The historic Cargill Pool Grain Elevators and the six acres of waterfront property it sits on were up for auction Wednesday. Seven people bid on the property at the outer harbor off Fuhrman Boulevard in Buffalo.
The top bidder ended up pledging $475,000 for the real estate, current owner Bill Mackey and his partner, former Fire Commissioner Fred Langdon were originally disappointed with the offer, they were hoping to get at least $1 million for the former South End Marina.
“We tried to get the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation interested into making this a public fishing pier for people, they own the property right next door to use. We kind of thought they would be interested in it, but that isn’t a fact,” said Mackey.
Representative for the undisclosed buyer, Attorney Robert Bencini said if his client isn’t sure yet what they're going to do with the property.
“They talked about industrial, commercial, residential project development that will continue to expand and develop the waterfront property,” said Bencini.
Bencini said however, the people of Buffalo will be happy when they find out who the buyer is, as they have a strong local tie.
“Given the reputation of many of the developers I think the public will be thrilled to find out who the client is, they have a good strong public track record and I think they will be thrilled with who they are, as I am,” said Bencini.
Auctioneer Cash Cunningham said this was an unusual piece of property, because of grain elevator on it, but it also had a lot to offer.
“It’s a peninsula of waterfront, I mean where will you find more water frontage than here, this is absolutely spectacular in that regard. Absent the building we would have a price well, well up into the millions of dollars,” said Cunningham
The South End Marina has been owned by Mackey and Langdon for 30 years. A fire in 2009 forced them to put the property and silo up for sale back then for $3 million, but the property never sold. The two owners accepted the bid several hours after the Wednesday morning auction.
