Nov 4
2025
The intersection of neglect and indifference
- Share on
The intersection of Niagara and Jersey streets on Buffalo’s Lower West Side is riddled with trash, vacant lots, abandoned buildings and menacing squatters. It’s been going downhill for a decade or more. The only consistency has been the indifference of property owners and the inaction of city officials.
Jersey Street resident David Eisenbart used to tend a community garden on a corner of the intersection, but he said that squatters in an abandoned cottage next door made the environment too dangerous.
“Every once in a while I would go and mow, just because it got very bad, but the squatters were very threatening, so I kind of just just left it alone,” he said.
Another of the properties was the scene of a major drug bust and now serves as a haven for squatters. Another, a once-historic building, has deteriorated over the past few years. Where once stood two homes there are now vacant lots. The former community garden is strewn with weeds and litter.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomLyannelis Vega has worked five years at La Flor bakery, across the street from an abandoned house at 539 Niagara St. She said squatters from that and other vacant buildings come into the bakery all the time.
“We try to help them out, but sometimes they’re just overly aggressive,” she said. “There’s so much life around here but you can’t see it, because there’s a lot of abandoned stuff.”
Much of the property at this intersection is owned by a few well-known developers. A couple of them announced ambitious plans for construction and redevelopment. Here’s what was supposed to happen, and here’s what actually has happened at these sites.
580 Niagara: The “Valentine’s Day Miracle”
For years, the small, two-story commercial building at 580 Niagara St. was the site of Brothers Halal Market. Behind the shop on the same property, near the southwest corner of Niagara and Jersey, is a small cottage.
The property was acquired in 2012 by Infinite Entry LLC, a subsidiary of Lancaster-based property management and development company Bella Vista Group. The storefront closed in 2013 after federal agents arrested and charged several suspected dealers with running a methamphetamine operation out of the building.
“The building quickly deteriorated after that, and there were a lot of squatters and drug use at that location,” Eisenbart said.
Three years later, the building caught fire and was demolished. The circumstances of the fire remain unknown. Eisenbart believed it was caused by squatters.
The cottage that remains was also slated to be torn down. Residents complained about trespassers using drugs in the building, according to Eisenbart.
“I know the neighbors were kind of looking forward to it being demolished,” he said.
The property has been the subject of 15 complaints to the city’s 311 service request line — mostly reports of housing code violations, calls for police and requests for the structure to be boarded up. It was on track for demolition until February 13, 2020, when Buffalo’s Young Preservationists, headed by Bernice Radle, Christina Lincoln and Derek King, asked the public to reach out to city officials on the property’s behalf.
“We need a Valentine’s Day Miracle. Please call / email to save this brick cottage on Niagara Street. It’s likely from 1870 and could be saved if in the right hands,” Radle posted on Facebook.
A week later Radle posted that the city agreed to hold off the demolition “for a few months.” Eisenbart said it’s been five years and the property is still a problem for neighbors.
Radle told an Investigative Post reporter via text message that the owner was “long gone.” She said she had no further knowledge of the property’s status.
Since it was saved from demolition, city inspectors have cited the cottage for six code violations, ranging from unsecured windows to roof deterioration. It also garnered an additional 14 calls to 311 for code violations and criminal activity, and four more Housing Court cases.
Niagara District Common Council Member David Rivera said his office hasn’t received complaints about the property since March 2023.
“It’s always frustrating, especially for the neighbors and residents that live nearby, adjacent to it. It poses a risk to public safety,” he said.
Investigative Post has made several attempts to contact Bella Vista Group by phone and email, but no one from the company has responded.
578 Niagara: For sale in “as is” condition
A small, mixed-use duplex, also vacant and boarded, neighbors the abandoned cottage at 580 Niagara St. Two people who didn’t want to be identified told Investigative Post that squatters have broken into the building and used drugs there.
Records indicate county property taxes haven’t been paid since 2021.
Its owner, Brooklyn-based Jennifer Hunter, didn’t have much to say about the alleged activity at her property.
“Whoever gave you information, they could explain everything to you and how they’ve been trying to sabotage what’s being done. I’m going to leave it at that,” she said.
The most-recent of two Housing Court cases for the property was opened on October 3. The property is currently listed for sale at $195,000 in “as is” condition on several online real estate marketplaces.
“Seller will do no repairs due to buyers’ home or bank inspection,” the Zillow listing reads. “Please be careful when entering the property.”
584 – 586 Niagara: Untended community garden
The two vacant lots next to the cottage — 584 and 586 Niagara St. — have been owned since 1997 by 84 Group Inc., which is controlled by Carl and William Paladino’s Ellicott Development.
For a while it was a Grassroots Community Garden, which Eisenbart tended for around five years until March 2016, when the cottage next door caught fire. On a recent visit, the lots were littered and overgrown with grass and weeds. Eisenbart said city workers occasionally cut the grass after tending to a city-owned lot directly behind those owned by the Paladinos.
