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Dunkirk Local Development Corp. has sold the property at 401-403 Central Ave., Dunkirk.
A former bank building at 401-03 Central Ave. in Dunkirk was sold this week for redevelopment.
The Dunkirk Local Development Corp. closed on a sale with Peak Development Partners, according to Paula Blanchard, the Hanna Real Estate agent who brokered the sale. The company received money from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) in Dunkirk for redeveloping the building.
Lee Crewson, Peak Development Partners’ president, said the plans for commercial lease space on the first floor and residential areas on the second floor have not changed since the DRI process.
“All that really happened this week is we officially acquired the building. It was always part of the plan,” he said.
“We have started the basic repairs on the building and we anticipate construction moving forward in the near future,” Crewson said. “Up to this point, the work we’ve done on the building has just been to stabilize it from the weather.”
“We’re very excited to be in the Dunkirk marketplace,” he added. “We think there’s a lot of positive things happening in the area and we’re excited about this project. The city officials have been the best to work with. It was a distressed property and the transition wasn’t easy.”
Vince DeJoy, DLDC director, said the sale price was $95,000. He added that Peak Development may be working with the city on other properties in the area.
“They were looking for an opportunity. We had an intense interest in seeing (the bank building) renovated,” DeJoy said. “As we develop these other buildings we hope there will be some synergy, some vibrancy. …One building at a time, we’re trying to get some activity back into downtown, breathe some new life.”
DeJoy continued, “We’re grateful we have a good developer here that understands how to take one of these old buildings and do one of these adaptive reuse projects that are kind of complicated. They have a lot of experience and I’m confident we’ll see a good project when it’s completed.”
