A blocky three-story former medical office building on the edge of Gates Circle that’s been mostly vacant for more than a decade since Millard Fillmore Hospital closed could soon be seeing more residents than patients.
TM Montante Development, the Tonawanda-based developer that bought the former hospital campus from Kaleida Health in 2014, is proposing to renovate an 11,200-square-foot brick building at 50 Gates Circle into apartments and commercial space.
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It’s the latest project that is part of its broader Lancaster Square development. It would revive a 55-year-old building that formerly housed medical offices, but has been largely empty for years except for four licensed trauma therapists that have worked out of it for six years.
Montante, which has frequently pursued tax abatements and credits to support its costly ventures at Gates Circle, says it needs more than $100,000 sales and mortgage-recording tax breaks – plus more lucrative property tax incentives from the City of Buffalo – to make this $3.47 million project work as well.
The developer told the Erie County Industrial Development Agency it needs the sales and mortgage tax breaks before it can secure private construction loans. The developer said it expects only a “modest” 2.5% initial rate of return on the project.
“The tax abatements are critical in ensuring that private-sector lending institutions underwrite the project,” Montante said in…
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