Growing Buffalos Low-Income Housing Market

A formal closing of a real estate deal between the Lancaster Square development team and Belmont Housing has paved the way for the latest construction project to begin.

The deal saw 875 Housing Development Fund Co. Inc., a Belmont affiliate, paying $1.65 million for the northern portion—roughly three interconnected buildings—of the former Gates Circle Homeopathic Hospital complex. The Belmont affiliate bought the circa 1911-era buildings located at 630 Linwood Ave., from Lancaster Square Holdings LLC, which is an affiliate of TM Montante Development.
TM Montante Development is in the midst of a long-term redevelopment of the former Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital into a vibrant, mixed-use campus with housing and dining/retail components.

Belmont is turning the northern portion of the one-time homeopathic hospital buildings into 80 apartments that will target low- to moderate-income residents. Construction will start this fall, and the building’s should be move-in ready by early 2026.

Combined with other already completed projects, more than 215 residential units either have been developed or will be tenant-ready on the former hospital campus.

“The Belmont project will really help move the needle on the overall Lancaster Square project,” said Christian Campos, TM Montante president.

Belmont will be investing slightly more than $33 million on the project.

All told, more than $100 million has been invested already in various Lancaster Square projects and, at the same time, has turned a vacant hospital project into a new center of activity—all within the past decade.

“There has been a huge sift in vibrancy,” Campos said.

The Belmont project is the eighth to get underway since TM Montante acquired the hospital property from Kaleida Health in late 2013. That amounts to one project getting underway and completed once every 18 months, on average.

“You can see there has been consistent progress from the beginning,” Campos said.