The Statler Towers is scheduled to be sold Monday, potentially putting the mothballed downtown landmark on a path to revival.

But Statler admirers have been down this road before. Plans have been floated, only to sink in the face of daunting renovation costs.

A partnership between local businessmen Mark D. Croce and James J. Eagan has put in an offer worth about $700,000, including outstanding taxes.

Another bidder, a California investor who has not been identified, might also be in the running, after putting in a last-minute offer.

But few details have been released by either bidder about what they might do with the building.

Prospects for the 18-story landmark towering over Niagara Square dimmed in January, when the property was mothballed. Yet even after it was shuttered, the city continued to receive inquiries about the building, said Brendan Mehaffy, executive director of the city's Office of Strategic Planning.

"It hasn't been abandoned as far as interest is concerned," Mehaffy said.

James Militello of J.R. Militello Realty said he was not surprised to see continued interest, even after the Statler was dormant for months.

"Buffalo is still a major city," he said. "There is still a lot of commerce here. There is still a lot of investment."

But what niche might the Statler's buyers find in the downtown market? Could the property be revived with a mixed-use format?

Although there is no particular "void" in the marketplace at the moment, Militello said, one scenario for the buyer could be to concentrate on reviving the first two floors, which include the ballrooms, and then gradually overhaul the rest of the 18-story property.

"You could renovate the building floor by floor," Militello said.

The court-appointed trustee and his attorney will conduct the sale Monday morning in the offices of the U.S. Trustee in the Olympic Towers. A sale hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court is scheduled to follow, where Judge Carl L. Bucki will have the final say.

The California investor, identified as My Dynasty Real Estate Investments LLC, submitted paperwork required by the bankruptcy court to participate in the sale, just as a deadline arrived.

But Garry Graber, an attorney representing trustee Morris Horwitz in the bankruptcy case, said he couldn't verify if a required $100,000 refundable deposit had also been submitted.

If My Dynasty is deemed eligible, it would create a competitive auction for the Statler.

If Croce and Eagan emerge as the buyers, the deal still will take some time to close. Under the sale agreement, the purchaser has a 60-day "due diligence" period to thoroughly review the property and would have the right to terminate the deal while recouping nearly all of its $100,000 deposit. The due diligence period is not set to begin until 15 days after the sale order is entered by the court, to allow time for appeals of the sale to be filed.

Croce has extensive downtown property holdings, including restaurants and parking lots. He is also working on converting the Curtiss Building at Franklin and West Huron streets into a boutique hotel.

Eagan is a partner and executive vice president of Midwood Financial Services. The firm provides and distributes financial products and services to more than 300 banks, regional brokerage firms and independent brokerage dealers. Both Croce and Eagan serve as Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority commissioners.

Less has been revealed about the possible competing bidder, My Dynasty.

Richard J. Sterben, a local broker working with My Dynasty, has said only that the person behind it is a real estate investor who envisions an $85 million to $100 million renovation of the Statler that would include offices, apartments and hotel rooms.

My Dynasty would agree to a shorter closing period, Sterben said, and the investor was reaching out to John Ferchill, a Cleveland-based developer who guided a $200 million revival of a Statler-like vacant hotel in Detroit now called the Westin Book Cadillac.

For now, the Statler is a massive, prominent, mothballed site, facing a winter of wear and tear. It is within view of City Hall, ringed by fencing with whitewashed plywood on the exterior of its first floor.

"It can't stay the way it is," said Andrew Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. "It's a huge, vacant property in a strategic location, even before the [neighboring] federal courthouse is finished and occupied.

"At the same time, I don't know if the public cost that's inevitably part of its redevelopment is something we can afford," Rudnick said. "At some point, does the community have a serious discussion about the cost of reuse versus the competitiveness of a vacant site?"

"The Aud when it was standing was a barrier to development. The vacant Aud site was an incentive for development. We may have to come to that same thinking about the Statler, just given what everyone believes is a minimum of $100 million of subsidy that would have to go into it, at a tough time for any subsidies."

The sale Monday represents the latest turn in a long saga for the Statler. The most recent chapter of the story began in April 2009, when the company that operated the property, Bashar Issa's BSC Development of Buffalo, was forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy over his objections. The Statler was auctioned in August 2009, but the high bidder, New Buffalo Statler Redevelopment, failed to complete the $1.3 million purchase.

mglynn@buffnews.comnull