The would-be buyer of the former Eastern Niagara Hospital property hit a roadblock at the city’s zoning board meeting Tuesday night. The board tabled a variance request by Stitched Development LLC, to reuse the building in a single-family residential zone as a senior care facility, due to the company’s lack of necessary documents including a business plan.
The board’s vote to table the request was unanimous despite a Stitched Development representative’s warning that the company’s planned purchase of the property is in danger of falling through.
Because the now-closed ENH is in bankruptcy proceedings, the property has an appointed receiver, and Stitched Development agent Christopher A. Cardillo said the receiver, David Wallace of Trigild IVL commercial real estate, will put 521 East Avenue up for auction within a week if Stitched Development withdraws its purchase offer.
“If (the variance request) doesn’t go through today, there’s going to be a worse option,” Cardillo said. “And I’m not saying that as scare tactic. It’s just going up to auction.”
According to Stitched Development’s variance application, the property would be used as an assisted living and senior living facility, but when zoning board member Nancy Babis, who has professional experience in elder care, asked whether that meant seniors who want to downsize their living space would reside at the facility, Cardillo replied, “no.”
“It’s really a nursing home, where people come into the place, then you have nurses, full staff there, security, maintenance crew, almost like it was as a hospital, but it’s going to be for the elderly with nursing home living and full food service,” Cardillo said.
Stitched Development has not yet obtained the required Certificate of Need from the state to operate a nursing home, Cardillo acknowledged upon Babis’ further questioning. At one point he referenced other possible uses for the property including an urgent care center.
Cardillo asked the board to approve the variance request and trust the company will return with details about its redevelopment plan once the plan is firmed up. Without the variance, he said, the company will not purchase the property — and it might remain “an eyesore” and “vacant.”
The company has offered $2.2 million for the property and would invest another $1 million in it, Cardillo said.
The board was not moved.
“As a part of this public forum, I don’t think I can make a decision tonight,” Babis said. “I understand deadlines, I understand receivership, I get all of that, but I can’t in good conscience put forth any recommendation.”
The rest of the board followed Babis’s lead, tabling the variance request, and Cardillo left.
“The board did a good job tabling it,” Mayor John Lombardi III said as the meeting broke up. “The onus is on (the developer) to come back with a better plan.”