By Jonathan D. Epstein,Jonathan D. Epstein News Business Reporter

Copyright buffalonews

After four years of trying unsuccessfully to redevelop the back portion of his family’s banquet facility in Clarence, the owner of Samuel’s Grande Manor is selling that land to a pair of developers who plan to put up a 50-unit apartment complex in the rear of the deep property.

Patrick and Richard McNamara, through 8750 Main Street Associates, are proposing to construct a three-story apartment building at the rear of 8570 Main St., on a 9.6-acre site that has long been underdeveloped except for an accessory parking lot along the side. They would buy the rear land from owner Charles Pezzino.

The banquet center would remain in the front of the site. And the blacktop entry would still lead to a pair of long parking lots on either side, linked in the center by a looped connector.

But the new proposal calls for the addition of a 318-foot-long building in the far rear, set back 25 feet from the back of the property on the north side of Main, with new parking and sidewalks in front of it.

The 51,876-square-foot brownstone building would feature two large sections connected in the middle by a vestibule, with the lobby and elevator.

An earlier version from May had two three-story buildings with 51 units, but the developer changed it based on town and community feedback to “mimic a brownstone community set along a private tree-lined street corridor,” according to a summary document prepared by the town planning department.

The building would feature 18 one-bedroom townhouse-style units on the first floor. Each would have an open “great room” and kitchen in front, with the bedroom in the rear and an ADA-accessible bathroom, laundry and mechanicals in the middle. They would range in size from 904 to 912 square feet.

The second and third floors would each have 16 two-bedroom units, from 915 to 921 square feet, but laid out to be wider rather than deeper. A central corridor would run down the length of the building, dividing the apartments and connecting two staircases at either end and the elevator in the middle, along with a center common area. Each unit has one bedroom on each side with the great room and kitchen in the middle, plus a main bathroom and laundry.

Additionally, two detached garage buildings of eight and 12 bays are also proposed.

The new concept represents a reboot of the efforts that Pezzino, whose family has owned Samuel’s Grande for over 40 years, had been making since 2021, when he proposed a 40-unit project on the property after acquiring it from other family members in 2018. It was reduced to a 24-unit project, with two 30,000-square-foot buildings with 12 high-end residential units in each.

He received conceptual approval but decided in 2023 that it was too costly. So he dropped it to a pair of 10-unit townhome buildings, on either side of the rear area, for a total of 20 units.

But he abandoned that $6 million plan during the town’s review, and instead signed an agreement with the McNamaras.

Construction would take 12 months if approved.