UBMD

UBMD administrative offices moved into the UB Downtown Gateway building at 77 Goodell Street this spring in the first stage of a planned consolidation of administrative functions at that address.

The UB Downtown Gateway is the former M. Wile manufacturing facility; it was acquired by UB in 2007 as an anchor for UB's Downtown Campus.

The new UBMD offices have a dramatic view north across the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

"The majority of our doctors and our practice plans are located in Buffalo General, ECMC and Women and Children's, so it makes sense for us to be downtown where we're close to all three," says UBMD CFO Michael J. Quinn.

Nine administrative staff have moved into the new location so far, including Quinn and accounting, legal and compliance staff; they are the vanguard of what will be a significant downtown presence for UBMD. Staff at 4511 Harlem Rd., Amherst, including billing for pediatrics and internal medicine and a group working on the IDX and Allscripts rollout, are being positioned to move downtown.

UBMD has occupied space on the second floor of the Gateway building that was recently vacated when the Buffalo Employment and Training Center downsized. The move downtown came sooner than planned when UB facilities managers called Quinn and offered him the vacant space. With fresh paint and new pictures and signage, the offices and waiting and reception areas were ready for occupancy without renovation.

UBMD is currently renting 1,500 square feet of office space and has an option to fill adjacent office space as needed. But these are temporary quarters. UBMD will eventually move to the third floor, occupying as much as 15,000 square feet of the light, airy space. Renovation of the third floor began this summer to create offices for UB's Regional Institute.

Even before the final move into larger space, the downtown location already offers UBMD practices an opportunity to relocate back-office functions into the Gateway building where individual billing operations could enjoy benefits from economies of scale and synergy, and, Quinn notes, considerably lower rent than hospital-based operations are paying now.

URS Corp., an engineering, architectural design and construction management services firm, occupies the entire fourth floor of the UB Gateway building.

The site has ample parking and the building has lobby security from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. UBMD has access to small, medium and large conference spaces, including a finished lower-level space that can comfortably hold 100.