Brisbane Mansion, the former City of Batavia Police Department at 10 West Main Street-photo by Brian Quinn
Story by Brian Quinn
With the former Brisbane Mansion in Batavia possibly being developed as apartments in a second round of Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) funding, the county recommends approval of required subdivision of the property to move potential development forward.
The County Planning Board met Thursday night and approved a subdivision to allow the city to convey the old mansion property to the Batavia Development Corporation (BDC). BDC Director Tammy Hathaway said the mansion, 10 W. Main Street, was originally attached to Austin Park.
“The city had to have the building alienated from the park. The parking lot was to remain as city-owned,” she told the board. “There was a small piece of the parking that was actually attached to the building piece. We need that detached from the building and just attached to the parking so all of the parking remains city-owned.”
Hathaway said the BDC is in the process of purchasing the mansion from the city.
“We do have a developer who is going to purchase it from the BDC. The city has been awarded the $10 million DRI and we’re putting together a project with that building to redevelop it into apartments for the DRI project,” she said.
Planning Board member Tom Schubmehl asked where tenants for the proposed apartments would park.
“The city will make an agreement. It will be a lease agreement – they haven’t determined exactly what that will look like – with the developer, who will own the property, so that there will be assigned parking that can be used by the tenants. We have parking passes. Anyone who lives downtown that doesn’t have parking goes to City Hall and gets a parking pass.”
Hathaway said the goal is to not have the former Brisbane Mansion, which served as police headquarters until the department vacated it in late 2025, sit empty. The department moved into its current building at Bank Street and Alva Place months ago.
“It is a historic building. It’s on the National Registry and it is in the historic Court District,” she said of the former mansion. “We just want it to sit vacant as little as possible.”
After leaving the meeting, Hathaway said the developer hasn’t been publicly announced.
“Once we get into DRI applications for projects, then that will come out. I believe it’s 11 or 12 apartments. It’s right outside the BID (Batavia Business Improvement District. In the BID district, we don’t allow first-floor apartments,” she said.
There’s plenty of parking all around the former Brisbane Mansion, Hathaway noted.
Specific monthly rent amounts for the apartments haven’t been discussed.
“I would imagine there would probably be closer to something in the market rate area,” she said.
Hathaway said that about a year ago, the BDC put out a request for proposals for the old Brisbane Mansion.
“We had done a reuse analysis in 2023, that finalized in 2024, of what would be the best use for the Brisbane Mansion. It came back as either apartments or a boutique hotel,” she recalled.
Hathaway said according to a New York State Authorities Budget Office rule, if the BDC purchases the property from the city, the BDC has to own it for 90 days before it can sell it.
“We have certain specific rules we have to follow and that will play into the timeline of how this moves,” she said. “We needed to get this step taken care of as quickly as possible, because we need to get the 90 days started. The DRI has a timeframe. The Local Planning Committee has started meeting. They are going to meet starting in July and for the next months be receiving projects and reviewing them, and scoring them.”
The 90 days starts when the BDC takes ownership of the mansion property and Hathaway submits documentation to the Authorities Budget Office.
DRI Local Planning Committee Meeting on Tuesday -Photo by Alecia Kaus
Hathaway said this week was the first DRI Local Planning Committee meeting. She and City Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. spent about two hours Tuesday morning visiting the area within the DRI 2.0 boundary with state-assigned consultants.
Link to more on the meeting:GENESEE COUNTY/City of Batavia/Plans begin for DRI 2.0 with Local Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday – Video News Service
“We talked about different projects and things like that. Later in the afternoon, the Local Planning Committee got together. They went over the video and then over what the timeline looks like as far as receiving applications for projects. The timeline begins this July, she said. By December or January, or a little after that, the committee would have the final projects and what it wants to propose to the state.”
“The projects will come in and they’ll get scored,” she said, noting Batavia is the only city in the state to get two DRI awards.
Also Thursday, the County Planning Board voted to recommend disapproval of a proposed 1,800-square foot, three-bay oil change facility, with parking and landscaping, at 8348 Lewiston Road.
The board said the application does not have enough information regarding traffic impacts. It doesn’t have an opinion from the state Department of Transportation regarding the driveway location and its proximity to two intersections – the intersections of Lewiston Road and Veterans Memorial Drive and Lewiston Road and Arena Parkway. The applicant is Dean Architects, PLLC of Williamsville. The owner would be Interstate Autocare LLC of Williamsville.