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Napa adds to renewal of Michigan- Genesee area

Auto parts retailer in ex-Anthone store

By SHARON LINSTEDT
News Staff Reporter
12/2/2005

A long-idle retail storefront at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Genesee Street downtown has come back to life as a Napa Auto Parts store, joining a growing list of fresh investment in that neighborhood.

"It's a prime location with lots of potential customers," said Dave Jemiolo, manager of the company-owned Napa store that debuted this week. "Our corporate people looked at several locations downtown and took into account the redevelopment that is happening and how everything is moving upward."

The new Napa store, the company's third Buffalo location, fills space vacated in 1993 by Anthone Furniture, which had occupied the building for 74 years. The site was briefly used as a nightclub, but has sat boarded up most of the past decade.

Jemiolo said the turn-of-the-century building's unique characteristics, including interior support pillars, required a one-of-a-kind store layout.

"Napa stores are pretty much cookie cutter with everything predetermined, but this was the exact opposite. Everything had to be customized to fit into the space and around the pillars. It gives it a lot of character and a nostalgic feel," he said.

Another non-standard touch is the exterior wall mural that rises above the store on the adjoining building. Napa hired local artist Blair Rusin to come up with a 1930s scene of a bustling downtown Buffalo to give the site additional flair.

"It shows Buffalo at the height of greatness, lots of activity. Hopefully that's where things are headed again," Jemiolo said.

Napa's investment and unexpected flair has not gone unnoticed by neighboring business Quermback Electric Inc., located across the intersection at 215 Genesee St. Operating continuosly at the site since the 1940s, Quermback spent several years as the sole business at that corner.

"We've stuck it out down here from the good times to the bad," said Brian Radzwill, vice president of the family-owned electric supply company.

Over the decades Quermback morphed its operation from a full-service electric store with consumer showrooms to a company whose primary customer base is now the professional building trades. As neighboring businesses closed and foot traffic fell, it adjusted its hours to eliminate evening and Saturday sales.

Quermback now relies heavily on a small fleet of trucks to speed electric fixtures and supplies around the the city, the suburbs and beyond.

"We were doing fine without other businesses around us, but it was a nice surprise to hear what Napa was up to," Radzwill said. "It was great to see the boards come down off the building."

Napa may be the first new retailer in the neighborhood in decades, but it isn't the only new life. In recent months the Maritime and Pinnacle charter schools have both moved into renovated light industrial space near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Genesee Street.

A new medical facility project just saw groundbreaking on the northwest corner of the intersection which will bring nearly $5 million in capital investment, plus patient traffic.

The neighborhood also sits between the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to the north, and the emerging Michigan Avenue cultural tourism corridor to the south.

"This is another clear, in-your-face indication that our city is healing and improving," said Mayor Anthony M. Masiello. "That was a tough corner not that long ago and practically overnight there's a diverse mix of retail, medical, educational and cultural investment."