There has long been a glut of subsidized "elderly" apartments in Bflo, a city having about 26,000 vacant housing units.

Yet BMHA is proposing 200 new heavily-subsidized apartments, to cost about $180,000 each. Most will be occupied by a single elderly person.

This will be the first major act by new BMHA Executive Dawn Sanders, hired in April with a salary of $94,000 (plus a SUV & benefits of 50% of salary?).

The leading developer is Hormoz Mansouri, one of Bflo's heaviest political contributors.

But I have not seen a word of protest about another incredible project by BMHA, long known for waste & corruption.

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Housing Authority board OKs sale of LBJ Apartments to Medaille

By Deidre Williams NEWS STAFF REPORTER, Updated: 12/21/07 6:46 AM


The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority board of commissioners approved the purchase offer for LBJ Apartments from Medaille College during Thursday’s regular business meeting.

Medaille’s offer is $3.5 million for the senior residential building, which is located on Humboldt Parkway near where the Scajaquada Expressway intersects with the Kensington Expressway.

Nearby Medaille has plans to use the property for additional dormitory space or administrative offices. In the past 10 years, the school’s enrollment has increased more than 200 percent, and the college has built two new dormitories in the last five years, officials have said.

For the approximately 200 current residents of LBJ, a new structure will be built with a unit-for-unit replacement, said Michael Seaman, chairman of the Housing Authority.

For now, the authority will not be doing $2 million in repairs to the roof and replacement of doors and windows. That money will be earmarked for other projects, officials said. However, it will continue to do repairs and emergency services.

An informational meeting for tenants, who will probably remain in the building for at least a year, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday with the developer and authority officials.

The sale is conditional on the approval by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

dwilliams@buffnews.com



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Local HUD official named head of Housing Authority

By Deidre Williams NEWS STAFF REPORTER, Updated: 03/16/07


The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority has a new executive director, following a two-year search by two separate boards of commissioners.

During Thursday’s board meeting, commissioners announced that Dawn E. Sanders has accepted the position for a salary of $94,000 a year. She will start April 23, said Commissioner Betty Calvo-Torres, who led the search committee.

Sanders has been a community planning and development representative with the local office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the past nine years. She will succeed Gillian D. Brown, the authority’s general counsel, who has been running the agency on an interim basis since February 2005, when Sharon West left for a similar job in Florida. West’s base salary had been $89,000. Brown, who has been at the Housing Agency for 11 years, will continue as legal counsel.

Also during Thursday’s board meeting, developers for the LBJ Towers project presented an overview of plans for the apartment building for seniors.

Last month, commissioners authorized the sale of LBJ, on Humboldt Parkway, to Medaille College. For months before that, developers had been working with the college to find new dormitories for about 400 students. School enrollment is growing, and because the campus is landlocked, constructing a new building is not possible.

In order for the project to proceed, a replacement building must be provided for the LBJ senior citizens who will be displaced.

Developers have purchased a site at Main and Amherst streets and propose constructing a mid-rise apartment building with 200 units. A market search was conducted, and developers looked at more than 20 sites before deciding on this one, said Hormoz Mansouri, president of HLM Holdings. The projected cost of the project is $36.5 million.

“It is a higher quality building,” said John Giardino, chief executive officer of Centerstone Development, the other member of the development team. “We chose this one because it offers the same amenities available to LBJ tenants now. There’s a transit station at the corner, and residents will have access to health care facilities on Main Street.”

Also, Giardino added, a new building will have a longer life.

“The idea of a new building is to improve living areas. The apartments will be larger than LBJ’s. Corridors will be wider for handicapped accessibility. The building will have an interior courtyard and an emphasis on common areas for residents and their families to gather and socialize,” he said.

Developers also outlined a financing plan to fund the $36.5 million project.