By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

The owners of the blighted Central Park Plaza - once a retailing anchor in Buffalo's Central Park and Masten neighborhoods - agreed to clean up the 29-acre property and promised to sell the complex.

The cleanup and planned sale are part of a multi-pronged agreement between New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Samuel Kurz and Central Park Plaza LLC, the Brooklyn-based owners of the property. The owners are also barred from owning property in Buffalo as part of the agreement.

Schneiderman's office got involved in the Central Park Plaza issue at the urging of Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was thwarted in previous attempts to revive the plaza or find new owners for the Holden Street property.

Schneiderman found the property to be unkempt, virtually empty and a hub of criminal activities, including dog fighting and drug dealing. The plaza property is surrounded by single-family homes and apartment buildings. Five schools are located nearby.

"For years, residents living near Central Park Plaza have had to live in fear of this eyesore and dangerous public nuisance located in the heart of their community. As a result of this settlement, the dark days will be over soon," the attorney general said. "This neglect has threatened the health, welfare and safety of its residents, and my office is committed to cracking down on absentee landlords who devastate our neighborhoods."

The investigation found property that was unlit at night and attracted vandals and thieves, putting neighborhood residents at risk and enabling individuals to dump garbage and trash into the plaza.

Moreover, the unlit plaza is a danger to pedestrians and drivers because the parking lot is riddled with potholes and other obstructions, Schneiderman said.

With no security, vandals routinely break into buildings, he added. To make matters worse, the unsecured buildings attract neighborhood children who are able to enter the buildings at an imminent risk to their safety.

Brown said he was pleased with Schneiderman's response.

"My city housing inspectors have worked hard to get this site cleaned up and made safer for residents by writing up the Brooklyn-based owners, both the corporation and the individual," Brown said. "Central Park residents will no longer have to live in fear of this dangerous public nuisance."

Under the agreement with Schneiderman's office, Kurz and Central Park Plaza LLC must clean up the property.

They also are required to do the following:

• Light Central Park Plaza from dusk to dawn.

• Regularly patrol the area.

• Repair or secure broken windows, holes in exterior walls and doors.

• Remove trash and debris.

• Cut and remove overgrown grass and weeds.

In addition, the agreement requires that the respondents sell Central Park Plaza as soon as is practical and bars them from owning property locally.

The case was handled by Assistant Attorney General James Morrissey under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General In-Charge for the Buffalo regional office of Michael Russo.