Matt Gray

Walking into the former JCPenney department store == only now without all the clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories -- the 38,000 square-foot space seems even more expansive and pliable for a ripe imagination.

Batavia businessman Matt Gray, who purchased and recently closed on the downtown building with partner Matthew Boyd, sees it as an opportunity for a number of different possibilities, from what it was previously as a mid-size department store or smaller shops subdivided within the main showroom and adjacent storage room and beauty salon to one large venue for some type of entertainment or activity. Or perhaps, on the more costly side, going the route of second and/or third-floor market-rate apartments above with an interior courtyard to provide windows for all tenants.

“We’re investigating right now whether or not this building would support upper floors. As you know, the zoning for C3 requires any residential would be by special use permit upstairs,” Gray said Wednesday during a tour of the site with The Batavian.

City officials had an open house last fall with renderings illustrating how the building could potentially look as a mixed-use site with housing. Gray saw those sketches, and “it all plays into the larger picture that everyone seems to be supporting, from a municipal standpoint,” he said.

That may be a longer-range plan as the partners have begun the process of entering a broker agreement with Mancuso Commercial Realty to list the property for lease. They acquired the site, which was assessed for $400,000 according to county online records, at a bank mortgage foreclosure auction in January for $175,000.

What’s your primary goal, to lease it out versus developing, or all of it?
“We are open to any and all ideas with the property. As somebody who works right across the street, it’s something that we want to see full and vibrant and brings people into the area,” he said. “You know, to us and everyone else, that's downtown. It's sat vacant for a long time. So we'd like to see something in here that brings people in.”

Along those lines, they’ve had “a couple of very casual conversations” with people with possible interest in the space, but nothing concrete at this time, he said. The agreement with Mancuso will begin the formal way for folks to inquire about the property, he said.

Given the amount of time that the building has been sitting unoccupied — Penney closed in October 2020 and was purchased in February 2021 by California developer Yong Guang Ye, but nothing materialized from that, and Ye defaulted on payments — Gray was surprised that it was in as good condition that it was, he said.

“There are a couple of leaks that we knew, we expected that there would be a couple of leaks, given the age of the structure, and we did see the satellite photos from Google, so we knew that there was a potential there. There are a number of leaks. None of them seem to be all that serious, and there doesn't appear to be any structural damage,” Gray said. “We have a local roofing company coming out next week to take a look. We're under the impression that with some repair work, we can get a few more years out of it before we need to do the whole roof, which will buy us some time in order to get some income coming in to support it.”

There are spots on the ceiling tiles with rusty brown areas showing water damage, and there were a couple of more active leaks, he said, but nothing terribly alarming. Everything, including ceiling tiles and walls, would be replaced anyway before anyone moved in to use the space, he said.

Sections of the partially carpeted floor, set off by tile, are filled with empty store fixtures used to hang clothing, jewelry and accessories. Those are for sale, Gray said, either individually or in lots, and will likely go up for auction at some point. Anyone interested can contact him at Eli Fish.

One of the more interesting things discovered on the premises was a safe room, which contained another safe. The only items left behind were 1970s papers from when the original store was built. There were letters, memos and construction guidelines from corporate in copies of what looked to be typed on an old-fashioned clickety-clack typewriter. Gray noted that the men’s and women’s bathrooms were left in good condition, and the beauty salon has a sink, shelving, and mirrors.

A back stock room has fabulously huge shelves to store one’s business or home goods, maybe? Or the space is also large enough for another entire shop or enterprise.

Because it's kind of divided right now, are you thinking walls could come down, or are you looking at pretty much the showroom as far as the space for development?
“We’re working with Olive Architecture out of Raleigh to determine what walls could come down and what would need to stay. We're under the impression right now that with the 16 columns that you see here, and we believe there's another four inside the walls, that those are holding most of the weight. So, outside of those columns, it seems like almost everything else could come out. And it's pretty modular,” he said.

How do you feel about owning a piece of City Centre?
“Now that the entrances are fixed and the concourse no longer has any leaking issues, and the city has told us that they are working towards concourse improvements, it all seems to be going in the right direction,” he said. “We would love to find a potential tenant that would have some synergy with a Game of Throws and a Sim, something that is an entertainment area that we think that's a great use for the space. “There's a lot of good ideas of things that could go downtown that would be a benefit.

“We had long conversations, Matt Boyd and I, and one of the overarching concerns is this piece seems to be kind of the key piece in a lot of this block’s development. And if this piece were to have not gone to a local user, and if it were to have gone back to the bank, we were afraid that it would be tied up in real estate owned by the bank for another three, five years,” he said. “You have no idea how long they would keep it dark without potentially not even marketing it. So at the price that it went for, we thought there was enough opportunity there for us to be okay with what it is and to take the risk on it ourselves and to ensure that it just didn't sit here.”

This isn’t Gray’s first rodeo: he and his partners have gone through renovations with Eli Fish Brewing Company on Main Street, the former Newberry’s, and he also owns Alex’s Place on the west side of town and the McCarthy ice arena. His resume boosted the confidence of city officials and Batavia Development Corp. Executive Director Tammy Hathaway when he walked away with the top bid earlier this year.

“I mean, Matty is successful in his endeavors; he’s proven that. So I could not even find a complaint if I wanted to,” Hathaway had said at the courthouse while Gray was wrapping up the deal.

Photos by Howard Owens