Emergency work is underway on Buffalo’s Broadway Barns, the structure that houses city vehicles including snow plows, and salt. Late last month, city officials say, concrete panels began falling within the dilapidated structure, which led to a determination that it’s no longer safe for people to be inside.
A masonry company has been called in to stabilize the panels so the city can retrieve equipment stored within, said deputy mayor Ben Swanekamp.
“That room stores the salt spreaders and plow blades we need to get our fleet ready for winter. So obviously, this is of an imperative nature right now,” he said. “Once those panels get stabilized, we'll be getting crews in there to pull all the equipment out to get the rigs out, and then we'll be declaring that room unfit for human occupancy.”
No one was injured when the panels fell, Swanekamp said, and while some pieces of equipment were damaged, no key pieces were among them.
The city has been working to secure an alternative space where it might store essential equipment. In the meantime, the city continues to pursue a proposed new Department of Public Works campus in the neighborhood of Bailey and Bartz avenues. But Swanekamp said this will take some time.
“We've been trying to advance it expeditiously all year long. Honestly, it's a very complicated process,” he said. “It's not a regular standard city-issue construction project. Instead, what happened was a local development corporation was created that would actually own the land and then lease it back to the city. It's in some ways similar to the parking ramp deal that we also inherited, but it's very complex. Ultimately, the site needs significant remediation. It's a brownfield site. It's enormous.”
As for the Broadway Barns, while the building is among the city’s more historic structures, even nostalgia seems unable to secure it for much longer.
“Historical or not, I don't know what it would take to make that building stabilized and safe,” Swanekamp said. “It certainly is historical, but there have been under previous administrations a number of attempts to look at future uses for the site. I would imagine the cost to stabilize that will be extraordinary.”
When asked if the plan would be to demolish the building once equipment is cleared, the deputy mayor replied, “speaking bluntly, probably, yeah.”