Amherst Surgery Center nears completion

BY LISA KOPOCHINSKI

When completed this year, the new $63 million 716 Health surgery center in Amherst will bring needed medical services to the area.

Located at 111 North Maplemere, the 163,000 square foot multi-tenant medical office building will be anchored by a 39,000 square foot ambulatory surgery center that includes seven operating rooms and seven procedure rooms. Also included is the UBMD Orthopaedics Medical Office, Great Lakes Medical Imaging, UBMD Surgery, General Physician, PC, 54 exam rooms, offices and staff spaces.

A total of $35 million will also be spent on tenant improvements.

Project developer Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation has completed several medical use projects within Amherst’s “medical spine.”

“The town of Amherst has worked diligently to implement a medical development component in this area of Amherst as part of their master planning efforts,” said Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation president and chief executive officer, Paul Ciminelli. “The ‘medical spine’ is expected to include multiple medical disciplines and services within close proximity to major travel arteries in the town. The core and shell are expected to be completed in June, with tenants occupying over the next nine months.”

Dr. Brian McGrath, an orthopaedic surgeon with UBMD Physicians Group, believes the 716 Health center will allow a great need in the community and allows for convenient access to inperson and virtual multispecialty health care.

“We are excited to provide accessible health care in a way that streamlines the patient experience and allows the health care system to operate efficiently,” Dr. McGrath said.

Prior to the pandemic, there was an increasing patient-driven need to shift healthy patients to freestanding ambulatory surgery centers to avoid the inconvenience and cost of monolithic hospital-based surgery.

“The pandemic has accelerated this shift with the added need to separate healthy patients from the sick and free up space in our hospitals,” Dr. McGrath said. “This shift should be in partnership with the hospital systems to avoid major financial losses to the hospital.”

UBMD Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine will span 50,000 square feet and offer full service musculoskeletal care, including fellowship trained orthopaedic surgeon consultative services, urgent care visits, a massive physical therapy and performance enhancing gym, world renown concussion clinic and research center and state-of-theart imaging.

UBMD General Surgery will occupy 25,000 square feet and provide comprehensive general surgical care, including fellowship trained general surgeon consultative services from bariatric to vascular care, on-suite advanced imaging and vascular access.

UBMD Radiology will occupy 16,000 square feet and provide comprehensive advanced radiological imaging and fellowship trained radiology consultations.

The General Physician Partnership Corporation/Kaleida affiliate will occupy 30,000 square feet on the second floor and provide comprehensive primary care and women’s health with the advantage of all the services provided for their patients on the first floor.

Northtown’s Ambulatory Surgery Center will occupy 38,999 square feet and offer comprehensive outpatient surgical services, including image guided robotic joint replacements, advanced robotic assisted laproscopic abdominal surgery, cutting-edge sports medicine and a four-room gastrointestinal endoscopic suite.

“The 716 Health center allows the synergistic development of integrated multispecialty health care in a con- venient accessible location,” said Dr. McGrath. “The project supplies the medical community with a platform to expand our concussion care, research and education.”

Arc Building Partners is the construction manager and is delivering this project under a construction manager at-risk delivery model. The company is responsible for all site development, off-site infrastructure, core/shell and tenant fit-outs—with the exception of Great Lakes Medical Imaging.

“We started preconstruction at the early concept stages in the second quarter of 2020, locked into a GMP in June 2021 and started construction in late 2021,” said Arc Building Partners’ president and chief executive officer Frank L. Ciminelli II.

When it comes to the project cost, he said: “We can only speak to the hard cost. All work under our control will be between $65 million and $70 million, plus Great Lakes Medical Imag- ing, and furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) for each space, in addition to development soft costs.”

The biggest challenge Ciminelli II’s team faced was being smart about how and when Arc Building Partners bought out the core and shell scope.

“Commodity pricing and supply chain constraints needed to be constantly monitored. We had a plan early and executed it extremely well,” he said. “During construction, the biggest challenge has been reacting to the evolving needs of each tenant as the scope of their spaces took shape. We started with white boxes, but we will end up with sophisticated, densely packed spaces. That evolution equates to navigating the impacts to the existing design on the fly and managing multiple stakeholders.