Iskalo Development Corp. has already put a lot of time, money and effort into its plan to redevelop the former Old Editions Book Shop, but now it is hedging its bets because of unfavorable economic conditions.
Just weeks after getting an extension on its city approvals to proceed with the redevelopment into the Bookstore Lofts, the Williamsville-based developer is putting the two buildings that it owns up for sale - complete with an approved project plan.
Iskalo put up a for-sale sign just over a week ago on the two properties at 68-76 E. Huron St., listing them for $4 million. The property includes 31,600 square feet of building space, in a two-story blond-brick building at 68 E. Huron and a four-story red-brick building at 76 E. Huron, on 0.6 acres of land in the Electric District.
Any deal would also include the fully-approved plans to expand the buildings to 44,150 square feet by adding two floors to the shorter building and uniting them into one complex with 35 apartments, ranging in size from 599 to 1,200 square feet, plus 2,630 square feet of commercial space. It would also include 35 parking spaces.
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"We bought the building and held it for a while, developed all these plans," Iskalo Executive Vice President David Chiazza said. "We all got excited about the project."
But Iskalo officials said they didn't expect to be able to start work anytime soon. And the project is too important for downtown progress to leave it in limbo.
Iskalo wins green light for Bookstore Lofts project downtown
Iskalo hopes to complete the project on Huron and Oak streets by March 2025.
"The bottom line is it's just not good timing for us to move forward," Chiazza said. "We typically do not do projects and do all the heavy lifting just to pass it off to someone else. But we also recognize that it's a project that should proceed. If someone can do it and is better prepared to undertake it now, it's better for downtown."
But, if a deal "doesn't materialize, then we'll pursue it," Chiazza added. "We'll get to it when we're able to get to it."
Iskalo bought the complex - including the two buildings that date to 1898 - for $1.71 million in August 2019, with hopes of capitalizing on the renewed interest in downtown Buffalo by renovating them. Iskalo already owns the Electric Tower, Big Ditch Brewing Co. and other nearby properties, giving it a cluster of holdings in that area. Old Editions owners Ronald and Marilee Cozzi moved their business to North Tonawanda.
Iskalo always intended a mixed-use redevelopment, with apartments and commercial space. According to the detailed floor plans included in the online listing, the first floor would have three retail spaces of 615, 635 and 1,380 square feet, plus two residential lobbies, bicycle and tenant storage, and five apartments - two one-bedroom units with dens, two one-bedroom units, and a two-bedroom apartment.
The second floor would have 10 units - a studio of 599 square feet, three one-bedroom units with dens, five one-bedrooms, and a two-bedroom. The third and fourth floors would also have 10 units each, consisting of six one-bedroom apartments, three one-bedrooms with dens, and a two-bedroom apartment.
The project was delayed for years, first by the Covid-19 pandemic, and then by soaring costs on materials and labor, and then rising interest rates.
The developer finally unveiled its specific proposal in late 2023, winning Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board approvals, including to demolish the former Farthing Press building at 260-262 Oak St., adjacent to the bookstore, to allow for a parking lot. But aside from some renovations of the first floor to get it ready for leasing, nothing significant has happened since clearing that final hurdle in early June 2024.
Chiazza said it could be six to nine months longer before the developer could begin, pushing the start date into 2026. In the meantime, he said, it is expensive to just hold the properties.
"There's a lot of costs every month in carrying it," he said. "To carry it month after month after month, it just makes the mountain that much harder to climb."
Chiazza said Iskalo has been unable to move forward because of the difficulty in obtaining bank financing at a rate that makes it feasible. That is the same factor that has hindered most redevelopment projects locally, and even nationally, as developers have been forced to put a host of projects on hold until the lending market loosens up and costs come down.
Even developer Douglas Jemal, who has been planning a major redevelopment of the Mohawk Ramp and former Simon Electric Co. properties in the same neighborhood as Old Editions, has been forced to wait on many projects until conditions improve. So, it is not even clear that there is anyone else to step up, and Chiazza acknowledged that uncertainty.
"We won't know that until we put it out there for a while and see what kind of response we get," Chiazza said. "There's activity still out there, and there are folks that may be in a different position than we are and have access to different funding sources. This one's all teed up for them."
Reach Jonathan D. Epstein at (716) 849-4478 or [email protected].
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