What's up with Harry Stinson and the Buffalo Grand hotel

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN).....By the end of business today (April 29), another chapter in the ongoing Buffalo Grand saga will be written.

But, will it be a good chapter?

City leaders - most notably Mayor Sean Ryan and Deputy Mayor Thomas Baines - remain cautiously optimistic that Canadian developer Harry Stinson will supply them with documented information that details his financial package he needs to renovate and revive the long-shuttered downtown hotel.

Not only a financial package but also a timeline for re-opening the 486-room hotel.

"I'm interested to see (Stinson's) work product at the end of this," Ryan said.

Ryan, on Jan. 29, gave Stinson 90 days to supply his office with documents covering the financial outlook to not only revive the hotel but also keep it running. Stinson also had to supply a development timeline for re-opening the Buffalo Grand.

Ryan and Baines insisted on 30 day updates.

Baines said Stinson did supply updates, mostly in the form of emails.

But, they also talked by phone too, Baines added.

Stinson did not respond to repeated WBEN telephone and text messages seeking a comment or update.

In past interviews, Stinson has said he remains committed to re-opening the Buffalo Grand.

Reviving the Buffalo Grand is a top downtown economic priority Ryan said.

Visit Buffalo desperately needs the hotel and its 486 rooms plus special event space up and running to not only secure more meetings and conventions, but also to offer more hospitality options for major events like Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres games or concerts.

"We need it back and in some level of re-use," Baines said.

Stinson bought the former Adam's Mark - and, before that the Buffalo Hilton - in 2018 with grandiose plans for turning it into an A-level hotel.

The hotel, like many others, was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and shortly before it was scheduled to re-open in late December 2021, a devastating fire damaged much of its back-of-the-house, ballroom and first three floors of hotels.

Stinson spent nearly five years fighting with insurance companies over the amount of damage to the hotel. Stinson pegged the damage at $50 million.

A settlement was finally reached in late 2024 but little new or repair work has taken place at the hotel since that point.

In June 2025, then-acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said unless Stinson made significant progress with the hotel, he was going to begin legal action to have the Buffalo Grand declared "abandoned" and the city would take ownership and issue an RFP for developers to buy and restore the hotel.

Both Ryan and Baines said if Stinson fails to meet the April 29 deadline, the city will consider other options.

""We may have to take a whole different look at it," Ryan said.

Baines agrees.

"Doing nothing is not a solution," Baines said.