Williamsville Water Mill on a roll
State grants, resolved liens pave way to ‘village square’
What a difference a month makes. Early last month, the 1811 Williamsville Water Mill was stymied by red tape and cut off from state grants. Some village trustees thought the village might even be forced to foreclose on the mill in order to get rid of bad debt tied to the historic property.
Now, all liens against the mill have been resolved, more than $250,000 in state grant money is starting to pour in, crucial repairs have been approved, and the village is preparing to hire an architect to move forward on the new “village square” concept for the old mill parcel.
The village also will be asking for assistance within the next month or so from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency and possibly the Erie County IDA.
If all goes well, the village could have a village square design approved and a developer on board to begin construction by next summer, said Trustee Jeffrey Kingsley, head of the Mill Restoration Committee.
“I’m very hopeful that we can move forward with this very quickly,” he said. “It is on an expedited track.”
The village resolved an outstanding lien against the mill with the cooperation of Chase Bank, the lien holder. This gave the village clean title to the parcel after two years of try-
ing to extinguish a string of outstanding judgments against the property.
That, coupled with a commitment by the Village Board to accept a consultant’s recommendation to redevelop the property as a village square, reassured the state Historic Preservation Office.
The state agency agreed to release $150,000 in grant money for the mill’s acquisition and will make another $100,000 in grants available for the mill’s restoration and reuse, Kingsley said.
“All of this is now open to us because we’ve come up with the concept,” he said. “We’ve come up with a blueprint for the mill.”
Monday, the Village Board voted unanimously to hire CRA Engineering for $6,500 to figure out how to repair the cracked and exposed rear foundation wall of the mill.
Earlier in the month, the board voted, 4-1, to have the Preservation Studios consulting firm put together a request for an architect to offer broad design concepts and building specifications for the mill parcel.
That information then will be rolled into a final request for proposals from developers and other interested parties to transform the mill property into what village officials hope will be a thriving, historic and commercial success story, Kingsley said.
The engineering firm, Preservation Studios consultants, and architects would be paid largely out of grant money from the state Historic Preservation Office, other state grants and nearly $60,000 in community block grant money, Kingsley said.
Other IDA tax breaks and additional local and state funding also may be available, he said.
Kingsley said he has already been approached by several developers interested in finding out when the village will be issuing a request for proposals, which should be by the fall or early winter.
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