The attorney for the owners of the former St. Ann's Church in Buffalo was inside City Housing Court Thursday for the first time since a case was calendared in April.
The string of code violations came as a result of a devastating January fire to the school portion of the former church. But the site saw two additional fires in July.
Crescent Holdings, the company which bought the several buildings that make up the former St. Ann's in 2022 for $250,000, is represented by attorney Jack Danziger. Thursday's hearing before Judge Philip Dabney Jr. was almost a default hearing, because Danziger has not shown up for several scheduled court appearances.
"I hurt my back six months ago, your honor," Danziger told Dabney.
The group originally bought the property with plans to turn it into a Bengali community center, according to its attorney. When pressed if Crescent Holdings has come up with a plan to remediate and repair the numerous structural and building code issues found after the fires, Danziger eventually said the group has run out of money.
"All the monies that they generated were used in the purchase from the Buffalo Diocese," he said. "In regards to insurance, they didn't have any insurance on the campus."
One official noted the only work crews spotted at St Ann's sent by Crescent Holdings was a group of about 25 volunteers who cut the grass and boarded up some windows. That happened only a day before the latest court hearing.
"We have an owner who's falling down on their duties," said Deputy Buffalo Mayor Thomas Baines. "We don't want the sites to remain in disrepair no more than the neighborhood does. But I believe that we're posturing in a way that hasn't been done before that says whatever tools that we have, we're going to deploy them. Whether it's abandonment, whether it's eminent domain, whether it's receivership. We're looking at the whole toolbox."
Danziger did say that there is a nonprofit which has expressed interest in buying some buildings of the St. Ann's campus, both before and after the fire.
"Our duty is to make sure that these offers are legit," said Baines. "That they have the capacity to purchase the property, maintain the property, rehab the property, develop the property, and ultimately, if we don't do that step, then we find ourselves in the place that we're in today."
Both sides return to court to begin trial September 24. Crescent Holdings faces fines in the low five-figure range, according to city attorneys.
