Brown wants to sell police station at key Theater District intersection

A source inside the administration of Byron W. Brown is telling The Chronicle that — if federal stimulus funding for state and municipal governments isn’t made available before the end of the year — that he intends to market the Buffalo Police Department’s B-district station for sale.

That station is located at a key intersection in the City’s blossoming Theater District and the development community sees a great deal of potential for high-density residential housing, located within walking distance to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and to two Metrorail stations.

Most of the parcel is currently used as a parking lot, but those police vehicles could easily be relocated to other city owned parking lots, and police headquarters is located barely three blocks away.

In a fair market transaction, it’s thought that the building could sell for between $1.5 and $2 million. As an interim use, it’s thought that the structure could be easily repurposed to storefronts along Main Street with second floor office space.

The site is located three blocks from the entrance of the Kensington Expressway, which is seen as the gateway to downtown Buffalo relative to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and it’s located just one block from Ellicott Development‘s $70 million Aloft Hotel.

“It’s imperative that we get as much real estate in the City back on the property tax rolls as we possibly can,” the mayoral advisor tells The Chronicle. “Parcels like these are obvious opportunities.”

Mayor Byron Brown is considering sweeping privatization plans to fill the nearly $100 million budget deficit that the City expects as a result of the COVID-19 related shutdown. Revenues are expected to rebound next year, but the City has already been marred in debt of recent years.

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