For 10 years, Barb Gauchat has been making soup and sandwiches in a tiny, streetcar-style diner on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, serving a devoted following of customers that includes senior citizens, people with disabilities and others looking for wholesome food at affordable prices.
The most expensive item on her rotating menu recently was a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for $8.50, and her popular homemade soups sell for just 4 bucks.
But the Soup Lady at the 412 Diner’s days are numbered.
As downtown North Tonawanda enjoys a renaissance fueled by public and private investment, attention is turning to Oliver Street – a once-thriving corridor that fell on hard times decades ago and never recovered. As investors eye its aging buildings and affordable rents, hopes are high for a long-awaited renewal.
But there are growing pains in the process. One early investor has bought the Soup Lady’s diner and increased rents closer to the market rate at $1,050 – a rate she said she can’t afford after paying the bargain price of $175 per month. She will close when her lease ends in February.
It’s raising questions about what it will take to turn Oliver Street around, whether it’s possible and – if it takes off – who will be the winners and losers when all is said and done.
Developers say some dislocations are inevitable – the price of progress. Higher rents are needed to fund the improvements that those run-down buildings require to turn them into places that would attract shops, restaurants and customers, much like what happened on nearby Webster Street.
But change isn’t always comfortable – and neighbors worry that the character of Oliver Street could change as older businesses are priced out and developers try to bring in new ones with even broader appeal.
That’s what Aramis Figueroa III is trying to do. Encouraged by the development that has made downtown NT vibrant again, Figueroa believes that same momentum will continue around the corner to Oliver Street, and he is betting on it with the purchase of the Soup Lady diner and an apartment in back for $130,000. Both need extensive work.
Angry about the Soup Lady’s displacement, some residents have vowed never to patronize whatever business is responsible for nudging it out.
But this is no David and Goliath story. It’s more about two Davids trying to make a living in a struggling area that may or may not be on the verge of change. Gauchat is trying to scratch out a living with a little restaurant. Figueroa is a maintenance worker trying to start out in development and real estate investing.
“I know there’s people that feel upset about it, but I’m not a big investor. I am a local. I’m a family person. I’m just trying to build something for my kids,” Figueroa said. “Honestly, I’m no different from anybody else. I go to work every day. I just managed my money well enough to get to this point where I can invest in something and try to build a future.”
Figueroa bought his first investment property at auction for $5,000 when he was 23, lived in it while renovating it, and eventually sold it for $95,000. He still works full time in maintenance. The rent he had planned to charge Gauchat was barely enough to cover his expenses, he said, and he has pivoted to putting a Mexican restaurant into the space with his family to make up for the lost revenue he had planned on.
If you haven’t been to North Tonawanda in a while, you might be surprised to know that anyone would refer to it as having a “vibe.” But the city that borders two of the most historic waterways in the world – whose best days seemed linked to bygone industries – is in the midst of a renaissance.
“I grew up on the West Side of Buffalo. I’ve seen buildings go from nothing to something. I’ve seen corner stores unopened for 20 years, and then someone comes out of nowhere, and now it’s booming,” he said. “I’ve seen changes happen, but you have to be willing to see it. You have to be willing to try and the community has to be the same way.”
Even as residents celebrate the expanded West Herr Riviera Theatre, they lament the loss of a favorite affordable breakfast place, Lou’s Restaurant, that was closed to make way for it. And down the street, women’s collective She Gathers is an exciting addition to the Webster strip, but longtime antique shop the Treasure Market was displaced when its rent rose to keep up with increasing property values.
For years, the community has been hoping to see a change on the long, rough road carved down the length of the city. It’s a vestige from another era, when workers from places like Roblin Steel walked across the street for lunch and patronized the many taverns and small businesses that lined the corridor.
These days, many storefronts have been turned into apartments, some by absentee landlords. Multifamily homes with peeling paint sit alongside empty storefronts piled with junk and signs advertising businesses that closed years ago.
Gauchat thinks change on Oliver could be possible, but not for at least another 10 years. Under her old lease, she was responsible for all repairs to the crumbling diner, which evened out to “OK” rent for the tiny space, which only seats about a dozen people.
But she expects that whatever goes into the diner after her will eventually end up empty again if Figueroa expects to operate it as if it were on thriving Webster just blocks away instead of Oliver Street, which has such a unique business climate.
“This area is too depressed,” Gauchat said. “This place was vacant for so long.”
In fact, the most buzzed-about development in the city is planned for Tonawanda Island, a prime location in the Niagara River. But Oliver Street stays top of mind for the city’s economic development agency.
“It’s my baby. Revitalization does not happen overnight,” said Laura Wilson, executive director at Lumber City Development Corp., the city’s economic development arm. “The first time I drove down Oliver Street, I was like, where do we even start? But slowly, as the years went on, I am starting to slowly see a turnaround.”
The street has been a target for the corporation’s funding, and the focus of beautification projects from civic groups like Project Pride and the Oliver Street Merchants Association.
Austin Tylec, 32, is one of the youngest mayors in North Tonawanda’s history, and the only Democrat in city office. He is seeking re-election but it will be a fight.
LCDC has $3.25 million in streetscape improvements on tap to improve infrastructure on a roughly three-block portion of the street leading from the canal area downtown to Thompson Street. It will include new crosswalks, green infrastructure, signs, sidewalks and bike racks. There’s reason to believe that type of program could make a difference. LCDC did a similar thing years ago on Webster Street that helped jump-start its revival.
Andrew Magyar owns Mana Bar, a hobby and collectible retailer, while his wife owns metaphysical shop Mystical Emporium, both on Oliver. He recently bought the 12,000-square-foot Mana building, which includes five apartments, for $70,000 but had to take out a nearly half-million-dollar construction loan to repair the dilapidated property. He’s hoping for a turnaround on the street, which he said has lots of potential.
“I won’t make a profit for another 20 years,” he said. “But it would be nice if my property values would go up.”
That’s only a matter of time, said Greg Stennis, an early investor in Webster’s turnaround with his bar, Dwyer’s Irish Pub.
“They’re not making any more real estate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Figueroa is all in. He feels bad about the fallout with the Soup Lady, but said he learned after watching the transformation on the West Side which side of things he wants to end up on.
“Right now, with the way things are changing, nobody’s gonna stop it,” he said. “And if you don’t try to get on board with what’s going on, you get left behind.”
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Samantha Christmann
News Business Reporter
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