The city’s first steel-framed high-rise building, the Dun Building, has a new owner with plans to convert the narrow downtown office building into apartments.
McGuire Group’s McGuire Development Co. has acquired the historic 10-story structure at 110 Pearl St. from Paul Kolkmeyer’s Priam Enterprises, paying $1.85 million last Friday. Kolkmeyer, who had acquired the building in 2013, had unveiled plans four years ago to transform it into 23 upscale apartments but did not complete his project.
Plans call for spending as much as $14 million to renovate the upper nine floors into 36 market-rate apartments, with each floor containing one two-bedroom unit, one studio apartment and two one-bedroom apartments. Rents will range from $1,400 to $2,500 per month.
The developer said he also intends to restore the first floor “to some of its original splendor and market it as commercial space,” while retaining K:dara Noodle Bar restaurant.
“It’s a beautiful piece of architecture and it has a lot of character,” said F. James McGuire, the company’s CEO. “The views from quite a number of the windows are attractive and will lend character to apartments there, and we’re hoping that downtown remains or grows as an attractive place to live and work.”
However, he noted that the project will require new utility and electrical infrastructure.
“Things of that nature that are challenging, but we don’t think insurmountable,” he said.
He hopes to obtain city approvals and building permits by year-end, with work beginning during the winter.
Completed in 1895 as the city’s first fireproof structure, the Dun Building is clad in yellow Roman brick and features a neoclassical and Renaissance-Revival style, with giant arches, tile, concrete and steel.
The 38,000-square-foot building was named after Robert G. Dun, whose R.G. Dun Co. was the first occupant, later becoming national credit-reporting agency Dun & Bradstreet.
It’s considered a local landmark and part of the Joseph Ellicott Preservation District, and is eligible for historic tax credits, which McGuire plans to pursue.
The developer also plans to look at potential tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency or the city, but will otherwise use a construction loan from Canal Bank, which previously funded McGuire’s Vintage Flats project on Grote Street in North Buffalo.
The building has been renovated three or four times over the last 138 years, including a restoration in 1988. It was fully occupied until a few years ago, with tenants including law firms, the Holland Land Co., the U.S. bankruptcy trustee and a labor union.
But those tenants began moving out, opening up floors, while Kolkmeyer relocated others. He then unveiled plans in 2021 for a $5 million renovation into 23 one- and two-bedroom apartments, with two retail spaces on the ground floor and garden level.
Meanwhile, McGuire and partner James Jerge also just sold the 102,000-square-foot, seven-story Buffalo School of Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management building at 75 W. Huron St. to New York City-based Mercer Street Partners for $32.3 million. McGuire said those proceeds allowed McGuire to start working on the new commissary kitchen for the Buffalo Public Schools at 1016-1044 E. Delavan Ave.
“It’s hard to find feasible deals in Buffalo right now, so we keep looking,” McGuire said. “It’s definitely tough to make these things work, and if you look at the skyline and the lack of activity, not just in Buffalo but in Florida as well, there’s not the activity level that there used to be or that we might hope for.”
Reach Jonathan D. Epstein at (716) 849-4478 or jepstein@buffnews.com.
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Jonathan D. Epstein
News Business Reporter
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