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Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Updates Community on Progress
Collaboration of Region’s Leading Institutions Celebrates Past, Present, and Future Growth and Development
BUFFALO, NY – Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus officials today highlighted the growth and development of the 120-acre Medical Campus over the past 10 years, outlined the findings of its recent Master Plan Update and the Four Neighborhoods, One Community initiative, and identified priorities for the future. This update was presented to an audience of business leaders, health care professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs, government and community leaders, as well as the media, during a public meeting on the BNMC at Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Hohn Auditorium.
“Today we are highlighting the impact that the continued collaboration of the region’s leading life sciences research, clinical care, and medical education institutions has on our community,” said William L. Joyce, Chair, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Board of Directors. “The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus as a whole has become the economic driver the leadership envisioned ten years ago.”
“The BNMC has far exceeded expectations, fulfilling the 20 year Master Plan developed in 2002 in just eight years,” said David Gamble, Principal of Gamble Associates of Boston, Mass., the BNMC’s master planning consultant. “The growth is truly remarkable, and they have done so in a way that few other medical centers have, as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization.”
Joining Joyce and Gamble to address the crowd were Congressman Brian Higgins; Mayor Byron Brown, City of Buffalo; James Wadsworth, Chair, The John R. Oishei Foundation Board of Directors; and Matthew Enstice, President & Chief Executive Officer, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc.
Mayor Brown highlighted Four Neighborhoods, One Community, a planning initiative funded by the John R. Oishei Foundation, in which City staff worked alongside BNMC staff to reach out and engage stakeholders in the four neighborhoods of Allentown, Fruit Belt, Downtown, and BNMC. This collaborative neighborhood planning initiative was conducted by Sasaki Associates and Madden Planning Group.
“Four Neighborhoods, One Community began with the recognition that the city and the Medical Campus are committed to working together to harness their respective strengths. This is a project focused on prioritization of existing plans, new ideas, and most of all implementation,” said Mayor Brown. “Together, ‘one community’ seeks to evolve into a center of employment, research, health care services, education, a variety of housing opportunities, and the retail and entertainment amenities that come from a vital urban setting.”
Congressman Higgins announced the naming dedication of the BNMC’s Innovation Center, the recently renovated four-story former Trico Products Corp. building on Ellicott Street, to longtime BNMC leader and volunteer Thomas R. Beecher, Jr.
“The Thomas R. Beecher, Jr., Innovation Center is a symbol of entrepreneurship and collaboration on the BNMC,” said Rep. Higgins. “The dedication of this building is the perfect way to honor the man who has dedicated so much time and energy to the success of the thriving Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.”
BNMC Chief Executive Officer Matthew K. Enstice “flew” the audience through a virtual model of the Medical Campus developed by the University at Buffalo’s Center for Computational Research. This model shows the dramatic development that has taken place on the 120-acre campus over the past 10 years, highlighting the success of the BNMC member institutions.
The virtual model of the Medical Campus and copies of Four Neighborhoods, One Community, including the BNMC Master Plan Update, the Allentown Neighborhood Strategy, and the Fruit Belt Neighborhood Strategy are available at bnmc-old.local.
About the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is a consortium of the region’s premier health care, life sciences research, and medical education institutions, all located on 120 acres in downtown Buffalo, New York. The BNMC is dedicated to the cultivation of a world-class medical campus for clinical care, research, education, and entrepreneurship. BNMC member institutions are the University at Buffalo, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Buffalo Medical Group, Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center, Olmsted Center for Sight and the Ross Eye Institute, Upstate New York Transplant Services, and the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care.
The BNMC has:
- 4.5 million square feet of existing research, clinical, and support space today
- More than two million square feet currently or soon to be under construction, equaling an investment of $500 million in public and private funding.
- 8,500 people working on the Medical Campus today, a number that will rise to nearly 12,000 in the next few years.
- More than one million patients and visitors annually.
- Nine major institutions and more than 40 public and private life sciences companies are located on the BNMC.
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