City colleges face land crunch

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D'Youville College has a big real estate problem.
Medaille College could be looking at one.
Canisius College is OK, for now.

While the University at Buffalo moves ahead with its "UB 2020" development plan - a key part of which includes building a downtown presence in conjunction with the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus - many of the city's other educational institutions are facing real estate and construction issues.

Some are landlocked, including D'Youville and, to a certain extent, Medaille.

It makes for interesting juxtaposition among local colleges with an urban presence. UB, for example, is talking about expanding its Buffalo footprint while others - namely, D'Youville and Medaille - struggle to find precious real estate for their future needs.

"If we had more property to expand, we could increase our enrollment and college size," said John Bray, D'Youville director of public relations.
The college has approximately 3,000 full- and part-time students. New programs in health care and education have helped to double enrollment in recent years.

D'Youville's problem is its location.

The college is situated just a few blocks from Front Park, the Peace Bridge and the New York State Thruway, making a westward expansion virtually impossible. The same is true on its north, east and south sides. The college is in an entrenched West Side neighborhood, and homeowners are not interested in selling.

"It's not like there's five acres nearby we could buy and annex," Bray said. "We just don't have that luxury right now."

D'Youville is beginning work on what may be the last, new academic building on campus in the foreseeable future. The $20 million, six-story building is 97,000 square feet and likely will house a proposed pharmacy department. The department is awaiting state approval.

The building is going up in a parking lot off Fargo Street.

The good news: The building is under construction.

The bad news: It is gobbling up college parking space.

"You have to be creative," Bray said. "Once you run out of real estate, you are forced to be creative. You don't want to wreck the fabric of the neighborhood and, in our case, you can only go so far into the neighborhood."

Richard Jurasek, Medaille College president, says he can sympathize.
Medaille is getting close to the same landlocked scenario.

What is saving it is a pending deal to acquire the four-acre Lyndon Baines Johnson Apartments along Humboldt Parkway from the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority. The deal is far from complete and is predicated on the authority and developer John Giardino signing off on a development pact that will see Giardino construct a housing complex on Amherst Street. Giardino's proposal is just starting to work its way through Buffalo City Hall.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/s...1680678&page=1

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What's the reason they have to stay in that neighborhood when they expand? They are expanding into areas that fit well with the BNMC. There are still vacancies around the Corridor. Renovate or rebuild in that area to house the health care programs. By moving those, that should leave expansion room for the education programs.

There might be some problems with students needing to take a few classes at the main campus, but there are solutions to those.