By Ray Dombrowski
BUFFALO — The man who burned down the Old Pink will spend five years in federal prison. The two Allen Street lots that fires left behind are still empty, and the developer who bought them hasn’t filed plans.
John W. Burns, 42, of Buffalo, was sentenced Tuesday to 60 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced. He was convicted of arson of a building used in interstate commerce for the June 17, 2024 fire that destroyed the bar at 223 Allen St.
The sentence closes the criminal case. It doesn’t settle what replaces one of Allentown’s best-known buildings, or the Mulligan’s Brick Bar building two doors down, which burned seven months later.
The sentence
Five years was the agreed-upon term, WGRZ reported. Mr. Burns pleaded guilty in July to a charge that carries a five-year mandatory minimum and a possible $250,000 fine, according to federal prosecutors.
Judge Arcara also ordered three years of supervised release and $708,519 in restitution, WKBW reported. The station reported that 23 letters were submitted on Mr. Burns’ behalf.
Those letters “painted a totally different picture” of Mr. Burns than the case did, Judge Arcara said in court, according to WGRZ. Prosecutors called him “spiteful,” the station reported.
Mr. Burns apologized before he was sentenced.
“I would like to express my deepest apologies to the community of Buffalo for setting the fire that destroyed the Pink. It’s a place of community enjoyed by many including myself that cannot be replaced and that fact eats at my soul every day,” he said, according to WGRZ.
His mother wrote that he was a “productive member of society” when sober and asked that he be sent to FMC Devens, the federal medical prison in Massachusetts, WGRZ reported. Neither the family nor the bar’s owners commented to the station after the hearing.
What prosecutors say happened that night
The government’s account comes from the sentencing release and the criminal complaint sworn Sept. 5, 2024, by ATF Special Agent Robert Grunder before U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. The complaint charged Mr. Burns under 18 U.S.C. § 844(i), the federal arson statute that covers buildings used in interstate commerce.
According to the release, Mr. Burns was at the Old Pink earlier that night. A man formerly contracted to work security there told investigators he confronted Mr. Burns after a woman complained that Mr. Burns had touched her inappropriately. Mr. Burns was asked to leave and refused, and a fight followed, prosecutors said.
The complaint says the bouncer slapped Mr. Burns, knocking him over. Prosecutors say Mr. Burns then said, “I’ll be back (expletive), I’ll burn that (expletive) down, ain’t nobody going to have a job.”
Video from behind the building showed a person carrying two white garbage bags to the back of the bar and looking through the garbage totes, the release says. That person was wearing a dark jacket with an emblem on the left arm and green and white sneakers, and couldn’t be identified from the footage alone.
According to the complaint, the person walked away from the area at 5:21:35 a.m., and fire was visible about 20 seconds later. The 911 call came at about 5:32 a.m., and Buffalo firefighters arrived about four minutes after that. By then the building was engulfed. The Buffalo Fire Marshal’s Office later determined the fire had been set deliberately.
Investigators found a blue propane plumber’s torch behind the building. The complaint says DNA recovered from the torch wasn’t enough for a comparison. The affiant wrote that he believed Mr. Burns planned the fire about two hours before he set it.
The texts
The case was built largely on identification and on Mr. Burns’ own messages.
The owner of the Essex St. Pub at 530 Rhode Island St., who had once employed Mr. Burns, identified him on the Old Pink’s security video as the man in the fight, prosecutors said. Two of Mr. Burns’ associates identified him as the man walking away from the bar shortly after the fire started.
One of those associates gave investigators texts he got from Mr. Burns that morning. After describing what appeared to be the fight, Mr. Burns wrote “Guerrilla mode on” and “Guerrilla BuffL9 is a go,” according to the release.
“Bail me out if I don’t call you at noon. Therz a fund,” he wrote.
At 5:57 a.m., the associate answered that he was trying to sleep and asked what was going on.
“Nothing. Made my bed. Gonna defend it to the death at this point,” Mr. Burns replied, according to prosecutors.
He followed with “Call or signal. Text bad,” then “Whatever they probably a footage” and “Really though I can’t just say all the things that will later be investigated here.”
A second fire
Two months later, prosecutors said, there was another fire.
