The Buffalo Planning Board gets a look Tuesday morning at a major housing development to be located where a much smaller housing complex sits now. A proposed development called Campus Square will be replacing much of Pilgrim Village.
Right now, there are 90 units in Pilgrim Village, with many deliberately left vacant, since 25 would be leveled for the planned eight-story building. The rest would be rehabbed while current residents move around. The site is bounded by Ellicott, Michigan, Best and East North.
Developer Mark Trammell is working with McGuire Development on what he says is a $50 million project potentially opening in late 2017. He said the 300,000 square foot structure will be retail on the first floor, a music and a dance school on the second floor and six-floors of housing.
"My partner, McGuire, has a great healthcare background but also a conventional housing background," Trammell said.
"In my focus, through my schooling and through my work has always been affordable housing. It was important to have both, all of those types of demographics involved."
Officials of the neighboring Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus have been briefed on the project and were happy it includes 80,000 square feet of space for 176 underground parking spaces and 96 surface spaces, keeping traffic off neighborhood streets.
