Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - The St. Andrew's campus in the Town of Tonawanda, which includes a church, school, rectory and parking lots, has been sold.
Child and Family Services has agreed to pay $1.4 million, according to The Buffalo News, for the campus that was originally appraised for $3.85 million. The nonprofit human services agency plans to renovate and retrofit the property for their purposes of meeting the needs of children, adults and families of the region.
Tonawanda Town Supervisor Joe Emminger says leadership at Child and Family Services are hopeful to be ready to serve the community by the time the next school year opens in August or September of 2026.
"It's one of our prime corners in the town - Sheridan and Elmwood - so we're very happy the Diocese was able to find a buyer for that property in a reasonable timeframe, it wasn't sitting vacant for a long period of time," said Emminger in an interview with WBEN. "From that standpoint alone, I think it's very good news for the town. The property, it was tax exempt before with the Diocese of Buffalo, and with Child and Family Services, it will remain tax exempt. So from a revenue standpoint, it doesn't have any impact on the town. But from a psychological standpoint, I think it's very positive news for the town. The property's gonna be put to use."
In conversations with the Buffalo Catholic Diocese, Emminger says the Town of Tonawanda, at one point, had expressed an interest in buying the property because of its prime location and history in the town.
"The St. Andrew's community was obviously impacted by the closure, and we wanted to see if there was a use that we could have in the town - town offices, town recreational facilities," Emminger noted. "They have one primary gym, but they had another hall over there. It kind of piqued our interest a little bit, we went through it a couple of times - the Town Board and some of our other department heads - but at the end of the day, it wasn't conducive to our needs. But the Diocese knew that we were interested in it, and when anybody reached to me on the property, I was very happy to send them along to the Diocese to hope facilitate a deal."
Emminger feels the purchase for Child and Family Services will open up an opportunity going forward.
"They're leaving another school building into town, so it's going to open up a facility that we don't own. The school district owns that building, I believe, and the school district will be doing something else with that building. So it's kind of a regeneration, repurposing of properties, which is fairly common in the Town of Tonawanda, because we really don't have a lot of vacant land. So we see a lot of repurposing, redevelopment of our existing properties," Emminger added.
Emminger knows how special the St. Andrew's campus was not just for the town's history, but also the residents for several years.
"It was some place where you wanted to send your kids to, quite frankly," Emminger said. "I'm glad they're not tearing it down, that was a concern when they put the property on the market, that some developer was going to come in and tear the property down and turn it into a retail use. And I had to assure people the Town Board and Town Planning Board, we have the interest of those residents who went to that parish and church, and we weren't going to just let anybody go in there and do what they want to that property.
"This use by Child and Family Services, is very conducive to what the town wants to see happen at that property, and I think the residents of St. Andrew's, of the parish and the church in that area, I think they're going to be very happy as well."
Both the St. Andrew's school and parish closed at the end of June 2024.
Related
