The Furniture Mart building in Jamestown is pictured in June 2022. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

Jamestown’s director of development took time Monday to highlight some of her department’s accomplishments over the last few years.

Crystal Surdyk provided updates to the City Council’s Housing Committee on a host of properties, including the Furniture Mart building on West Second Street and the former Jamestown Brewing Co. on West Third.

By and large, Surdyk came bearing positive housing news as the year draws to a close.

She said the city has requested that $1 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative funding originally earmarked to revitalize the Key Bank building on North Main Street be reallocated toward the Furniture Mart building.

The redevelopment of the former Key Bank property into a mixed-used building with space for offices, retail and residential units was included in a list of 10 projects to receive state DRI funding. Announced in May 2017, the $1 million project was seen as a potential downtown anchor, “which will increase residential opportunities, bring new commercial activity, and create jobs in the downtown,” the award stated.

However, those plans never came to fruition, and Surdyk now hopes that money can be put to better use.

“The state has come in,” she told the Housing Committee. “We’ve had lots of conversations. So we’re very confident that they will reallocate those funds to the Furniture Mart project, which is much further along in terms of being fully baked, if you will.”

Surdyk said there are a “couple of different developers” who have expressed interest in the West Second Street building, designed in the early 1900s to showcase the region’s furniture and to hold expositions.

“With that million dollars in DRI funding, that opportunity I think is much more viable for that project,” she said.

Surdyk also alluded to a possible deal in place for new development at the former Jamestown Brewing Co. Located at the corner of West Third and Washington streets, the brewery fared poorly in its short existence — not the least due to the sudden arrival of COVID-19 in 2020.

There’s positive news to some of the city’s smaller vacant properties as well.

Surdyk said the closed Havana Cuban Cafe and Pizzeria, 212 N. Main St., is in the process of being sold and reopened as a restaurant. Further, she said, every storefront in the Jamestown Housing Authority building is currently occupied by commercial businesses.

She said the city is having conversations with the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, Gebbie Foundation and the county Planning Department to put together a developer’s forum. “We haven’t done that in a number of years,” she said, “and we’ve got some really interesting new opportunities for development.”

The lack of public comment during Monday’s committee meeting provided ample time for discussion on vacant buildings, new development and recent demolitions. Monthly meetings routinely include plenty of public input, which often limits how much time council members can hear from city officials on a range of housing-related matters.

Housing Committee Chair Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, lauded the Department of Development for its work.

Surdyk did allude to some of the hurdles her office has faced.

“I think it’s important to remember that we were shut down for two of the last four years – that we could not do anything,” she said. “I feel like people have forgotten that we literally couldn’t do anything for two years, and we were in a place of just trying to keep the businesses that we had from losing their shirts. And we were really successful in doing that.”

DEMOLITION, VACANT BUILDING PLANS

Carrubba said she was glad to see that a North Main Street residence damaged by fire last summer has already been demolished.

The demolition, the city director of development said, was handled by the homeowner at no cost to the city.

“That happened much more quickly than I had anticipated,” Carrubba responded. “There were issues and concerns. We know you had done everything to have that building buttoned up. It did not stay buttoned up; there were people going in and out and it looked to be hazardous.”

Surdyk said there are a number of derelict properties that have been demolished and others currently in the process of coming down.

“They should be rocking and rolling,” she said.

She said the department is still working on a vacant property ordinance. Officials recently met with the village of Sherman, which has its own vacant property ordinance.

“They have found a great deal of success,” Surdyk said of Sherman. “They did share some of their language as well, which we’ve incorporated into what we have.”

She expects the ordinance to be brought before the Housing Committee early next year.