Fate of Braymiller Market remains in limbo

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The now-shuttered Braymiller Market at 225 Ellicott Street. Photo by J. Dale Shoemaker

The future of the downtown building once home to Braymiller Market remains in limbo.

For one, Evans Bank is moving to foreclosure on the property as a way to recoup the multi-million dollar mortgage it granted to owner Stuart Green. The bank has begun “pre-foreclosure” proceedings, according to Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope.

At the same time, the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency is weighing whether to call in a $561,000 loan the city granted to Braymiller Market in 2023. The money, meant to be a lifeline for the struggling grocery store, would have converted to a grant had Green kept the business open through the end of this year. Braymiller Market closed in December. 

The agency’s board of directors met Thursday and decided to push off a decision to its March meeting so it can gather additional information.

Meanwhile, activists and city leaders are offering dueling proposals for what to do with the building.

Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon has said he wants to forgive the loan and lease the building for use as a police precinct while the B District station undergoes repairs.

On Thursday, however, Halton-Pope said she favors the city clawing back its loan.

“I feel like you didn’t honor [the loan agreement] so you should pay it back, I really do,” she said.

Halton-Pope said that if police use the building, it should be shared with a fresh food market. She cited the E-District building, on Bailey Avenue, as an example of the police sharing space with a community center.

“I’m not willing to just say yes to a lease agreement without making sure there’s an additional benefit to those who have lost what they desperately need, which is food,” she said.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Scanlon said he had spoken to Halton-Pope and that the two had agreed that part of the building could house police and part of it could house a “fresh food distribution site.”

“Temporarily co-locating the Buffalo Police Department B District station and a fresh food distribution site is a practical and cost-effective reuse of the former Braymiller Market that will provide significant economic benefits to the city as well as improve the health, safety and quality of life of residents in the surrounding downtown neighborhood,” Scanlon said.

Halton-Pope, in a text message, stressed that the plan was not final and that the Common Council would have to approve any lease of the building.

“Nothing is final until I talk to the community,” she said. “I think we’re on the same page … but I’m certain he’d agree that the public support would be critical. This isn’t a dictatorship.”

Halton-Pope, whose district includes the grocery, is hosting a community meeting Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the downtown library to field additional suggestions for how the city could use the space.

When Scanlon first proposed the lease, other Common Council members said they were “not thrilled” by the idea, in part because the city would have to pay for renovating the store into a police station and pay for utilities. 

“Any approval of a potential lease needs to come at no cost to the city — and the operator needs to find a grocer to lease that space during the time it doesn’t operate as a grocer,” Fillmore District representative Mitch Nowakowski said at the time.

Our City Action Buffalo, along with Halton-Pope, said Thursday they want the city to recoup its money and use the building for a public use, such as a food bank or a publicly-owned market.

“The price of the loan cannot be the cost of the police station,” said 

Nathan Feist, a representative of Our City Action. “The council approved the loan for a market, so the owner getting a sweetheart deal, it’s not the way it should be.”

Leighton Jones, an Our City Action spokesperson who shopped at Braymiller, noted that Buffalo faces a financial crisis.

“We’re already broke, why wouldn’t we want to take the money back so we could invest it in something else that could benefit the community?” he said. 

Feist further suggested that the city could place a lien on the Braymiller property meaning that in the event Evans Bank forecloses on it, Buffalo can still recoup its money.

Halton-Pope said she was “interested” in such an idea.

There’s also a possibility that Green could sell the property and pay his obligations, making moot all of the proposals.

“If he can get someone to buy it straight out then that’s different,” Halton-Pope told Investigative Post Thursday. 

Otherwise, she said, “Stuart is going to lose the building one way or another.”

The debate over the building’s future is the latest in the saga of what was downtown’s only grocery store. Originally conceived as an urban renewal project by former Mayor Byron Brown, he ultimately convinced the Common Council to bail out the struggling business with a $561,000 forgivable loan in 2023. 

Records obtained by Investigative Post last year showed Braymiller Market lost tens of thousands of dollars each month and was behind on mortgage payments and city taxes. The Erie County Industrial Development Agency last fall nearly revoked Green’s property tax break. He promptly paid his back taxes.

Green did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Evans Bank spokesperson Kathleen Rizzo Young said she could not comment.

J. Dale Shoemaker