One of Buffalo's most noted row of buildings is getting some rehab. On Thursday Buffalo's Preservation Board approved work on what was Manny's Supper Club at Delaware and Virginia, first in Allentown's MidWay.
The building has long been vacant, with Manny's signature lion looking worn and tattered on the outside. However, paperwork submitted to the board shows the lion now repaired and that wall - close to Virginia Street - altered and repaired.
Architect Tommaso Briatico said he plans to have the drawings of the work done around the end of this month to go to potential contractors. He said renovation will then take around eight months.
While it was home to Manny's for many years, Briatico said that is not the plan for the future.
"Manny's old restaurant, it's a beautiful, beautiful building on the MidWay," Briatico said. "It has tremendous details. Most of the details are still intact and we are going to be renovating the building and trying to restore the interior so we can use it commercially as a first- and second- and third-floor commerce and the last floor is going to be used for residential."
Briatico said the plans are to rent to businesses like law and accounting firms, with most space left alone.
"We're going to reuse the rooms the way they are," he said. "We don't want to take the rooms and take the space and bastardize it. We would like to be able to reuse the footprint just the way it is."
Briatico said a lot of the space has been cleaned out, but the building still needs work inside and outside.
"All the ingredients on the exterior of the building are fundamentally intact and in great condition," he said. "All we have to do is clean them up, repoint them, put in flashing, put in new windows, put in insulated glass, do those kind of things. Then we have to go inside and we have to put in new mechanicals, new electrical, new plumbing."
There will be parking in the adjacent space, the former site of a landmark home that burned down many years ago.
