Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Mayor Chris Scanlon has a lengthy list of issues related to the long vacant Buffalo Grand Hotel.
Scanlon cites alleged neglect by owner, Canadian developer Harry Stinson, along with unpaid taxes and fees totaling more than $350,000 and numerous code violations.
That's why Buffalo officially filed abandonment proceedings in New York State Supreme Court against Stinson and the hotel.
"If that isn't the definition of abandonment, then I don't know what is," Scanlon said in an interview with WBEN.
For his part, Stinson denies that he has abandoned the nine-story, 489-room hotel that serves as a gateway into the city.
"It is definitely not abandoned," Stinson counters in a separate interview with WBEN.
The legal tussle serves as the backdrop between the strained relations that Stinson and the Scanlon administration have with each other.
Stinson hopes the new Sean Ryan administration will be more welcoming.
"I think the only thing going on now is posturing," Stinson said.
Stinson bought the Buffalo Grand - formerly the Adam's Mark and before that, the Buffalo Hilton - in 2018 with pledges to upgrade the hotel.
The hotel has been closed since the early Covid-19/ pandemic days in March 2020 and suffered significant damage in a December 2021 fire, just days before it was due to re-open,
Stinson said it took him more than three-and-a-half years to get an insurance settlement and he used most of the proceeds to pay off the mortgage and back taxes and fees.
Still, little work was done, despite pledges and promises by Stinson to renovate and revive the Buffalo Grand.
Fed up, in June Scanlon said he was beginning legal action to gain control of the property and find a new developer to take it over and re-open it as a hotel.
Stinson said Scanlon's actions and repeated stories about the uncertain fate of the hotel "has made it impossible " to gain the $20 million bridge loan he needs to renovate the Buffalo Grand.
"All the bankers do is a quick Google search and all these stories about Buffalo claiming the hotel is abandoned has scared away investors," Stinson said.
But, Scanlon said enough is enough and that's why the abandonment proceedings were filed late last week in state Supreme Court.
"We can't continue to have buildings like the Buffalo Grand just sitting there with no plan in sight," Scanlon said.