Niagara Falls medical center due to start new units
NIAGARA FALLS — Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center is about to begin construction on its new behavioral health units.
“We’re hoping to begin construction within 30 days,” spokesman Patrick J. Bradley said.
Last year, the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency approved nearly $6 million in tax-exempt bonds to help the medical center pay for new adolescent and adult psychiatric units.
Since then, however, the hospital has encountered financial problems, prompting it to close its adolescent behavioral unit and drop plans to build a new one. The 12-bed unit, called Bridges, closed May 2.
Two new adult psychiatric units remain on tap. Bradley said the medical center intends to build the new units on the third and fourth floors of its west wing, and after they’re complete, to close the existing units on the second floor of the west wing and the fifth floor of the south wing.
The IDA board had to vote last week to allow the revised use of the bond proceeds. Costs have risen since last year, IDA attorney Mark J. Gabriele said, and the medical center would like to pay off some of the bonds early. Also, since it’s not building an adolescent behavioral unit anymore, Memorial sought to use any money left over from the adult project to improve patient rooms in medical-surgical units.
The IDA board approved that, but one member, Steven Brady of National Grid, voted no. He contended that Memorial was not honest with the agency.
“I’m not comfortable that it wasn’t known that the adolescent unit was in danger of closing when the bond was approved,” Brady contended.
“Certainly that’s not true. I’m surprised to hear Steve say that,” Bradley said. “The [closure] decision wasn’t made in advance. There was no intention to mislead the IDA.”
In other matters last week, the IDA board approved a 15- year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, arrangement for Compact Mold East, a Canadian- owned company that manufactures and repairs molds for the plastics industry.
The company was founded in Ontario in 1978, but moved to Virginia in 1987. It plans to relocate its factory to a 23,000- square-foot space in a multitenant building being constructed by D. R. Chamberlain Co. of Lockport on the IDA-owned Vantage International Pointe industrial park off Lockport Road in Wheatfield.
The space is being sold in a $1.3 million condominium deal, and the company, also known as Virginia One, would create seven jobs.
Also, Conestoga Rovers Associates, an environmental engineering company housed in the IDA’s former offices at 2055 Niagara Falls Blvd., Wheatfield, asked the IDA to construct a 3,750-square-foot addition to its space.
The board did not commit to the project at what is now called Niagara Industrial Suites, which is estimated to cost $275,000, but it remains under discussion.
The IDA also hired Beyon - dus , a Buffalo company, for $12,150 to redesign its Web site.
