OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen The former P&G Foods location is targeted by the Restore NY program.

Dunkirk’s Common Council is looking to bring some life to a nearly desolate 400 block of Central Avenue.

A resolution, sponsored by members Nancy Nichols, Martin Bamonto, James Stoyle and Natalie Luczkowiak, is seeking $2 million in grant funding through the Empire State Development’s Restore New York Round Six program. Sites being considered include: 401-403 Central, which formerly housed the HSBC and First Niagara banks; 411 Central, which was home to P&G Foods; and 423-427 Central, which is currently home to The Studio while the rest of the building is vacant.

Two of the locations are currently owned by ZTS Development, LLC, which is owned by Allen Steinberg. The other location, the former bank, is in tax foreclosure and would be sold by Chautauqua County to the Dunkirk Local Development Corp.

Plans for the buildings include:

¯ A proposed mixed use site at 401-403 Central Ave., that would include one new apartment in the rear of the structure on the second floor. The site have been vacant for five years.

¯ A proposed marketplace similar to the Broadway Market in Buffalo with leased vendors and speciality meats and custom butchering at the former P&G site, which has also been empty for five years though it has been used as campaign headquarters during election season.

¯ Mixed-use plans for the 423-427 site, which has two ground commercial and retail spaces with office space in the upper floors being unused for five years. Some residential living is also being considered.

“The proposed project is consistent with (the) city’s (Brownfield Opportunity Area) Plan and the Comprehensive Plan, and acts as a driver to promote economic development and reinvestment in a vacant building,” the resolution states in regard to what is being billed as the Central Avenue Transformation project.

In addition to this item, the council also will be asked to provide police assistance for the Dunkirk High School homecoming parade route on Friday and award a bid for demolition of a site at 47 E. Second St.

Council meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday with a workshop at 5.