BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Mulligan’s Brick Bar in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood is officially set for demolition following a fire at the property Sunday morning.
City officials announced that the demolition of the property will begin Wednesday at 9 a.m.
According to the Preservation Buffalo Niagara executive director Bernice Radle, everything was set up for the Brick Bar to be stabilized by Tuesday afternoon, they just needed one final approval from the building’s owner.
“The real issue was that…that the owner is still unwilling at this time to say yes to saving this building,” Radle said.
“It’s a very sad day for Buffalo, for this neighborhood,” Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon said. “The cost associated with stabilization, the timeline associated with stabilization, it really became unattainable to stabilize and salvage the façade of this building at this point. It’s a sad situation; nobody was happy to be here for this reason.”
Brick Bar's owner ultimately decided not to move forward with that stabilization.
“We were quoted about $150,000 to $200,000 to stabilize,” Radle said.
Following the hypothetical stabilization of the building, the owner would then have had to foot the bill for a complete rebuild.
Radle told me that they would have been eligible for historic tax credits that would have made the cost of the rebuild cheaper, however, the owner ultimately decided to let the city complete an emergency tear-down of the building.
Officials said after a thorough investigation by the Buffalo Fire Department with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the cause of the fire was officially ruled as undetermined. It is classified as accidental "most likely the result of electrical or mechanical malfunction."
A GoFundMe has been created to help support employees at the Brick Bar. You can donate here.
Below you can watch our report from Sunday as the cleanup began after the fire.
