The Common Council unanimously approved the retention of four West Avenue properties near Heath Street on Wednesday, with a statement on the agenda indicating that “one or more of these properties may have possible contamination.”
The properties, which include address numbers 621, 625, 635, and 641 West Ave., were awarded to City Treasurer Sue A. Mawhiney through in rem tax foreclosure judgments filed on Sept. 11 and Sept. 26.
Following a council work session and the meeting of the whole, Mayor John Lombardi III said he didn’t know what the city’s plans were for the properties.
“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Lombardi said. “It came to us late today.”
Lombardi said Mawhiney had added the matter to the agenda in the afternoon and would have more information. The treasurer’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
“He doesn’t know anything that’s going on,” Margaret Lupo, 5th Ward alderman, said of the mayor’s response.
Lupo said aldermen were not given details of what contamination may exist.
“There may be old gas stations,” she said, which may not be appropriate for future residences or certain kinds of businesses.
The business at 641 West Ave. is a yellow former gas station with Park Avenue directly on one side.
“I think those properties are the old gas station at the point, then Quigley’s old bar,” said Mark Devine, 3rd Ward alderman. “Then there’s Heath Street … and the next one was a little gluten-free bakery.”
Devine said he recalled a conversation several years ago with attorney Josh Ramos, who said he was finalizing a purchase of the properties from the Killion family.
“He wanted to go across the street to Park Avenue and get the two properties on that corner,” Devine said. “That might be the old Finks. He had already bought the Niagara Hotel and the place across the street on North Transit and Niagara that was a title office.”
In 2021, Mayor Michelle Roman received criticism for delays in the demolition of the gas station at 641 West Ave. At the time, Roman said the ownership of the building was in question because the owner had died several years prior without a will, leaving unpaid taxes.
Roman told the Union Sun & Journal in 2021 that while the Environmental Protection Agency made a rule that municipalities would not be held responsible if they foreclose on properties with contamination that have back taxes, the property would have to be placed in a land bank, a county entity.
“I did talk to the common council about us actually paying for the demolition of the building,” Roman told the newspaper.
In her role as the Brownfield Program Manager at the County Center of Economic Development, Amy Fisk said the New York Environmental Protection and Spill Compensation Program controlled funds for communities with abandoned gas stations.
“The county has been working with the state for a couple of years on this particular property and it was recently determined the property was eligible for this program,” Fisk said at the time. “So, the state would be coming in and cleaning up the property.”
While the planned demolition never occurred, Wednesday’s action demonstrated that unpaid taxes have remained.