 properties from Mike Hananel's California-based Horizon group, and somewhat later, the Cadet property. We learned in Jan 2016 that his interest in 180/184 was to tear them down for townhomes (similar to the current project) as part of his proposal for WCH re-purposing. I met with Sinatra and his counsel at the time, Peter Savage, to discuss the issue, and it was agreed that there would be no demos if his project were chosen by Kaleida; "it made no sense to tear houses down to build others." When he was not granted the project, he put 180/184 on the market the following spring for $189,900 each. Despite the ridiculously high ask (he had convinced the City to reduce the appraisal of 180 to $10K, and 184 to $58K), I witnessed some serious interest when I visited the first open house. But according to the RE agent later, despite offers, Nick would not deal. Shortly after, Ciminelli was off the WCH project, Sinatra/Ellicott was offered the opportunity, and the sales signs came down. At the first meeting of the Project Advisory Committee when plans for Elmwood Crossing were revealed, the houses were again gone. I protested, recalling the earlier agreement. The response was "circumstances have changed."

It was at that time the stewardship of the properties really deteriorated. The squatting increased and oversight slackened. For example, when 184 was tagged during the Greek Festival last summer, two requests to have them cleaned were ignored. The City finally acted and slapped liens on the property. Two break-ins a few months later went un-addressed, so a neighbor and I did the re-boarding. There was a continuing pattern of indifference and classic "demolition by neglect." To now hear the developers tell the Boards that the properties are in bad shape is to recall the old chestnut about the kid who kills his parents and then begs mercy from the court as an orphan.

The developers have known from the beginning that we liked the townhome project but opposed demolitions, and we've tried to talk them into revising, without effect. In the end, we felt our only hope was to gain favor with the Planning and Preservation Boards when the townhome project was reviewed. No one I ever spoke to or worked with suggested that 184, regardless of how much we admired that house, might be worthy of landmark status. It was not until the Preservation Board application from the developers last month was reviewed by the Campaign that it became clear to people more knowledgeable than our membership that it needed investigation, and that was quickly undertaken, encouraged by the Preservation Board itself. In that respect, this was indeed a last-minute action, but the underlying opposition was always there. I sit on the Project Advisory Committee; I meet with and e-mail my fellow block club leaders and the developers and their staffs regularly. Opposition was no secret and widely supported by our membership. I take full responsibility for the lost opportunities that a better knowledge of architecture would have made possible early on. But none of us here will ever accept blame for the behavior of Kaleida, Saunders, and Sinatra over the past decade and the state in which we now find these properties!