All Saints Catholic Church, the only Catholic church in Buffalo’s Riverside section, will be put up for sale — likely this fall — as part of a plan to market a large school building, parish hall and rectory adjacent to the church, the Buffalo News reported. Parish leaders say they prefer to keep the church and sell just the other buildings, but the plan calls for all the properties to be listed together so as not to discourage potential developers. At the same time, they’re trying to raise money for repairs that will allow groups to use a portion of the school building again and generate some rental income for the parish of about 200 families. The entire school building on Esser Avenue has been off limits for months because the fire alarm system needs about $12,000 in repairs that are slated to begin in mid-August. Those fixes would allow the parish to reopen the first floor of a newer portion of the school for Boy Scout meetings, as a polling site and for other uses. In 2022, All Saints joined with Assumption in Black Rock and Holy Spirit, St. Margaret, St. Mark, and St. Rose of Lima in North Buffalo as one “family of parishes” under a new reorganization plan being pushed by the diocese as it deals with a chapter 11 bankruptcy and a growing shortage of priests.
