James Fink
Buffalo Business First Reporter – Business First
The former Lafayette General Hospital, a century-old building that later served as an apartment house, is being eyed as the new home for the West Buffalo Charter School.
With the school preparing to welcome its first students this August, an affiliate of Ellicott Development Co. is working with the Erie County Industrial Development Agency on securing an incentive package that will help with the project’s financing.
The ECIDA will hold a July 3 public hearing on incentives being offered to the Lafayette Group Inc. for the proposed $3.8 million project. The full ECIDA board is expected to vote on the incentive package when it meets later in July.
The fledgling West Buffalo Charter School will house an estimated 272 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. The former Lafayette General Hospital site, at 113 Lafayette Avenue, was selected after the school’s attempt to purchase the former Buffalo School No. 36 in the Days Park area faltered. School 36 is now home to the Elmwood Village Charter School .
Ellicott Development purchased the hospital property in 1998, a few years after it closed. The four-story building has 34,500-square-feet and portions of it date back to 1910 when the hospital first opened its doors.
Ellicott renovated the hospital into a 41-unit, market-rate apartment complex.
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