Hostel Buffalo-Niagara employees thought they had until Monday to move out of their building for renovations planned by their landlord, the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency.
Buffalo city officials had other plans.
City inspectors and firefighters condemned the building that houses the hostel on Wednesday, citing electrical problems, “structural hazards” and a disabled fire hazard. By the afternoon, officials had cut power to the building, changed the locks and posted condemnation notices on the hostel’s front door. Hostel staff said they found out about the condemnation that day.
According to its supporters, the hostel provides visitors with a relatively cheap place to stay in downtown Buffalo and serves as an art gallery and community gathering space. The hostel, which had been open for almost 30 years, houses about 6,000 travelers every year. The non-profit organization that operates the hostel had fought off previous attempts by the city to sell the building.
“Apparently what’s happening is that the City of Buffalo has cited the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency as being a bad property owner,” Laurence Rubin, an attorney representing the hostel, said on Wednesday. “They’ve condemned the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency’s building after years and years and years of neglect. This came as quite a shock.”
A city spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency, commonly referred to as BURA, owns the hostel’s building at 667 Main St. In November, BURA voted unanimously to approve renovations to 664 Washington St. – a vacant building that adjoins the back of the hostel – and committed $2 million to the project. Hostel staff say that the “terrible conditions” in that contiguous building needed repairs, but that the hostel building itself is safe.
Renovations are set to begin May 20, but Rubin said the agency could’ve prevented the condemnation by fixing deterioration “in the empty building behind the hostel” years ago.
“That was entirely the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency’s responsibility, and they failed to take care of it,” Rubin said.
The condemnation displaced eight guests and the hostel’s live-in manager, JP Peret. At least some of the guests had left the hostel for the day and were unaware of the condemnation until they returned in the evening. Rubin said that BURA is paying for all nine to stay in a hotel “for a couple days.”
Community members and hostel staff showed up on short notice to move what they could out of the building Wednesday afternoon. One woman told WBFO she left work to help pack up. An employee propped the front door open with a wooden doorstop so they wouldn’t be locked out.
Steven Quezara, a Buffalo resident who frequently visited the hostel for community events, said he felt “immeasurable sadness” over the sale. He blames city officials like Mayor Byron Brown and large developers for “pushing out small creative spaces” like the hostel for more profitable development.
“They don’t care about small development. This is small in their eyes, and [so] it doesn’t deserve to be in this space,” Quezara said. “For Buffalo to claim that they’re an artistic city and to take this spot off of Main Street is a huge slap in the face to everybody, not just me.”
It’s unclear whether the hostel will ever be able to move back into its downtown location. But Rubin says the hostel will do what it can to keep going.
“I believe that the hostel board is committed to doing everything, within their limited resources, to be able to continue their mission and to continue to help the city of Buffalo’s tourism industry,” he said.