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History of Amherst State Park News Archives

Purchaser sought for old convent's boiler house

- Complex includes garage near town's state park


Buffalo News,   April 18, 2010  by Sandra Tan

       The Amherst Town Board would like someone to buy the historic but  run-down St. Mary of the Angels boiler house and garage complex  near Amherst State Park.

       The board agreed this week to issue a request for proposals from  anyone interested in owning and rehabilitating the building.


       A study of the building in 2004 indicated that the boiler house was  structurally sound but it needed more than $761,000 to stabilize  and mothball the building. The town eventually decided it would be  less expensive to demolish the structure, but later learned that  the cost to do so would exceed $500,000.


       Council Member Barbara Nuchereno put forth a resolution Monday  asking the purchasing director to seek out interested parties who  might be interested in redeveloping the boiler house and garage  complex for "uses compatible with the open space character of the  Amherst State Park and the adjacent senior citizen residences."


       "It would save hundreds of thousands of dollars and keep a  historically significant property in use," Nuchereno said.


       The boiler house is considered a "contributing structure" in the  National Register of Historic Places designation of the St. Mary of  the Angels Motherhouse, which served as a convent from 1928 to 1999  and was converted to senior apartments in 2003. The boiler house,  which also held the motherhouse's power and laundry facilities, is  a tan brick structure with a huge stone chimney. It is heavily  contaminated with lead paint and asbestos, town officials said.


       Nuchereno said the owner of St. Mary's Commons Apartments, the  former convent, is interested in expanding and purchasing the  boiler house. Out of fairness, however, she said the town is making  the opportunity to buy the building available to any interested  party.

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