By ARTHUR PAGE
Assistant Vice President

The university is increasing its investment in downtown Buffalo with the purchase of the former M. Wile Co. building, now known as Century Centre 2, located a block south of its New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

The purchase of an existing, recently renovated structure—which will be the sixth building owned by UB in downtown Buffalo—will allow the university to bring several of its major public-service programs into closer proximity to the citizens and organizations they serve.

Current plans anticipate moving the Regional Institute, a number of pre-K-16 initiatives and the Center on Rehabilitation Synergy, a program of the Graduate School of Education that provides training, education and research for professionals working with individuals with disabilities, into the building during the next 20 months. Additional programs also will be identified to move into the building.

President John B. Simpson said purchase of the structure on the southeast corner of Goodell and Ellicott streets by the UB Foundation underscores the university's plans to increase its commitment to, and footprint in, downtown Buffalo.

"This is just the first step in creating a more vibrant presence for UB in downtown Buffalo," Simpson noted. "This purchase synchronizes perfectly with UB's plans to grow by 40 percent between now and the year 2020. With the development of UB's comprehensive master plan, the growth on our campus centers in Amherst and on Main Street in North Buffalo will be accomplished within our existing campus perimeters; in downtown Buffalo we will be creating new spaces and programs.

Century Centre 2 and the former Trico Products Corp. building complex across the street were a focus of an auction held Sept. 20 and overseen by federal bankruptcy judge Warren W. Bentz in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Erie. The bid totaling $20,090,000 for both properties and their respective parking lots was placed by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. While the UBF is purchasing Century Centre 2, the BNMC will be the new owner of the Trico complex. Closing on the properties is expected to occur within the next month.

Matthew K. Enstice, executive director of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, said it is "committed to cultivating a world-class medical campus for clinical care, research, education and entrepreneurship.

"This acquisition provides the space for the BNMC to continue growing the life-sciences economy in downtown Buffalo," he added. "It allows us the opportunity to build on the momentum of the recent move by publicly traded Cleveland BioLabs to Buffalo from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and to attract more private-sector companies to invest in the area."

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and the Rev. Michael Chapman, pastor of St. John Baptist Church in the Fruit Belt adjacent to the medical campus, hailed the purchase of the two properties by UB and the BNMC.

"This is a significant day for UB, the City of Buffalo and all of our partners in the BNMC," Brown said. "One year ago, President Simpson laid out a bold vision for an expanded university with a third campus in downtown Buffalo. He has shown that UB is very serious about investing in Buffalo with this important acquisition.

"My administration has worked closely with UB, the Buffalo Urban Development Corporation and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus on four parcels in the vicinity of the medical campus, which would enhance and strengthen our ongoing efforts to attract and foster incubators and start-up businesses connected to the life sciences," Brown said.

Chapman added: "We have been working with UB and our other partners within the medical corridor to revitalize this area of downtown Buffalo, including the Fruit Belt neighborhood that adjoins it.

"It is a great joy to see that the University at Buffalo is making good on its promise to invest in Buffalo," Chapman said. "Together, with the tremendous investments being made by the St. John Community Development Corporation and other stakeholders, we can reinvigorate the City of Buffalo."

The UBF plans to honor the contracts of the building's two tenants-the Buffalo and Erie County Work Force Development Consortium and URS Corp.-and to rent the remaining space to the university for its programs. Plans also call for Century Centre 2 to remain on the public tax rolls.

The two properties are being purchased free of outstanding debts, including back property taxes, from Stephen B. McGarvey LLC and its affiliate, Century Centre LP, both of which filed last fall for bankruptcy protection. McGarvey, an Erie-based developer, died in 2005.

Other buildings owned by UB in downtown, in addition to the Center of Excellence, are the Educational Opportunity Center at 465 Washington St., the Research Institute on Addictions at 1021 Main St., the Jacobs Executive Development Center at 672 Delaware Ave. and the Ira G. Ross Eye Institute, which will house the clinical programs of the Department of Ophthalmology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and will open later this fall at 1170 Main St.