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Cedarland Development Group is bringing its redevelopment plans for the former Eckhardt’s Department store at the northwest corner of Broadway and Fillmore to the Preservation Board today for review.  The historic building will contain 28 affordable apartments, a Head Start daycare center run by the Community Action Organization, plus additional retail and commercial space. An indoor urban garden is planned for the building’s basement. The building has been vacant for nearly a decade. 

Apartments in the building will include ten, 450 sq.ft. studio apartments, fourteen one-bedroom units with 660 sq.ft. of space, and four two-bedroom units with 880 sq.ft. of space. Rents are expected to range from $840 to $1,457.

Details from the project application:

The Art Moderne building was designed by architects Bley and Lyman and built in 1940 as a department store. The building has a streamlined aesthetic that combines strip windows, a rounded corner, and extensive glazing on the exterior with an open-floor plan, mushroom columns, and plaster details on the interior. From 1940 until 1957, the building operated as a department store. By the late 1950’s until the 1990’s, it served as office space for the State Department of Labor.

The project does not involve demolition of any buildings and the exterior renovation work will be conducted in a manner guided by the current edition of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings as general criteria.

A thorough inspection of building revealed that the original steel windows and steel storefront sections are unsafe and beyond the scope of historic restoration and should be replaced with historic replications.

The modified storefront system will be replaced with a new aluminum and glass storefront system that more closely replicates the original display window configuration. Likewise, the windows on the south and east sides of the primary façade at the second and third floors will be removed and replaced in a manner that ensures that the overall dimensions of the new windows are accurate to the existing. In addition, the multi-lite, steel factory style windows on the north, west, and setback portion of the south elevations will be removed and replaced in-kind, with simulated divided lites, applied interior and exterior muntins, and spacer bars within the glazing. The windows on the north elevation of the garage and second floor will be removed and replaced in[1]kind in the same fashion. On the north elevation of the second floor, two new window openings with matching details will be created adjacent to the existing window opening.

Elev8 Architecture worked on the $11.6 million reuse plan.  Historic Preservation Tax Credit work was conducted by Preservation Studios.

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As one of the region’s most read publications since its launch in 2004, Buffalo Rising’s diverse editorial team delivers a wide range of relevant content to our readers as it unfolds in real time. An independently owned and operated digital publication, Buffalo Rising provides editorial and critical reviews on all topics that relate to Buffalo, NY.

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