Award-winning, seven-story, 350,000 square foot building plays a central role in the thriving 120-acre Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus healthcare success story
WHITE PLAINS and BUFFALO, N.Y., March 2, 2017 – Seavest Healthcare Properties and Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation have secured permanent financing for the seven-story, 350,000 square foot Conventus medical office building (MOB) on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) in downtown Buffalo.
The recently closed $75 million, five-year takeout loan replaces the building’s initial construction loan/mini perm facility. Both loans were provided by M&T Bank and Key Bank.
“Seavest was able to garner a lot of interest from lenders and secure favorable refinancing terms due to the success of the Conventus project,” says Jonathan L. “John” Winer, Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of White Plains-based Seavest Healthcare Properties. “In addition, we couldn’t have done this without the support of Ciminelli, our development partner and property manager, who has helped us achieve a 95 percent lease rate at this award-winning property.”
“We are happy that our existing banking relationships with both M&T and KeyBank proved to be valuable as we secured the financing,” adds James M. Gottstine, Chief Operating Officer at Ciminelli.
Conventus is appropriately named – the Latin word means “coming together” – because the building plays a unifying role in the continued development of the 120-acre BNMC. There is significant construction underway in the area, including Kaleida Health’s new $267 million, 12-story, 183-bed John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital and the new $375 million, eight-story, 628,000 square foot University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, both scheduled to be completed in November. Located at 1001 Main St. at High Street, Conventus is connected on two full floors to the new children’s hospital and will also be connected to the new medical school by a skybridge.
Serving as the northern gateway to the BNMC, the $110 million Conventus building has achieved Platinum level of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification for energy efficiency – the highest rating possible. It also won the prestigious national Healthcare Real Estate Insights (HREI) Insights Award for Best New MOB (100,000 square feet or more) in 2015. The HREI Insights Awards are the only comprehensive national awards program recognizing excellence in healthcare real estate development and executive leadership.