Off-campus apartment complexes catering to college students are all the rage along Sweet Home Road west of the University at Buffalo’s Amherst campus. It appears as though Buffalo’s west side is getting a similar development.
The Buffalo Planning Board tomorrow is being asked to take the lead on an environmental review necessary to construct ten, four-story apartment buildings in a gated complex at 100 Forest Avenue. A total of 216 units are planned. The Planning Board agenda does not list a developer.
The Buffalo News has the details on what is being called “The Grove at Buffalo State”:
Campus Crest Group (website) of Charlotte wants to knock down the vast former Contract Pharmaceuticals facility at 100 Forest and build nine four-story apartment buildings and a three-story clubhouse on 11 of the property’s 22 acres.
According to documents submitted to the Buffalo Planning Board, the $15 million project – to be called The Grove at Buffalo State – would stretch along Forest from Danforth Street almost to Niagara Street.
The buildings would consist of 216 two- and three-bedroom apartments, housing a total of 584 students, according to Jess D. Sudol, the project manager and a civil engineer at Rochester-based Passero Associates.
Additionally, the complex would feature amenities such as a pool, volleyball and basketball courts, and other recreational areas, as well as 24-hour on-site management representation for security and other needs. Rents are still being determined.
Plans call for the buildings to front the road for street-side living, to “play up on the urban environment,” while the other features and about 500 parking spaces would be located in the interior of the project’s layout, Sudol said.
100 Forest Avenue is a 273,000 sq.ft. manufacturing facility once occupied by Bristol-Myers Squibb and later Contract Pharmaceuticals. It sits on a 22-acre parcel at Forest and Danforth Street and was purchased by Industrial Realty Group in April 2012 for $4.7 million.
The Planning Board meets at 8:15 AM in City Hall room 901.