Croce and Eagan win bidding to buy Statler Towers
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Buffalo, NY - Buffalo businessmen Mark Croce and James Eagan have won the right to purchase the landmark Statler Towers in downtown Buffalo after their bid was accepted Monday in bankruptcy court. Croce and Eagan formed Statler City LLC to acquire and redevelop the vacant building.
"Under the court ruling we have a 60 day period to finish our due diligence which includes, as you can imagine, a significant amount of effort, engineering reports, other issues with regard to the building," said Statler City Attorney Robert Knoar.
The limited liability company will pay 200-thousand dollars, plus back taxes for the Statler Building, empty since January. Statler City LLC was the only bidder to satisfy the conditions of the bankruptcy trustee, including a 100-thousand dollar deposit by last Friday.
"We are glad that this step in the process of putting the Statler back into private hands has been accomplished," said the building bankruptcy trustee Morris Horwitz.
My Dynasty Real Estate of California attempted to enter the bidding after the deadline with a non-certified check. Judge Carl Bucki overruled a formal objection, giving My Dynasty 15 days to appeal.
"The client's got plenty of money in that account," said My Dynasty Attorney Lawrence Brown. "Why they decided not to send a bank check or certified check I haven't got an answer to at this point in time."
After the appeal period, Statler City will have 60 days to perform due diligence on the building, during which they can back away from the sale. What Croce and Eagan envision for the Statler remains unclear. Croce declined comment Monday.
In a statement, Mayor Brown lauded Croce as a successful developer, but some feel public funding that could accompany the Statler's refurbishing will be a tough sell in a down economy.
"Renovating that building is at least a 100 million dollar project and isn't going to be a project where upstate, real estate market economics will enable 100 million dollars to come from the private sector so there's going to have to be public sector incentives of an enormous magnitude," said Buffalo Niagara Partnership President and CEO Andrew Rudnick.
Assuming no hiccups, Statler City LLC should close on the sale of the Statler Building by mid-November.