It took a while, but McGuire Development has bought Mart Trammel to gain control of the $200 million Campus Square project site. McGuire paid $2.82 million to Pilgrim Village Associates LP for the 12-acre site at the north edge of the Medical Campus today.
In 2014, Pilgrim Village owner Mark Trammel picked McGuire Development to lead a multi-phased effort to redevelop the circa-1980 townhouse community. Plans called for replacing 90 affordable townhome units on a nine-acre portion of the site with 380 new apartments in four new buildings. The remaining three-acre portion with 25 affordable apartments were to be rehabilitated and continued as family residences in the project’s last phase. Demolition work began at the corner of E. North and Ellicott Street for the project’s first six-story building but an ownership dispute sent the parties to court.
The U.S. Department of Housing filed suit against Trammel accusing him of financial misconduct according to The Buffalo News. Trammel settled the case for $650,000, paid by McGuire Development. The suit made it difficult to obtain financing for the project however. McGuire later purchased the mortgage on the complex, and filed a foreclosure action against Trammel to remove him from the deal.
McGuire is expected to formulate a new plan for the site. Meanwhile, Trammel has filed a suit against McGuire and has asked the courts to prevent any development on the site until it is settled.