By Staff Reporter
LACKAWANNA — Lackawanna’s city offices have moved out of the orange building on stilts. What happens to the building, and to the police station and court left behind it, is turning into a far bigger and more expensive question than the city first described.
At its Oct. 5 meeting, the Lackawanna City Council tabled a $194,000 contract with CPL, the engineering firm that has worked on the project, to design and manage demolition of the 1960s City Hall extension at 714 Ridge Road. The 5-0 vote, on a motion by Council President Frederic J. Marrano, sent the item back “for more information,” according to the meeting minutes.
The delay is small. The numbers around it are not.
From $18.5 million to a second project
When the city broke ground on its new City Hall in October 2024, it described a three-part plan: build a new 20,000-square-foot City Hall at 2838 South Park Ave., tear down the extension, and restore the original 1909 building on Ridge Road as the home of the Lackawanna Police Department and City Court.
“Upon completion of all three phases, our new City Hall project will represent a total investment of approximately $18.5 million dollars – the largest city-led development project in Lackawanna’s 115 year history,” Mayor Annette Iafallo said in the city’s groundbreaking release. The release put the new building at about $15.25 million and the demolition and restoration at about $3.25 million. The city borrowed the first $9.1 million through short-term bond anticipation notes.
That second figure did not hold. In her State of the City address on March 18, Ms. Iafallo said the state Unified Court System was “now mandating more capital upgrades” to the 1909 building, far beyond the original scope, with a new estimate of $12 million to $15 million. A project that size would require a second bond, she said.
“One could argue that Lackawanna should simply push back against the Court’s demands,” she said in the address. She then cited Section 39 of the state Judiciary Law, which requires municipalities to provide “suitable and sufficient” court facilities and lets the courts withhold state aid from those that don’t. She pointed to Schenectady as a city facing that scenario.
Now, a $25 million idea
By late September the plan had shifted again. After a cost analysis, Ms. Iafallo told WBEN it may be cheaper to build a new police and court building, about 23,000 square feet and roughly $25 million, on a South Park Avenue parcel next to the new City Hall. She said she would bring a formal proposal to the council once she has a firm cost, possibly later this year or by early 2027, with the goal of opening by 2030.
“I don’t want to lose any state aid,” she told the station.
If the city builds new, she said, it would seek a developer for the 1909 building through a request for proposals. “I’d like to get it on the tax rolls,” Ms. Iafallo said.
Demolition of the extension is complicated by the fact that police and courts still work in the older building next door. Ms. Iafallo told WBEN a small piece of the extension may have to stay because it houses the heating and cooling system for the 1909 building. “Believe me, I’d love to get that building down as quickly as possible,” she said.
What the tabled contract shows
The CPL proposal, submitted through Senior Foreman of Public Works Dan Geercken, breaks down like this: $98,000 for design, $35,000 for construction administration and closeout, $30,000 for coordination with the State Historic Preservation Office, $24,000 for a project coordinator working six hours a week for 18 weeks, and $7,000 for bidding.
The historic-preservation line reflects that the extension is attached to the 1909 building, which opened when the state Legislature incorporated the city, according to the 2024 release. The minutes don’t say what more information the council wanted.
City offices began moving into the new City Hall in mid-September, WBEN reported. Ms. Iafallo told the station the old extension “was an eyesore,” and said heating was so poor that employees plugged in electric heaters, overloading circuits. “It was time to move out of there and come into the new building,” she said.
Questions for the council
Residents may want answers to several questions before the next vote: what the courts have formally required, in writing; how a $25 million building would be financed and what it would mean for the city tax rate; whether state lawmakers have offered help, as the mayor said the city was seeking in March; and whether the demolition can proceed on its own while the police and court decision is pending.
The council’s Oct. 19 minutes were not yet posted. The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the mayor’s office and the council for comment and will update this story.
Featured image: The City Hall extension and the 1909 municipal building on Ridge Road, photographed in 2019. Photo by Andre Carrotflower / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Leave a Reply