Warm weather means construction begins in Buffalo

April showers certainly bring May flowers, but they also signal the start of the construction season.

After five years of planning and fundraising, a new homeless shelter and medical center are finally coming to the East Side, as work began on the Build Promise facility across from the sprawling Mission campus of Mercy of St. Luke.

The 30-year-old nonprofit’s new project will bring a 24,000-square-foot building to a vacant grass-filled property at 1297 Sycamore St., at the corner of Miller Avenue, providing housing and health care to those who need it.

First proposed by St. Luke’s co-founder and leader Amy Betros in 2019, but conceived much earlier, it will include 96 semi-private shelter beds for homeless men, as well as a shelter 80-bed Code Blue emergency room during cold and freezing winter nights. . There will also be showers and laundry facilities for residents.

It will include medical, dental and mental health services, as well as maternal health care, nutritional support and a barbershop. And its users will have access to additional services on the main campus, including food and clothing.

“I’ve been dreaming of this for 20 years,” Betros said. “I really believe this will be very beneficial to Buffalo because it will help so many men get off the streets and back into society.”

St. Luke’s and Build Promise – a separate nonprofit led by Stuart Harper, the former executive director of City Mission – also partner with several other service providers, including Jericho Road Community Health Center, BestSelf Behavioral Services, OLV Human Services, Evergreen. Health, Feedmore WNY, Mental Health Advocates of Western New York, Restoration Society, Neighborhood Legal Services, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Resources will include job training and job placement, family literacy, financial literacy, legal assistance, housing placement, transportation and even email access.

Harper called Build Promise “a shelter where men can come and put their heads down, eat something and be treated with dignity, a place where we can maybe help them out of their situation and give them a place of recovery and recovery.” ‘hope “. and change course.”

Italian manufacturer IMA Life has already begun construction of its new $30 million headquarters at Colvin Woods Business Park in the town of Tonawanda.

Located on 15 acres at 700 Colvin Woods Parkway, Steel will be constructed on an 80,000 square foot building that will include 30,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of research, development and production space for the manufacture of freeze-drying equipment used by the pharmaceutical industry to transform vials of liquid medicines into transportable powders.

The new facility will also serve as the North American headquarters for IMA Life, part of the IMA Group. It is expected to be completed by May 2025.

With 6,900 employees worldwide, IMA manufactures aseptic drug processing and lyophilization equipment for customers around the world such as Pfizer and Moderna. Its machines – which also include blowers, washers, bacteria removal tunnels, liquid and powder fillers, automatic loaders and unloaders, labelers and isolation systems – ensure high integrity and sterility pharmaceutical products.

“We have deep respect for the life-saving medicines our customers process using IMA equipment, and we look forward to expanding our production capabilities and creating jobs right here in Western New State. York,” said Ernesto Renzi, president of IMA Life North America. “The impressive skill of the workforce has allowed us to expand our customer base and grow the business.

Empire State Development Corp. is providing up to $1.13 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits to support the project. In exchange, the company, which already operates a 60,000-square-foot factory at 2175 Military Road that will be retained, agreed to retain 157 jobs and create 70 new ones.

More than a year after a nonprofit agency and developer teamed up to convert the underutilized former St. John Kanty Church school into apartments, the former Catholic church convent is for sale.

The church is looking to sell the 13,248-square-foot building at 101 Swinburne St., just off Broadway and several blocks west of Bailey Avenue in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.

The three-story special-use building is being marketed by David Doerr of Hanna Commercial Real Estate as ideal for religious, office or multifamily use, with parking in front and potential for historic and other tax credits to finance a project redevelopment.

It’s also right behind the former high school or parish school, which is now called Apartments at the Lyceum, after Community Services for Every1 partnered with Edgemere Development on an $18 million renovation into 42 affordable apartments, including 12 intended for permanent supportive housing for survivors of domestic violence. violence.

St. John Kanty is asking $295,000.

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2. Struggles opposite the Factory Outlets of Niagara Falls.

3. How a Buffalo Woman Became a pioneer in the field of architecture.

4. How the new CEO of Lake Shore Savings Bank is trying to overcome the shortcomings cited by federal regulators.

5. If eating healthy is good for you, why not do it diet programs as medicine get better participation? Two UB researchers are trying to understand why.

The Buffalo Next team gives you insight into the region’s economic revitalization. Email tips to [email protected] or contact Buffalo Next editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.