Carl Paladino said in a voicemail that the company would come up with a plan for the parcels if neighbors were no longer interested in gardening there.
“If they’re no longer maintaining them, we’ll certainly just cut everything down and I’ll look into redeveloping those properties at this point in time,” he said.
588 Niagara: Unrealized historic preservation
The cottage at 580 Niagara St. wasn’t Radle’s first intervention in the area.
At the northwest corner of the intersection, at 588 Niagara St., is a commercial building that Radle’s Hestia of Buffalo LLC purchased in 2019 for $450,000. Radle planned to convert the 146-year-old building — designed by Louise Bethune, America’s first registered female architect — into apartments and businesses.
The building was the subject of 13 calls to 311 while owned by Radle’s company. It currently has 15 code violations on the books. On a recent visit, the building appeared vacant, with several broken windows, a deteriorating roof and litter in the front.
The property sits kitty-corner from 585 Niagara St., which Radle also owned and used as the headquarters of her BuffaLove Development company. She sold that building in February 2024.
Radle told Investigative Post via text that she was no longer affiliated with 588 Niagara. She said she thought the property was being sold.
“I think. I am not sure,” she wrote.
When asked if she was still associated with Hestia of Buffalo LLC, which city records indicate is still the property owner, she stopped responding.
563 – 571 Niagara: Parking lot with stalled housing plan
A commercial building at 563 Niagara St. and three adjacent parcels — 565, 569 and 571 Niagara St. — were purchased between 2019 and 2024 by GBUAHN LLC. The company is owned by Raul Vazquez, physician and founder of the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Care Organization, which he sold in 2021.
The empty lots at 565 and 569 Niagara St. were once homes — one single-family and one multi-unit dwelling — formerly owned by investor Giles Kavanagh.
Greater Buffalo United in 2021 sought permission from the city to demolish those houses, along with the commercial building at 563 Niagara, and use the land to expand the healthcare center’s parking lot. The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals denied approvals for that plan.
In 2023, Vazquez’s company announced plans to build residential units on the property instead, and the city’s Planning Board approved the demolitions of 565 and 569 Niagara St.
Two years later, the houses are gone and the commercial building is vacant. There’s been no construction on the rest of the property.
“It’s kind of a pseudo-parking lot that people park in just kind of randomly,” Eisenbart said.
Vazquez could not be reached for comment.
539 Niagara: Haven for squatters
A few houses down from Vasquez’s property sits a dilapidated three-story house with damaged windows — some broken, some boarded up — along with graffiti, a mattress on the porch, and what appears to be a makeshift bed and belongings by the front door.
The building is owned by Berner LLC, a business with a mailing address just a block away at 520 Seventh St. That’s also the address for Community Beer Works and Schaefer Malthouse Lofts.
Squatters are a problem here, too, according to Robert Quintana, a former police officer and Niagara District Common Council member. Quintana now works at the Niagara Cafe, his family’s restaurant.
“They harass our customers in the parking lot, so we constantly have to play security to get them off the parking lot,” he said.
Vega, from La Flor bakery, said it’s not uncommon to see people who frequent the abandoned building overdosing on drugs. She said she and other bakery employees have had to call medical professionals numerous times.
“I haven’t seen anybody from the city try to help at all, just people in the community doing the best they can,” Vega said.
Quintana said he’s called the police and Department of Permits and Inspections many times, to no avail. Squatters tear down boards put up by the city, and police don’t respond to calls in a timely manner. He said cafe workers frequently clean up needles around the area.
Who’s at fault?
Jared Russell has lived next door to 580 Niagara since January. He feels city officials overlook the neighborhood because its residents are primarily people of color — a dynamic he described as a “stigma” and “unhelpful.”
Census data show the neighborhood is diverse: 48 percent of residents are white, 33.8 percent are Black, and 15 percent are Hispanic and Latino.
Russell said he would like to see the city transparent and proactive in dealing with vacant properties.
“Being able to see something visible that isn’t performative would definitely make sense, and then actual change, following through, and keeping up with that promise,” he said.
Eisenbart blames the property owners for failing to maintain their properties and follow through with their plans. He also faults the city for not “forcing these people to do something or sell.”
“It just doesn’t ever feel like it’s going to end at this point. It’s still the same property owners, going from one property to the next, and it just doesn’t ever feel like it’s going to get better,” Eisenbart said.
Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon and Department of Permits and Inspections Commissioner Cathy Amdur did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls seeking comment.
Rivera, the Niagara District Council member, said his office tries to work with city inspectors and police to address abandoned buildings and the illegal activity they attract.
“People are fearful,” he said. “I’d be careful to walk by vacant houses as well.”
A problem property in your neighborhood? Share the details.