At 6:03 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2024, Mr. Burns was seen on video carrying a pile of books to the rear parking lot of the Essex St. Pub, setting them on fire near the owner’s personal vehicle and leaving, according to the release. Firefighters put it out quickly.
The pub’s owner told fire investigators he had gotten a text the night before saying Mr. Burns had been denied entry to the pub for disruptive behavior, prosecutors said.
Mr. Burns was arrested less than three months after the Old Pink fire and went to rehab, WKBW reported. He was sent back to custody in May 2025 after allegedly removing his ankle monitor, the station reported.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard P. Antoine. The ATF, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, the Buffalo Fire Department and the Buffalo Police Department investigated.
What was lost
The Old Pink was more than a late-night bar. A bar has stood on the site since at least 1898, and the building dated to the mid-1860s, according to the Buffalo History Museum, as cited by WKBW. The two-and-a-half-story house was a contributing building in the Allentown Historic District.
Molly Brinkworth owned it for 33 years. Three days after the fire, she told WKBW what it felt like.
“What could you do? It’s like a death. You can’t take it back,” Ms. Brinkworth said.
“My father and uncle bought it in 1969 and brought in the steak sandwich,” she said. “At the end of the day it’s my customers, they made my bar a family and we became this subculture of craziness.”
Asked then whether she would rebuild, she said, “I still haven’t decided. We have a lot to process.”
She didn’t rebuild. In January 2025, fire also destroyed Mulligan’s Brick Bar at 229 Allen St., leaving two vacant lots on a single block of Allen Street.
Who owns the lots now
Roche Development bought both properties in August 2025. The Old Pink site sold for about $200,000 and the Mulligan’s site for about $180,000, WKBW reported. The City of Buffalo owns the lot between them.
The city welcomed the sale. “We are encouraged to see these sites are under new ownership and look forward to working with Mr. Roche on his redevelopment plans, including the potential incorporation of the city-owned lot…,” then-Mayor Christopher P. Scanlon’s office said in a statement to WKBW.
Kyle Roche was careful about timing. “The bottom line is we haven’t made a decision yet,” he told WGRZ’s Dave McKinley that month.
He was firm about one thing. “For one thing, we’re not going to leave those lots empty,” Mr. Roche said.
William Roche said a new building wouldn’t be boxed in by what was there before. “When it comes to a new build the slate is clean. The sky is the limit really,” he told WGRZ.
What the neighborhood wants
Common Council Member Mitch Nowakowski told WGRZ he wants housing on the block.
“What I would like to see is a development involving density of people. So, apartments and then ultimately storefronts that are built to the street with a design that’s up to the preservation standards, since Allentown is an historic district,” Mr. Nowakowski said.
Because the block sits in a local historic district, a new building there would need review by the city’s Preservation Board.
In January, WBEN’s Jim Fink reported that Roche had paid $380,000 for the two sites and that no plans had been filed. Mr. Nowakowski told the station, “Kyle has a big stake in that block.”
Jonathan White of the Allentown Association told WBEN that the street still feels the losses.
“It is hard to believe that the Pink and Brick Bar aren’t there anymore… One year later, we are still feeling that loss,” Mr. White said. “The last thing we need is empty lots on Allen Street.”
Asked what a new project would mean, he said, “It will mean a lot.”
Where the project stands
Roche Development’s website lists “223–231 Allen Street” as a mixed-use project that is “currently in the planning phase,” with a status of “In Development.” The firm hasn’t posted renderings, a unit count or a timeline.
The company already has a stake across the street. Its site lists the Marlborough Apartments at 214 Allen St., eight units under renovation, and a renovated building at 162 Allen.
The block is also changing in other ways. On Tuesday, the Common Council received a proposal to make Nietzsche’s at 248 Allen St. a local landmark.
Any Allen Street plan would have to be filed with the city, and preservation review would come before construction. As of Tuesday, no application for the Old Pink or Mulligan’s sites had been reported.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked Roche Development about its plans and timing, and has asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the restitution breakdown. Responses will be added here.
Documents
- U.S. Attorney’s Office sentencing release, Oct. 27, 2026
- U.S. Attorney’s Office plea release, July 2026
- Criminal complaint, U.S. v. Burns, 24-MJ-95 (W.D.N.Y.), Sept. 5, 2024
- Roche Development project listings
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