Former hotel is now a 6-condo complex
Tenants at Whitney could pay $149,000
A downtown Buffalo building that was built as a hotel for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition is starting life over as condominiums.
The Whitney, located at 65 Whitney Place between West Chippewa Avenue and Carolina Street, has been made over as an affordable, six-unit condo development. Condominiums in the 110-year-old, three-story building rang in price from $129,000 to $149,000.
“We went into this project adamant about keeping the prices below $150,000,” said co-developer Sal Zambito. “There aren’t any other new projects at this end of the market and we’re getting a great response. Not everybody who wants to live downtown has a half-million dollars to spend.”
While there are currently more than 400 condominium and townhouse units either proposed or under development in downtown Buffalo, primarily on the waterfront, none of those projects has a single unit priced at less than $300,000, with price tags soaring to over $1 million for the most luxurious residences.
The Whitney saw its first open house last weekend and the developers expect all the units to be sold by the end of the year.
Zambito had been eyeing the faded Whitney for almost a decade, and had attempted to buy it through a tax foreclosure auction, prior to purchasing it in May 2007, with business partner Tim Sick.
“It’s a beautiful little building in a great downtown neighborhood that was ripe for renovation. We’re really excited about how it’s turned out,” Zambito said.
Sick and Zambito bought the vacant structure through their business, Sunset Bay Park, and have invested some $780,000 to convert it from a dozen apartments to six, 1,093- square-foot condo units.
All of the condos have two bedrooms, one bathroom, exposed brick walls, high ceilings and air conditioning. Five of the six units are priced at $129,000. The sixth condo, priced at $149,000, is outfitted with bamboo floors, stainless steel countertops and upgraded appliances and fixtures.
All of the units come with a parking slot in a private parking lot directly behind the building at 239 Carolina St.
Buffalo real estate executive Carole Holcberg, of Holcberg Ltd., said Zambito and Sick have tapped the right niche in the downtown housing market.
“There’s such strong demand for condos between $100,000 and $200,000 in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods because there are so few of them,” Holcberg said.
She also said the location, in the city’s historic West Village neighborhood, is prime spot for new housing.
“The block of Whitney is particularly nice. Almost every building has been rehabbed and it looks great,” Holcberg added.
Built in 1898, The Whitney was one of several buildings constructed to house Pan-Am Expo guests. One of its nearby contemporaries, the badly deteriorated Greystone Hotel, at 24 Johnson Park, is slated for conversion to apartments.
Developer Carl P. Paladino, who started and stopped a rehabilitation project in 2003, will make a second attempt next spring. Paladino, whose crews are currently removing years worth of garbage from the derelict structure, plans to create 30 upscale apartments.
Zambito and Sick, who have purchased and overhauled several houses and small apartment buildings in Buffalo, are already considering their next condo project. They are evaluating a multi-unit apartment building on Richmond Street, near Symphony Circle, as a condo candidate.
