BATAVIA/City Council backs $500,000 grant to repurpose Continental building; Group of six ‘ready to roll’

BY MIKE PETTINELLA
For Video News Service

The Batavia City Council on Monday night agreed to support the Batavia Development Corporation’s application for a $500,000 grant to redevelop the vacant Continental School of Beauty building at 215 East Main St., right next door to the new Healthy Living Campus facility.

Building owners – and there are six of them — are looking to renovate the first floor into “leasable commercial spaces, expanding the rear of the building and creating eight to 12 market-rate rental units,” according to a memo from BDC Director Tammy Hathaway to City Council and City Manager Rachael Tabelski.

Speaking at last night’s meeting, Hathaway touched upon the BDC’s “successful track record” in obtaining New York Main Street Anchor grants.

The deadline for submission through the 2025 Consolidated Funding Application is July 31.

“Readiness is a large piece of the grant application, and this project is ready,” Hathaway said. “They’re finalizing their renderings at the moment and their engineering plans.”

Local entrepreneurs Matt Gray and Paul Thompson are acting as the “leads” for the project.

Hathaway said that both Gray (through Eli Fish Restaurant) and Thompson (as contractor for the Theater 56 project) have “experience in successfully administering one of these grants.”

In her memo, Hathaway wrote that the grant would foster rehabilitation of “our downtown buildings and add to our housing base, which is desperately needed and is a feature of the City’s Pro-Housing Community Designation.

Continuing, she wrote that the BDC has administered four NYMS grant programs and one DRI Building Improvement Fund, resulting in 22 projects receiving $2.2 million in funding.

City Council moved the measure to a future Business meeting.

Contacted on Tuesday morning, Gray said other principals in the venture are Matt Boyd, who is Gray’s longtime business partner, and Wade Thompson, Will Thompson and Madison Wesolowski, who are part of the Thompson Builds Inc. team.

“We closed on the building in May,” Gray said, adding that the two-floor structure is around 11,000 square feet. “We’re still mapping out the building. Currently, the second floor is 4,000 square feet, approximately.

“And we’re looking to extend the footprint of the second floor to match the first. Right now, it’s leaning towards (putting in) seven apartments; that would fit nicely.”

Gray said his group is “ready to roll, but waiting for the grant process.”

He said construction would start by the end of this year, with completion of the commercial space expected by mid-summer 2026 and the residential space soon thereafter. He put the project price tag at more than $1 million.

When asked if there were any prospects for the commercial space, Gray said the opportunity is listed in pre-leasing through (realtor) Tony Mancuso.

Gray, who also recently bought the former JC Penney building next to the City Centre, said having the Healthy Living Campus next door was a key factor in this latest purchase.

“That’s exactly it. That was what brought us to the site – the development next door really piqued our interest.”