Five downtown Buffalo office buildings – two of which are among the city’s most prominent – are now under contract to be sold.
David L. Sweet, president of Main Seneca Corp., confirmed Thursday that he has an agreement to sell the Rand Building, Main Court Building and three other Main Street buildings.
The sale is expected to close Aug. 23, pending the completion of all standard requirements.
“That’s the date I’m supposed to get a check and say farewell,” he said. “But it’s not that certain because of various contingencies that are intrinsic in any deal of this sort.”
He would not identify the buyer, or even say if he or she is local, but described the person as “a worthy successor.”
“We have an agreement that we’re going through,” Sweet said. “It’s a lengthy agreement, with a lot of contingencies, and it seems to be moving forward.”
The five properties include the Rand at 14 Lafayette Square, the Main Seneca Building at 237 Main St. and the Main-Court Building at 436 Main, as well as two smaller adjacent office buildings on lower Main Street at 241 and 251 – the Roblin and Stanton buildings, respectively.
The oldest, the Stanton, was constructed in 1873, while the Main Seneca Building dates to 1902 and Rand to 1929. Main Court and Roblin were built in the 1960s.
In all, the five office buildings have 760,137 square feet of rentable space on 64 floors. They are assessed at $12 million.
Sweet filed a notice May 22 with the state Labor Department under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which mandates that employers tell workers when a layoff is pending or possible. The notice cites the “potential sale of facility” as the reason for the filing, and identifies 66 employees that may be affected at all five buildings. But that doesn’t mean any of them will actually lose their jobs, since the filing is mandated by law in a sale situation.
In the meantime, we’re still doing business, still renewing leases, and still operating our buildings in the same manner as we have been,” Sweet said.
email: jepstein@buffnews.com
David L. Sweet, president of Main Seneca Corp., confirmed Thursday that he has an agreement to sell the Rand Building, Main Court Building and three other Main Street buildings.
The sale is expected to close Aug. 23, pending the completion of all standard requirements.
“That’s the date I’m supposed to get a check and say farewell,” he said. “But it’s not that certain because of various contingencies that are intrinsic in any deal of this sort.”
He would not identify the buyer, or even say if he or she is local, but described the person as “a worthy successor.”
“We have an agreement that we’re going through,” Sweet said. “It’s a lengthy agreement, with a lot of contingencies, and it seems to be moving forward.”
The five properties include the Rand at 14 Lafayette Square, the Main Seneca Building at 237 Main St. and the Main-Court Building at 436 Main, as well as two smaller adjacent office buildings on lower Main Street at 241 and 251 – the Roblin and Stanton buildings, respectively.
The oldest, the Stanton, was constructed in 1873, while the Main Seneca Building dates to 1902 and Rand to 1929. Main Court and Roblin were built in the 1960s.
In all, the five office buildings have 760,137 square feet of rentable space on 64 floors. They are assessed at $12 million.
Sweet filed a notice May 22 with the state Labor Department under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which mandates that employers tell workers when a layoff is pending or possible. The notice cites the “potential sale of facility” as the reason for the filing, and identifies 66 employees that may be affected at all five buildings. But that doesn’t mean any of them will actually lose their jobs, since the filing is mandated by law in a sale situation.
In the meantime, we’re still doing business, still renewing leases, and still operating our buildings in the same manner as we have been,” Sweet said.
email: jepstein@buffnews.com