One week after public offer by Campaign to buy, rehab Meidenbauer House, City finds solution

Better call Jemal: Preservation-oriented developer agrees to take on Fruit Belt landmark

Imagining the Meidenbauer House saved is a lot easier now that developer Douglas Jemal has agreed to pay assessed value for the building at 204 High Street in the High Street Historic District. The Campaign for Greater Buffalo and neighbors had been urging action on the building for years. No progress was made until the Campaign offered to buyt it last week. The rendering shows the west-facing wing (a.k.a 294 Maple St.) of the unusual conjoined structure as built and how it would look after rehabilitation.

Last week The Campaign for Greater Buffalo sent mayor Byron Brown a letter offering to buy the landmark Meidenbauer House atop its hill at High and Maple streets in the High Street Historic District.

The city has owned it since November 2005, when Brown was first elected mayor. The house, in livable condition then, has deteriorated since, much to the dismay of Fruit Belt neighbors and preservationists. The Campaign for Greater Buffalo prepared the successful High Street Historic District application with an eye on protecting the house.

The Campaign had received backing from a long-time supporter that enabled it to contemplate taking on the renovation. It first made the offer privately two years ago to Director of Strategic Planning Brendan Mehaffy. This time, motivated by the Great Northern emergency demolition order the Campaign is vigorously contesting in court, The Campaign elected to make a formal offer and go public with it.

Campaign offers to buy endangered Fruit Belt landmark from City

It had its desired effect. According to Mehaffy, the City reached out to developer Douglas Jemal (who most recently provided the collateral for the bond The Campaign had to post in the Great Northern case), who agreed to buy the building for its assessed value for the purposes of historic preservation. Jemal has also rehabilitated the former Buffalo Police headquarters, is rehabilitating the landmark Hotel Statler, and has expressed interest in other historic landmarks all over the city.

195 High Street, across the street from the Meidenbauer House and also part of the High Street Historic District, has elaborate bracketing and sandstone keystones above even the attic windows. It may be the oldest continuously operating food shop in the city.

”This is great news for the Fruit Belt and a great demonstration of how the historic preservation process should work,” said Campaign President Paul McDonnell. “We saw a need not only to save the Meidenbauer House, but also to protect the corner store directly across the street, which was built in the same era, in the same style, as a meat market, complete with its own smokehouse. It may be the oldest continuously operating deli in the city.”