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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.