OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk Planning and Development Director Vince DeJoy speaks about the city’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative

Two and a half years after it was awarded by the state, there’s few visible signs of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative in Dunkirk. However, the city planning and development director insisted recently that things are moving along.

Vince DeJoy offered an update on city DRI projects at a meeting of the Common Council’s Economic Development Committee. He said there was “good progress.”

DeJoy highlighted the project in the former bank building on the corner of Fourth Street and Central Avenue. Peak Development is converting that into a mixed-use building with retail space and apartments.

“From what I understand, there’s about one month more worth of work,” DeJoy said. “I don’t believe they have a tenant for the commercial space yet,” he admitted. However, he expects the six apartments to get filled quickly.

Peak Development is also handling a redevelopment of the Macaroni Building on the corner of Washington Avenue and Lake Shore Drive, according to DeJoy. He said that it would be a mixed-use space with 10 apartments.

There are potential commercial tenants for that project, and “one of the probable tenants is a physical therapy practice,” DeJoy said.

He continued that the state is still looking at reallocating $2.2 million that was supposed to go towards a Jamestown Community College campus in the Graf Building on Central Avenue. JCC backed out of the project.

DeJoy said city officials are pushing for some of the funds to get reallocated for a mixed-use project at the Ehler’s Building, which is directly across Central Avenue from the old bank building that’s under refurbishment. “We may have a developer lined up for that one,” he teased.

Here’s what he said about some of the other projects:

— “Hopefully, we’ll see some activity sometime in the fall” with Regan Development’s project to construct apartments on Washington Avenue and on the west side of what is now Save-a-Lot Plaza on Fourth Street.

— The Clarion Hotel got some money for refurbishment but there has been no word on the flow of that project. DeJoy said he would be meeting with hotel officials this week “to see what their progress is.”

— The city plans to move forward with a $2 million project on the east side of the Marina. However, a similar project to refurbish the west side of the Marina is still in limbo. The control of that portion, which is leased by the city to private entrepreneurs, is in litigation — Triple S LLC, which took over the lease from Peter Smith, is reportedly suing him over an allegedly improper transfer.

— DeJoy had little information about a project to revamp the Adams Art Gallery into a public use space. “That one is still kind of being worked through. I don’t know what will end up there,” he said.

DeJoy had to leave the meeting but let his deputy, EJ Hayes, handle an update on the DRI’s Small Business Fund. The fund will distribute approximately $473,000 to downtown businesses for improvement projects.

Hayes said there were 12 applicants for projects. He doesn’t want to announce the winning projects until the state reallocates the $2.2 million that was supposed to be used for JCC’s project. That’s because city officials want some of that to get added to the business fund. If it does, more projects will be able to access the funding.

“The idea is, in a couple weeks once we know, we’ll announce the projects,” Hayes said.