After several years on the real estate market, the Northwest Bank building at 55 East Ave. has been sold to local developer Matt Martin for $1,250,000.
The sale included both the 32,718 square-foot building on the corner with Washburn Street, formerly the headquarters of Lockport Savings Bank, and the 15,462 square-foot drive-thru building located at 80 Washburn St. Combined, the parcel totals 1.78 acres.
“The bank is going to remain a tenant for the near future,” Martin said. “We hope to keep them there for longer than that. We’re also working through some potential leases now. We put this building under contract two years ago. It’s just taken that long to close it. The intent was never to redevelop it.”
At the time it was listed for sale, Shawn Walker, Northwest Bank’s executive vice president of communications and regional marketing, said the building was not a good fit. Walker said the multi-story building was constructed to house a full-service bank, but Northwest was not occupying the space. Instead, Northwest was using the one-story building behind the parking lot.
In the meantime, Martin has placed the former YMCA building at 19 East Ave. up for sale, listed at $495,000. The YMCA vacated the three-story, 33,360 square-foot building in 2018. At that time, the Greater Lockport Development Corporation had considered the site for a downtown revitalization project, and said it had the potential to be converted into 21 market-rate apartments.
“I think it would be smart to do some kind of housing, four, five or six apartments with amenities,” Martin said. “A great feature of that building is the basketball court, and pickleball and racquetball courts. They’re in great shape. If it were to sell, I think the buyer would want to incorporate that into it.”
Martin is also the owner of the Shuffle City Brewing Company, which is under construction at 13 W. Main St., and said three of the four upstairs apartments have been rented.
The brew pub will feature five regulation indoor shuffleboard courts and two indoor bocce courts in the space where the bowling alleys existed in the original Kendzie’s. Martin said the pub will run shuffleboard leagues for four-person teams Monday through Thursday during the fall and winter, with open play Friday through Sunday. He said the regulation shuffleboard courts are a surprising 52 feet long by 6 feet wide.
“The building is a lot bigger than people think it is,” he said. “It’s definitely a different spin on a brewery.”
After hiring a brewer and installing a six-barrel brewing system last fall, Martin said the pub faced unexpected delays.
“We had a little bit of a hiccup because of the bathrooms,” he said. “They shipped the wrong tile. It came in last week and we started putting it in on Friday. We’ll have the bathrooms complete and the construction will be done. All that’s left is refinishing the bar itself. Our kitchen equipment is coming in in the next week or so. We really are targeting a soft opening for the end of May. All the big construction stuff will be complete in the next week or so.”