By Hannah Lindqvist
BUFFALO — A vacant corner lot at Swan and Chicago streets, just north of Chef’s restaurant, is slated for new apartments and affordable townhomes. Before anything is built, the developer is asking the state to supervise a cleanup of what lies beneath it.
Swan Chicago LLC has applied to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Brownfield Cleanup Program for the 0.39-acre site at 275, 279 and 281 Swan St. and 425 Chicago St. DEC published notice of the application and a draft investigation work plan in its Oct. 7 Environmental Notice Bulletin. The public has until Nov. 6 to comment.
The filings, posted in DEC’s online document repository under site number C915423, describe soil testing that turned up lead, mercury and coal-tar compounds at levels the developer’s own consultant called “hot spots.”
A developer coming home
The LLC’s principal is Alexander Burgos of Draghi Burgos Construction, a minority-owned contractor based on Hickory Street. The company bought the parcels for $120,000 in March, Buffalo Rising reported in April.
“This is a great opportunity to take a long-vacant site and put it back into productive use,” Burgos said in comments published by Buffalo Rising. “I grew up less than a block from this location, so it’s a project that carries personal significance for me. We’re focused on creating quality housing and approaching the site with a long-term perspective.”
The application describes a “mixed-use commercial/residential apartment building, affordable housing townhomes, off-street parking, and associated landscaping/greenspace.” It does not yet specify unit counts or the income levels the affordable townhomes would serve.
A century and a half of use
According to the application, storefronts and homes lined the parcels from at least 1881. Over the years they held a dentist, a dry goods store, a grocer, a drug store, a printer, a barber, a record shop and a church. The corner lot at 425 Chicago St. was the U.S. Express stables and later the Chicago St. Garage, from roughly 1926 to 1997. Gasoline tanks were buried there, including a 1,000-gallon tank installed in 1941.
The buildings came down between 1977 and 2002. The consultant’s records say the old basements were backfilled “with material from unknown sources.”
In 1997, DEC logged a spill on what it called the “Hernandez Lot.” Twelve drums and two 275-gallon oil tanks had been left on the vacant lot, and about 30 gallons of oil spilled. Roux’s Phase II report, citing a regulatory database, says 13.5 tons of oil-contaminated soil went to Lakeview Landfill.
But the only bill of lading given to DEC for the waste oil and hazardous waste covered four drums and was not signed by the disposal facility. The contractor was due to supply the remaining receipts the following week. The report found “no further indication regarding this matter,” and DEC closed the spill on Jan. 1, 1998.
What the test pits found
On Oct. 21, 2025, the environmental firm Roux dug 15 test pits, 4 to 8 feet deep. Its Phase II report describes fill more than 8 feet thick, laced with cinders, ash, coal, glass, metal and brick.
Crews also found two forgotten underground storage tanks. Workers noted petroleum odors, and a photoionization detector read 2,000 parts per million at one pit. DEC assigned the site a new spill number.
The lab results were more striking. Lead measured 20,000 milligrams per kilogram in one sample. That is 50 times the state’s 400 mg/kg cleanup objective for restricted-residential use, and about five times the industrial objective. Three other samples topped the 1,000 mg/kg commercial standard.
Mercury at one pit on 279 Swan St. reached 159 mg/kg. The application notes this is “well over 100 times” the industrial limit. “Based on the total mercury concentration at TP-10, mercury is likely to be at hazardous levels in this area, subject to further testing and laboratory analysis,” the application states. Arsenic, barium and cadmium also exceeded commercial or industrial objectives.
Total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, compounds associated with coal ash and combustion, reached 538 mg/kg at the same pit. Roux wrote that those concentrations “would constitute ‘hot spots’ requiring remediation if the Site were in the New York Brownfield Cleanup Program.” Of the metals, it reached the same conclusion: “These elevated metal concentrations would constitute ‘hot spots’ requiring remediation if the Site were in a regulatory program.”
The report also made clear that the tanks would have to be dealt with regardless. “Even if BCP is not pursued, spill No. 2506517 will be required to be properly addressed to the satisfaction of the NYSDEC,” Roux wrote.
Why the program matters
The developer was not required to enter the program, and doing so brings state oversight, public notice and comment periods. In exchange, it offers liability protection and, outside New York City, tax credits tied to cleanup costs. DEC says the program “is designed to encourage private-sector cleanups of brownfields and to promote their redevelopment as a means to revitalize economically blighted communities.”
The site falls entirely within a state-designated Environmental Zone and a Disadvantaged Community under New York’s climate law. Both designations can affect how credits are calculated and how closely the public watches.
The neighborhood has a stake. The application lists nearby schools and child care centers, including Buffalo Elementary School of Technology on South Division Street, Bennett Park Montessori, Kiddie Corner at Larkin and Puddle Jumpers. First Shiloh Baptist Church and a home on Pine Street are listed among the adjacent properties.
Questions still open
The application’s timeline calls for a remedial investigation report in January 2027, cleanup in spring 2027 and a certificate of completion by the end of 2027.
Several questions remain for the investigation and the comment period. How far does the mercury extend, and will it be managed as hazardous waste? What was buried with the basement fill? Where did the drums from 1997 ultimately go? And how many of the planned homes will be affordable, and to whom?
The Buffalo Chronicle is seeking comment from DEC and from Burgos and will update this story with any response.
Comments on the application may be sent by Nov. 6 to DEC project manager Patrick Diez, Division of Environmental Remediation, 700 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, NY 14209, at patrick.diez@dec.ny.gov or (716) 851-7202.
Photo: First Shiloh Baptist Church at Pine and Swan streets, listed as an adjacent property in the brownfield application. Andre Carrotflower / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
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