EDITORIALS
Focus on the Statler
Troubled landmark hotel project must not become festering wound
Here’s exactly what Buffalo doesn’t need: A major unused building in the heart of downtown. If the future of the Statler Towers can’t be settled in a way that keeps the landmark former hotel from becoming another relic of the past like the former AM&A’s complex, Mayor Byron W. Brown’s administration will have to act decisively to halt any decay and find a good reuse project. Buffalo can’t afford another AM&A’s.
While optimists remain convinced that someone will eventually purchase the Statler—and that that someone will have the millions of dollars it will take to rehabilitate the structure—the rest of us are nervous. Friday, State Supreme Court Justice John M. Curran held an emergency court session to persuade utility companies to keep power and heat hooked up for the building’s tenants. Monday, a group of creditors moved to force involuntary bankruptcy proceedings.
Now under the control of a court-appointed receiver, the building is entangled in the legal system because of major debt, with monthly revenues of $105,000 and a current stack of bills totaling $986,000.
British owner Bashar Issa, who swept into town in 2006 with talk of a $100 million rehabilitation, apparently has bitten off more than he could chew. He stopped all work last April because of cash flow problems, and his tentative agreement last fall with a regional investment group to sell the building for $3.5 million did not materialize.
The situation has become a family affair with Issa’s father, Mohmoud al Issa, holding a $4.5 million mortgage on his son’s property. The elder Issa reportedly is considering foreclosure for nonpayment. City officials have had several meetings with Bashar Issa’s representative—his sister— and were told of plans to consolidate a few floors and get a handle on energy costs. Meanwhile, city inspectors have cited the building for exterior issues.
This is a critically important building. Like the AM&A’s project, it is centrally located, in this case sharing the city’s central square with iconic buildings including City Hall and a stunningly designed new federal courthouse now taking shape. Unlike the AM&A’s complex, the Statler cannot be allowed to become a lingering symbol of urban decay.
One developer has indicated it could take major public investment to save the building. The Statler, built in 1923 by Ellsworth Statler as a flagship hotel of more than 1,000 rooms, is a landmark steeped in history and could be worth some such investment. This city remains poor—but it can at the very least push aggressively for rehabilitation and aggressively use building codes to make sure the Statler is not merely allowed to deteriorate.
Some see the potential of the Statler neighborhood for rebirth. Local businessman and restaurateur Mark Croce has acquired the former Continental Club and a parking lot on Franklin Street downtown, and plans a 65-room upscale hotel and restaurant that will include the historic Curtiss building next door. While plans are still in the early stages, Croce’s idea of an “urban boutique” hotel sounds promising.
Croce has built an entrepreneurial reputation. The neighborhood, now, is a study in opposites—a landmark building purchased by an overseas investor whose project is falling into disarray, and a homegrown businessman who spent years building his portfolio before taking another step. Both of these projects are important to downtown—but it’s the Statler that needs attention now, before its future darkens even more.
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