The Furniture Mart building on the corner of Washington and W. Second Streets in Jamestown.
The City of Jamestown is working on filling vacant buildings downtown.
Department of Development Director Crystal Surdyk, presenting to the City Council Housing Committee, said the city has requested that the state reallocate of $1 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funds from the defunct Key Bank Building project on North Main Street toward the Furniture Mart Building project, “We’re very confident that they will reallocate those funds to the Furniture Mart project which is much further along in terms of being fully baked, if you will. There are a couple of different developers who have shown some interest, one of which had shown interest in the past and had really done a lot of work on potentially moving a project forward there.”
Surdyk said that other deals are in the works including a possible buyer for the former Jamestown Brewing Company building on Third and Washington Streets as well as there being a buyer for the former Havana Cuban Cafe on North Main Street who plans to reopen the space as a restaurant. Next to former Havana Cuban Cafe is the former You’ve Been Framed business, which Surdyk said is almost ready to reopen as the new location for Fringe Hair Salon. She said the new owners are in the process of rehabilitating that building. Surdyk added that every storefront in the Jamestown Housing Authority Building, also known as the Hotel Jamestown, is occupied with commercial businesses.
Surdyk when it comes to the larger buildings that are vacant or have vacant spaces, they are more costly to renovate and need “seasoned” developers, “We’ve been having conversations with the (Chautauqua County) IDA, Gebbie Foundation, County Planning to put together a developer’s forum. We haven’t done that in a number of years and we’ve got really interesting opportunities for development. We have, I think, a better understanding of the brownfield opportunity areas that we have. And, I think it’s important to remember that we were shut down for two of the last four years that we could not do anything.”
Surdyk said when it came to the Pandemic, the Department of Development did the best they could to help keep businesses from closing and that a number were able to pivot and “make it through.”
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