Buffalo, NY, May, 2011 - A Catholic elementary school that educated generations of South Buffalo residents is about to take
on a new life. What was once Holy Family School will open this July as Holy Family Senior Apartments.
A Catholic elementary school that educated generations of South Buffalo residents is about to take on a new life. What was once Holy Family School will open this July as Holy Family
Senior Apartments.
Sponsored by the Diocese of Buffalo and developed by Delta Development of Western New York Inc. and Living Communities LLC, the three-story, nearly 50,000-square-foot building features
35 units of affordable low- and moderate-income senior rental housing for individuals 55 and older.
There will be 30 one-bedroom and five two-bedroom apartments. Six of the units will be designated for the frail elderly. These accessible units will include enhancement equipment for
both the hearing and visually impaired resident.
The interior will still look familiar to anyone who attended the school. The slate blackboards will be taken out of classrooms and used as memo boards.
The original doorways, too narrow to be wheelchair accessible, will remain visible in the hallways, but covered by drywall inside the apartment, making them architectural elements.
New doors were installed for access into the apartments.
“There are a number of historical things in the walls of this building,” said Bernadette Harlan, executive director of Delta Development. “There are some interesting wall murals
children did maybe in the ’70s or ’80s. We were able to preserve those. We’re kind of working around them.”
Design of the building incorporates the Green Build Initiative Design Requirements focused on providing an attractive, comfortable, safe environment for elderly residents.
All windows are energy efficient. Central heating and air conditioning has been designed to provide a 30 percent increase in energy efficiency, supporting both state and city
initiatives for energy efficiencies in both new construction and rehabilitation projects.
Residents will also benefit from a secured entrance, state-of-the-art fire system and an emergency call system monitored 24/7. All security measures are tied to backup generators.
“Since the October 2006 storm, we’ve been able to put generators in a lot of our properties just to keep the emergency systems going, because most of the entrances are electric.
If the power goes out, the doors are wide open, so we had to come up with a way to prevent that from happening,” said Harlan.
An IT station with high-speed Internet access sits in the community room. Cable television will be available to all units. Indoor laundry facilities, storage rooms, elevators to
all three floors are also included, and an onsite beauty parlor rounds out the amenities. A city-owned park rests right behind the residence.
The project is moving along smoothly and a certificate of occupancy is expected in late June or early July. “There were some slowdowns. A lot had to do with ‘oops’ we found.
In a renovation you really don’t know what you’re going to get into 100 percent,” said Harlan, adding that lead and asbestos had to be removed.
The immediate area around the Tifft Street residence includes a post office, police station, Dollar General, Wilson Farms, Tops and a library. Mercy Hospital in on Abbott Road
and Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna are no more than a mile away.
A Catholic Charities-run food pantry, one of the largest in the city of Buffalo, will return to the building. The pantry has been a part of Holy Family since the school closed
in 2004, but had moved to a temporary site during the renovation.
“We didn’t want to end that relationship if we didn’t have to, so one of the things we were able to do is renovate the space they use as a pantry. So when we open our doors,
not only will we have our residents here, Catholic Charities will come back into the picture to run that pantry,” said Harlan.
The diocesan office of Building and Properties oversees the project with day-to-day inspections to make sure everything is being done according to plans and specifications.
Buffalo’s weather has hampered the project slightly, leaving the renovations a month behind schedule.
“The weather this past winter didn’t help us any,” said Michael Sullivan, director of Building and Properties.
The project is similar to the Mount St. Mary’s Senior Residence in Kenmore, which transformed a former convent into 39 apartments.
“It’s an excellent reuse of the facility,” said Sullivan.
A lottery will be held May 20 to offer all applicants a fair and equitable opportunity to qualify for the 35 units. Arrangements have been made with the Rental Assistance Center,
the City of Buffalo Section 8 administrator, and Belmont Shelter, and the Erie County PHA administrator, to include the Holy Family Senior Apartments in their referral list given
to individuals currently waitlisted for subsidized housing.
Silvestri Architects PC serves as architect; the contractor is Christa Construction and the engineer is Erdman Anthony & Associates Inc.
The article was written by Patrick Buechi, Staff Reporter, and published in the May 2011 issue of Western New York Catholic Newspaper.
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