Three months ago, Western New York AmeriCorps workers pitched in to help finish the

reconstruction of Delores Powell's dilapidated Massachusetts Avenue home for "Extreme

Makeover: Home Edition."

Now the volunteer service organization wants to put some financial muscle behind another

Buffalo structure in dire need: Statler Towers.

WNY AmeriCorps said Monday it will try to close the purchase of the downtown landmark that

private investors began last fall but failed to complete, leading a bankruptcy judge to order

the Statler mothballed in January.

The investment group, New Buffalo Statler Redevelopment LLC, "has assigned its purchase

rights" to SOS: Save Our Statler, a new entity backed by WNY AmeriCorps that would act as

short-term caretaker for the building and as "conduit for preservation and redevelopment

efforts," said Mark P. Lazzara, the agency's chief executive officer.

William Koessler, a principal in the investment group, confirmed that it gave purchase

rights to the nonprofit agency.

Lazzara said WNY AmeriCorps has received "tentative commitments" for $400,000 of the

$800,000 that New Buffalo Statler Redevelopment needed to meet its proposed $1.3 million

purchase price but was unable to raise.

Federal bankruptcy trustee Morris Horwitz, under court order, began shutting down the

Niagara Square property in early January after the investment group stopped paying the 18-

story building's operating expenses.

WNY AmeriCorps said SOS: Save Our Statler expects to start a community fund to complete the

purchase and to engage "other community partners" to help preserve the towers "until such time

as a long-term plan is developed."

The group "plans to be involved for 12 to 24 months and is acting solely as a caretaker,"

Lazzara said. Its involvement will be subject to approval by the bankruptcy court and Horwitz,

he added.