LOCKPORT — One Canal Street property is to be leased and another sold to a canal tour operator after actions by the Greater Lockport Development Corporation on Tuesday.

Trek Inc. of Medina will rent two floors of 57 Canal St., the property where Herbert Harrison started developing the honeycomb radiator 100 years ago, and Hydraulic Race Co. Inc. is ready to buy 79-81 Canal St. and turn it into the Lockport Cave and Underground Boat Ride’s new base of operations.

The pending property transactions were confirmed by GLDC attorney John Ottaviano after a special meeting of the GLDC board of directors Tuesday.

The transactions, once completed, will be the first lease and sale of four city-held properties on the block overlooking the Erie Canal between (Lock) and Pine streets.

“This is good news. It’s been a long time coming,” Mayor Michael Tucker said.

Trek Inc. designs and manufactures products and services for the electrophotography industry. The 42-year-old, Orleans County-based firm is expanding and sought out additional office and research/design space in Lockport, according to Ottaviano.

The GLDC board approved a four-year contract with Trek, which will lease the second and third floors of 57 Canal for $7,500 per month/$90,000 per year.

GLDC will take on the expense of outfitting the “envelope” building, so called because inside its walls, there’s only flooring, an elevator, stairs and a basement at this point. It’ll cost the agency about $200,000 to add the finishing touches — HVAC, partitions, bathrooms and the like, Ottaviano said; Trek wants the 2nd floor ready to use within 30 days and 3rd floor within 60 days, he added.

Trek is said to be bringing up to 45 new jobs/employees to downtown Lockport.

Company executives could not be reached late Tuesday to comment on the lease or Trek expansion plans.

The first floor of 57 Canal remains open to occupation by another business, preferably one that’s retail oriented, Ottaviano said. Trek inquired initially about the first and second floors but was “agreeable” to being bumped upstairs, he said.

The GLDC board also OK’d the sale of 79-81 Canal, two buildings joined as their exteriors were preserved several years ago, to Hydraulic Race Co., for $70,000, pending Common Council approval because the city owns the properties. GLDC has a “master lease” agreement with the city to manage business tenants; leases do not require Council approval, Ottaviano said.

Hydraulic Race Co. principal Thomas Callahan said the company’s intent is to move its cave/underground boat ride ticket office to Canal Street and add an “interpretive” center to tell the story of hydropower in Lockport. The company is looking at an additional, year-round retail business on the premises as well, he said Tuesday, but that’s a concept only at this point.

According to Ottaviano, the GLDC board put conditions in the sale contract including: Hydraulic Race Co. will have a certificate of occupancy for the property within six months of the closing; and GLDC reserves the right of first refusal should Hydraulic Race Co. move to sell the property within five years of buying it. The conditions should be standard in all Canal Street sale contracts, Ottaviano said, to ensure the properties are used as the owners said they would be, and prevent “flipping,” that is, the rapid resale of property.

Seventy-nine Canal has drawn more interest from prospective developers the past few years than the other two properties combined. An Irish tavern and the Niagara Wine Emporium both were proposed; a digital media arts company, InLighten, looked into buying the whole block and turning into company headquarters; local developer David Ulrich suggested turning the whole thing into Niagara County Community College’s culinary arts/hospitality training campus. None of those plans materialized, but publicity about them is said to have scared off other enterprisers who had designs on a property.

Callahan, who’s been talking to GLDC about moving the base of his 15-year-old business since last spring, said he and his business partner just had to bide their time. Canal Street overlooking the canal locks does seem the perfect place for a business that owes its very existence to the canal.

“There’ve been a lot of plans for that building the past few years; we’ve been patient,” Callahan said. “Now we’re excited about the opportunity.”

Another retail-tourism oriented enterpriser has expressed interest in 51 Canal St., the smallest property at the west end of the street, according to Tucker.

The city owns the Canal Street properties after acquiring nine parcels from private owners in 2001-02 to redevelop the block as commercial property. Over a 10-year period, federal, state and local agencies sunk nearly $4.7 million into environmental cleanup, preservation of building exteriors and streetscaping. There are some development conditions placed on the properties by the state, including the right to perpetually monitor cleaned-up/capped land areas. Also, a grant for rehabilitation of 51 Canal St. was given on the condition the second floor be turned over to residential use.