The Buffalo Planning Board Monday cleared the way for a $5 million major medical office building just off Niagara Street on the West Side. However, a well-known developer is concerned it might interfere with his plans just across Seventh Street.
Dr. Raul Vazquez is planning the 40,000-square-foot structure on Seventh Street, just behind and connected to his Urban Family Practice on Niagara Street. The plan is to have drivers enter and leave from Niagara Street, a concern for developer and former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, who is planning a significant development across Seventh Street from the medical building.
Project Manager Ralph Hernandez says the medical building is needed.
"Ours is going to benefit the entire community from a health care perspective. His is just pretty much a money-generating entity where you rent apartments out to folks who can afford it," said Hernandez. "We're very confident that the facility we are building is not only state of the art, but it will help the community as a whole. It's something that has needed in that community for many, many, many years."
Vazquez says he has 17,000 patients and needs the extra space to bring in medical specialists to work out of the space.
Giambra says he is planning a $3 million, 20-unit market rate housing to be built next year. He sees it as a sign of progress in his old neighborhood that two projects are going on the same street.
"People that I went to school with at Holy Angels and now, I'm owning the property and we're guiding them and we're rehabbing them. So, there's a certain amount of pride that goes into this and a certain amount of sentimental, if you will, emotional situation because this is the neighborhood I grew up in," said Giambra. "I played on those streets. I knew the people who lived in those houses and to see the transformation taking place is fabulous."
Giambra says he hopes to start his project in the spring.
