Mar 13
2025
Buffalo moves to call in Braymiller Market loan
- Share on
Inside the now-closed Braymiller Market. Photo by Garrett Looker.
Capping off the saga of downtown Buffalo’s failed grocery store, city officials on Thursday took a major step towards calling in the loan issued to Braymiller Market two years ago.
In a unanimous decision, the loan committee of the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency voted to issue a letter of default, the legal mechanism for demanding back the $561,000 the city is owed. BURA’s full board is expected to approve the recommendation when it meets March 27.
It remains unclear whether the city will recoup the funds.
By issuing the default — which will happen sometime in the next 30 days — the city places itself third in the line of Braymiller Market’s creditors. In addition to the city, the business owes $5.5 million to Evans Bank and $500,000 to Ciminelli Real Estate. Both of those entities have already declared Braymiller Market to be in default, officials said Thursday.
That means owner Stuart Green would have to sell the property at 225 Ellicott Street for at least $6.56 million for there to be funds to pay back BURA.
The city has assessed the one-acre property at $3.3 million.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomOn Thursday, city leaders acknowledged that they may not get back any of $561,000 owed.
“Yes, we are third in line, but the hope is that they can sell the property and if they sell it … we can get our resources back,” said Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope, whose district includes Braymiller Market.
“He’s going to try to sell it for the very best, which is why our recommendation was, ‘Let the sale happen,’ ” added Hope Young-Watkins, senior director of programs for BURA.
All of Braymiller Market’s creditors are likely to take a bath once the building is sold, according to Carl Paladino, one of downtown’s largest property owners. Paladino told Investigative Post he felt the property was over-valued as is.
“You’ll have a tough time valuing it at $6 million, no question about that, especially in today’s market,” he said. “Some bottom feeder will come along and have some bottom-feeder-type tenant to go with it, and they’ll grab it, but it’s not going to go for $6.5 million.”
Jim Militello, a commercial real estate broker, said neither renting nor selling the building is likely to recoup all of the money owed.
“The bank comes first and there’s not enough money in the sale of it to cover the bank debt alone,” he said. “So the city … they are not going to get their money back.”
In a statement issued late Thursday, Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said he recognized the business’ tough financial situation and that the city may never get back its money.
Neither Green nor a spokesperson for Evans Bank returned a request for comment Thursday.
How we got here
Born out of an urban renewal plan during former Mayor Byron Brown’s tenure, City Hall’s initial plan for the Ellicott Street block was to turn a parking lot into affordable apartments and a grocery store.
Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., with some $75 million in subsidies and low-interest loans in tow, completed the 201 apartments and grocery store in the fall of 2021. The developer sold the grocery store to Green for $7 million. By the time he opened, however, the pandemic had decimated downtown. City officials and other experts estimate that 15,000 to 20,000 fewer people worked and visited the central business district on a daily basis as a result.
City records Investigative Post obtained last year showed that Braymiller Market began struggling shortly after opening.
“Please keep confidential: Braymiller’s Market downtown is struggling,” wrote one city employee to his colleagues in May 2022, just seven months after the store opened.
In July 2023, the city threw the market a lifeline: a $561,000 forgivable loan, sourced from a pot of federal pandemic funds. The loan came with two conditions: Keep at least seven people employed for a year and remain open for two.
Officials Thursday said Green had no trouble meeting goal number one — in fact he employed 30 or more people, they said. Meeting goal number two proved impossible. Between November 2023 and September 2024, the store lost, on average, $50,000 per month, according to Tracy Cooley, BURA’s finance director.
That meant simply demanding repayment of the loan wasn’t an option, Young-Watkins said. The financial picture didn’t improve once Braymiller Market closed for good in December.
“This gentleman and this business is currently sitting in the negative and he does not have any money,” Young-Watkins said.
A home for cops?
In announcing the store’s closing, Scanlon put forth a plan for Braymiller Market: Forgive the loan and rent the space for $1 a month until a buyer could be found.
His proposed tenant? Police officers currently assigned to downtown’s B-District, a building in need of a major sewer upgrade.
Residents, however, rejected that idea at a community meeting held downtown on a February Saturday.
Halton-Pope, taking that feedback under advisement, proposed pairing a food-related entity with the police station.
On Thursday, she said she wasn’t sure if those plans could go forward.
“Given the financial situation, I don’t know if we can still do that for free. If they’re in default on so many loans, it will probably be at a cost,” she said.
She added that the B-District officers have other options for a temporary home while their station undergoes renovations.
The Braymiller space, she said, “is not the only option that they have. This just happened to be convenient.”
Halton-Pope said she remained hopeful that the space would remain open for some kind of food-related use.
“If the bank or the lender is willing to allow, on a temporary basis, a food option there,” she said, “I’m all for it.”
In his statement, Scanlon concurred: “My administration will continue to work with downtown residents and key stakeholders to support the best reuse of the property, including actively pursue another fresh food operator.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
