Resurrecting a Village by Buying Up Main Street

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Real-estate developer Greg O’Connell plans on resurrecting Mount Morris, New York by buying up Main Street:

His intentions became clear in the last year as he took control of more than a third of downtown and began chipping away at the building facades, renovating apartments and signing up tenants. Mr. O’Connell, 68, a big, shambling retired New York City detective, wants nothing less than to bring Mount Morris back from the dead and make it a western New York version of Red Hook, Brooklyn, where he made his name and millions.

He has snatched up 19 buildings, some at tax lien sales for $2,000, and has restored the historic look of a half-dozen storefronts, dusting off the tin ceilings and renovating the apartments on the second floor, where he has installed new bathrooms and oak floors. New businesses — an Italian restaurant, a barber shop, an antiques store and a gourmet food shop — are opening in long-vacant spaces, with leases from Mr. O’Connell that require the businesses to leave their lights on at night, stay open at least one evening a week and change their window displays at least four times a year.
[...]
Mr. O’Connell, who reckons he has spent $1 million on the 19 properties and plans to spend another $1 million on renovations, says he has had a soft spot for the area ever since he attended SUNY Geneseo. He moved to New York City after graduation to join the Police Department, and did not turn his attention to Red Hook until long after he retired, in 1981.

He bought waterfront land cheaply from the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and set about renovating dormant Civil War-era stone warehouses on the piers, where wild dogs and drug dealers roamed.

Today, his buildings house more than 150 small businesses and Fairway, the high-end grocery that has attracted patrons from all over Brooklyn.
[...]
Rents for Mr. O’Connell’s stores run about $5 a square foot, a paltry sum by New York City standards. Carol Huffman, who rents a store for her antiques and used-furniture business, Treasure Island, said she was also paying $300 a month for the cozy, exposed-brick apartment she rented upstairs from her store.

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