Kaleida Health has selected TM Montante Development and the Episcopal Church Home & Affiliates to redevelop Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital. Reuse of the property had been the subject of an international design/development competition with a $1 million prize for the winning proposal. A previous plan for a veterinary school for the site fell through. The nearly 900,000 square foot hospital complex sits on 10 acres.
Canterbury Woods will feature independent living and assisted living apartments prominently situated on Gates Circle facing Chapin Parkway (below). The main hospital building would be demolished.
TM Montante Development will invest $35 million to develop a series of mixed-use facilities, including market-rate and for-sale residential options including apartments and townhouses, a small grocery store and other retail retail space, medical offices, and a community health and wellness center.
The project will feature a number of green and sustainable design elements, including a meaningful solar component as a source of alternative energy, as well as significant green space. The plan seeks to extend Lancaster Avenue through the site to connect with Linwood Avenue. TM Montante is working with Wendel and Architectural Resources on the reuse plan.
Environmental remediation and site preparation is expected to start in the spring of 2014, with construction activity targeted for late 2014. The majority of development is expected to be complete by the end of 2016.
“Having the chance to develop an important site such as Gates Circle, with like-minded, committed partners and tenants, is truly an unique opportunity that we are privileged to be part of,” said Timothy Vaeth, president, TM Montante Development.
In 2012, two development teams submitted proposals for the site. Uniland Development and Chason Affinity had vastly different ideas for the property. Uniland’s proposal called for clearing much of the site and constructing ‘Chapin Place,’ 276 residential units and a boutique hotel, restaurant and retail and professional offices. Chason Affinity proposed a veterinary school.
Chason Affinity was selected by Kaleida to develop the site but that deal collapsed earlier this year when Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine backed out of the project. Kaleida Health reissued a Request for Proposals and received responses from TM Montante, Uniland Development and Benderson Development.
Episcopal Church Home operates the Canterbury Woods senior community at Klein and Youngs roads in Amherst. It features a variety of living options with varying levels of care to allow seniors to ‘age in place.’ Episcopal also operated a nursing home near the Peace Bridge that was left vacant and unkept for many years until the State agreed to buy it to expand the Peace Bridge’s plaza.
TM Montante is currently developing a business park off of River Road in Tonawanda and is redeveloping the Hager Planing Mill on Elm Street into upscale lofts and commercial space.
“The TM Montante and Canterbury Woods plan to redevelop the Gates Circle site is very exciting,” said John Koelmel, chair of the Kaleida Health Board of Directors. “Bringing life back to this campus takes a good dose of courage, passion and vision. The Board of Directors is pleased to see the confidence and conviction of the developers; this project will truly stimulate the neighborhood and the City of Buffalo.”
Kaleida Health has already begun the reuse process for the Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, which is scheduled to move to its new home at the end of 2016. A similar development rights RFP for the Bryant Street campus is expected to be released in 2014.
Renderings courtesty of TM Montante Development.