Ellicott Development buys Hook & Ladder No. 8 firehouse

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN)......One of Buffalo's oldest firehouses has been and the deal was put together Ellicott Development and Douglas Jemal.

Ellicott paid $475,000 for the circa 1895-era former Buffalo Hock & Ladder No. 8 at 174 Chicago Street, buying it Douglas Jemal's Jemal's Hook & Ladder 8 LLC.

Ellicott is planning a residential conversion of the building.

Jemal bought the two-story, nearly 6,000-square-foot building in 2019 with the intent of renovating it into apartments. Those plans were paused because of the Covid-19 pandemic and then increased construction costs and rising interest rates.

Jemal paid $325,000 for the vacant firehouse that serves as one of the gateways into Buffalo's Old First Ward.

The firehouse was designed by the noted architectural firm of Boughton & Johnson and was created in a neoclassical design that included a peaked roof that was removed several years ago.

This spring, Jema;