Aerial-8 Acres VacLan-Weinberg Campus 5.2.2024

2710 North Forest and 251 John James Audubon in Amherst are for sale.  Call Charles (716-374-3178) or me (716-628-3477) about the opportunities.

Buffalo News, article by Jonathan Epstein:     https://buffalonews.com/eedition/page-a1/page_b1662309-0965-55bf-8d0e-bc90b33ef2d0.html

Northern Amherst is construction hot spot

Developers target vacant land for housing and retail projects

JONATHAN EPSTEIN, BUFFALO NEWS

May 19, 2024

Aspen Heights Partners is completing its 197-unit student housing development called Aspen Buffalo along Interstate 990 in Amherst. Construction has increased in this area of the town, which used to be notable for how wide open it was.

BUFFALO NEXT: DEVELOPMENT

After years of relative inactivity, the more rural northern parts of Amherst are seeing a surge of new development projects that are bringing hundreds of new apartments aimed at young professionals, couples, families and students.

From the new student, senior and market-rate housing near University at Buffalo’s North Campus, to Muir Woods, to projects along Dodge Road, North French Road and Millersport Highway, developers are eying the vast swaths of undeveloped land in Buffalo’s largest suburb, seeing new opportunities to meet a seemingly insatiable demand.

That has made the area a hot spot for new construction, while also adding some more retail space to the market.

And it has Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa concerned about what all the development will mean for the rest of Amherst.

What it means at the moment is a lot of construction activity and new buildings in an area that used to be notable for how wide open it was, compared with the rest of the town.

At Muir Woods, Ryan Homes built a new housing subdivision called The Preserve, with 148 single-family homes, while Aspen Heights Partners is completing a 197-unit student housing development called Aspen Buffalo. And Severyn Development has kicked off work on its $72 million Sawyer’s Landing to complete the trifecta of development with another 180 apartments and duplex units, and 63 townhouses by Ryan.

Just to the south, DMG Investments completed its $32 million Auden Buffalo student housing complex with 154 units on North Forest Road, while spending $27 million to convert the former “zombie hotel” on Sweet Home into Air Buffalo, with 154 apartments.

Paul Bliss is undertaking a 227unit apartment complex, also on North Forest, in a $52.5 million project, following his Parkway Apartments on Audubon Parkway. He also plans 118 units on Maple Road. Cimato Enterprises wants to redevelop more than a third of the 67-acre site at 4300 Millersport to ultimately bring 122 residential units and 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and office space to the intersection of Millersport and Smith Road.

Uniland Development Co. is planning to add a $45 million apartment complex with 200 units to the front of its CrossPoint Business Park. And the Green Organization is pursuing a $30 million transformation of the former Arbordale Nursery on Dodge into 116 units.

Most recently, Anthony Cimato’s Cimato Enterprises and Elliot Lasky’s Forbes Development are teaming up for a residential and mixed-use project on North French Road, sandwiched between Interstate 990 and the CrossPoint Business Park.

The duo is proposing to construct a combination of 275 single-family homes, townhomes and apartments, along with some retail space, using all or parts of properties at 1790, 1860 and 1920 N. French, as well as the eastern part of 999 Campbell Blvd. That is a total of 62.03 acres, although only 47.5 acres would be disturbed, with the rest as wetlands and stormwater detention ponds.

The wooded and grassy site is bordered by the highway, North French and the business park, with a National Grid right of way running north-south through the center. It is across from the intersection of Miller Road and North French.

To accommodate the project, the developers – through SBLC Development Corp. – are first asking the Town Board and Town Planning Board to amend the bicentennial comprehensive plan and the zoning for the properties, from recreation and suburban agriculture to suburban corridor, residential and multifamily.

The properties, now under three owners, also will be combined into a single parcel.

In all, it will include 27.46 acres of single-family zoning and 17.05 acres of multifamily zoning.

Besides the rezoning, the project requires area variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals, site plan and subdivision approval from the Planning Board, and various town, county and state permits. The developers also plan to seek tax breaks from the Amherst Industrial Development Agency, according to their application.

If approved, the project would be constructed in four phases from March 2025 through 2028.

North Amherst has some of the town’s highest concentrations of available land, but officials say they want to proceed judiciously in reviewing future growth in this part of Amherst.

Kulpa said in an interview that the town wants to preserve land historically used for farming and has worked to slow down requests from developers to reclassify properties zoned for suburban agriculture use.

New development in north Amherst has a townwide impact, he said.

“That’s a big drainage shed for Amherst, and stormwater in that part of Amherst has to be taken seriously,” Kulpa said.

Critics have speculated that, once the Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village shifts from its current home at Tonawanda Creek and New roads, the town would offer a section of the former museum property and the neighboring former Oakwood Golf Course to a developer.

Kulpa said this is not so, and he has envisioned using the land for cricket fields and pickleball courts.

“I would never want to see that developed for anything but recreation purposes,” he said.

Another issue for north Amherst residents is a financial one, Kulpa pointed out: They pay the highest fire district taxes in the town because there are so few residential and commercial properties within the North Amherst Fire District.

“We have to figure out a way to deal with that,” he said, without sacrificing some of the town’s most valuable remaining green space.

He declined to comment on the specifics of the Cimato and Lasky development plan, because it is just beginning to make its way through the review process, though he noted the parcels in question are more centrally located near the 990-North French interchange.

“I’m interested to see what the Planning Board has to say about it,” Kulpa said last week.

In an initial blow to the project’s prospects, Planning Board members Thursday night voted 5-0 to recommend that the Town Board deny the developer’s request to amend the comprehensive plan.

News staff reporter Stephen T. Watson contributed to this report.

2710 North Forest:     https://www.pyramidbrokerage.com/listings/2710-North-Forest-Road-Amherst-NY-B12973/

251 John James Audubon Parkway:      https://www.pyramidbrokerage.com/listings/251-john-james-audubon-pkwy-amherst-ny-b12736/