Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced more than $102 million awarded to 64 projects through the Restore New York Communities Initiative. Restore New York supports municipal revitalization efforts across the state, helping to remove blight, reinvigorate downtowns, and generate economic opportunity in communities statewide.

Among the funding projects include the White Inn in Fredonia, the former Welch building in Westfield, and the senior housing for the former Silver Creek High School. Also, the city of Dunkirk will receive funds to develop Central Avenue. The four projects will total $4.75 million.

WHITE INN

The White Inn restoration received $1.25 million. The former hotel and restaurant has been vacant and in a state of decline since 2017. The developer intends to renovate and reopen the 25-room hotel to include a restaurant and banquet services.

Dunkirk Central Ave.

The project is in the heart of the village of Fredonia and has the opportunity to attract significant new investment, economic activity, and attract visitors, students and families of SUNY Fredonia. The Inn requires extensive renovation however, once completed, it will provide visitors to the region with a new and unique lodging experience.

In July, local business leader Steve St. George, owner of St. George Enterprises, Inc., announced that he, along with restaurant partner Devin Jones, were purchasing the historic White Inn in downtown Fredonia from New Jersey-based JG Funding Corp. for an undisclosed amount. According to St. George and Jones, the iconic structure will be returned to its original splendor as a hotel, restaurant, bar, and events space.

In September, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency approved a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement for the White Inn. Before the vote, Mark Geise, county IDA director and chief executive officer, said Steve St. George is looking to invest about $3.9 million into the facility, which is located at 52 E. Main St., Fredonia.

WELCH’S BUILDING

The village of Westfield Welch’s Building, which is located at 2 Portage St., received $1.5 million. This project will provide historic rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the three-story concrete and brick Welch’s Building.

White Inn

Constructed in 1909 by the Welch’s Grape Juice Company for their office headquarters, with a 1967 addition responsive to the initial design aesthetic, the building is historically significant and important to the region. The commercial investment will result in the creation of full-time construction jobs and full-time operations management after construction which will have spinoff economic development benefits. This project will also improve local housing stock through the creation of 46 new housing units, which are highly lacking in this market area.

In December of 2021, the county Industrial Development Agency approved a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes agreement with 2 Portage LLC. That company was looking to renovate the entire 48,000-square-foot building, creating a mix of residential apartments and commercial tenant space. Cost estimates at that time were about $11.9 million.

Minimal changes are expected to the exterior. Initial plans call for the first two floors to be commercial tenants and the third and fourth floors to be residential.

SILVER CREEK HIGH SCHOOL

The village of Silver Creek Senior School Apartments received $1 million. The project at 60 Main St. involves the substantial rehabilitation, conversion, and an addition to a vacant, nearly 100-year old, 57,000 sq. ft. abandoned former school into a 59,900 sq. ft. building with 47 units of affordable rental homes for seniors ages 62 and older.

Welch Building

The site is an eyesore and a community safety hazard with severe structural issues to be resolved and costly contaminants including: asbestos, lead and PCBs that will be remediated.

In the spring of 2021, the Chautauqua County Legislature sold the former school building to Region Nine UAW Housing Corporation for $1.

Region Nine owns and manages around 1,200 affordable housing units in 10 communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The non-profit agency wants to convert the former high school, which has been vacant since 1978, into a facility for low income senior citizens.

Officials with Region Nine have said the project is expected to cost $24 million to complete.

CENTRAL AVENUE TRANSFORMATION

The city of Dunkirk Central Avenue Transformation project received $1 million. This project will address vacant properties in the 400 block of Central Avenue in Downtown Dunkirk.

The property at 411 Central Ave., the former P&G Grocery store, and its equipment was sold to Allan Steinberg, a local investor, that saw the potential to bring back a vacant popular grocery store and create a “Broadway Market” type of space where kiosks would be rented, and the old-world butcher shop reopened with a permanent vendor.

The building at 423-427 Central Avenue is a two-story structure with a brick facade that has had only one storefront occupied and would be developed into four new apartments that can be affordable, with one three-bedroom, a 2-bedroom, and two one-bedroom units.

In October, the Dunkirk City Council, passed a resolution supporting the application to Restore NY.

“The proposed project is consistent with (the) city’s (Brownfield Opportunity Area) Plan and the Comprehensive Plan, and acts as a driver to promote economic development and reinvestment in a vacant building,” the resolution stated.