Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - After a brief pause to further discuss the possibility of emergency stabilization options for Mulligan's Brick Bar in Buffalo's Allentown neighborhood, plans to demolish what's left of the fire-ravaged 1897 building will move forward Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. EST.
"Through those conversations that we've had with [owner] Ms. [Kim] Rossi, with the Allentown Association, with Preservation Buffalo Niagara, the Buffalo Fire Department, the Department of Permits and Inspection Services, and looking at the condition of the property, the costs associated with stabilization, the timeline associated with stabilization, it really became untenable to stabilize and salvage the façade of this building, at this point," said Buffalo's Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon during a press briefing on Tuesday.
"We've worked for the last several days, trying to come to another solution, another ending to this story. Unfortunately, we have not been able to. Again, as a result, just a very sad day for the Rossi family, for the Allentown neighborhood, the preservation community and Buffalonians and Western New Yorkers, and beyond."
Since the bar is privately owned, Rossi would have to engage the process and give the city permission to do an emergency stabilization. After talking with multiple people, Rossi stated that she does not desire to go forward with emergency stabilization.
"We cannot wait on a timeline to get this emergency stabilized without concrete plans that can move forward expeditiously due to the safety reasons of the structure. That's the purview of the city is to make sure that Allentown residents are not exposed to safety problems or issues if this building is seriously in disrepair and eminent ability to collapse," said Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski on Tuesday.
According to Bernice Radle from Preservation Buffalo Niagara, they were quoted at about $150,000-to-$200,000 to stabilize the structure. She, too, was disappointed with the final outcome for the historic building in the Allentown neighborhood.
"Despite getting the answers that we don't want from the owner, Preservation Buffalo Niagara has put up our limited resources to get together a plan. We have a plan that we've been working on all day with the hopes that she would say yes, so that way we could stabilize this building. Unfortunately, out of respect for the mayor and the respect for everyone, she's not responding, she doesn't want to move forward, and we just had to make that decision," Radle said on Tuesday.
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Scanlon says the loss of another piece of history in the city is troubling and heartbreaking. He wants to get the ball rolling, in the near future, on legislation to make sure the city is on top of preserving other historically significant structures.
"One thing we've stressed moving forward is we want to get in a room together in the very near future to make sure there's legislation, or anything else we need to do to make sure we don't end up in the situation in the future. It's to make sure that we are preserving everything we can, every bit of fabric here in our Buffalo community," Scanlon said.
"We really need to find a way to make sure this can't happen in the future," added Josh Wilson with the Allentown Association. "We have to make sure we're not having so many of these important historic buildings burned down. We can't have so many buildings burning. We need to have them protected from that. And then the second part of that is if this does happen, we have to have the procedures and law in place so the city can step in and make sure a bar owner can't allow a building like this to be demolished in our community. This is the fabric of our community, it's a beautiful building, and it's just very unfortunate."
Department of Permits and Inspection Services Commissioner Cathy Amdur says she continues to stay in contact with Rossi, the Buffalo History Museum and the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning to identify components of the Brick Bar that will be saved and salvaged.
Rossi has been gracious enough to already agree to donate a number of items of historic significance from the bar to the Buffalo History Museum.
The fire that took place early Sunday morning has officially been ruled as undetermined, and was classified as accidental by the Buffalo Fire Department and ATF officials, most likely the result of electrical or mechanical malfunction.