"A Buffalo school attended by the late Tim Russert is being eyed as a new senior apartment complex. Delta Development Co. confirmed it wants to renovate the circa 1915 Holy Family School into a 35-unit senior housing complex. The former school is located at the corner of Seneca and Tifft streets.

Delta will unveil the proposal for the $8.2 million project during the Nov. 17 Buffalo Planning Board meeting. The planning board is one of several city approvals needed before construction can begin. Because of its age and potential historic status, the state Office of Historic Preservation must also sign off on the project.

Holy Family School closed in 2004 due to dwindling enrollment. During its peak years of 1950 to 1975, the school averaged more than 1,500 students each year. By 2004, however, it had just 105 students. Russert, longtime host of "Meet the Press," attended kindergarten and first grade there.

Holy Family Church, which neighbors the school, remains open. Catholic Charities of Buffalo continues to run a food pantry in the basement of the former school. The school is among 22 properties - mostly senior or elderly care residential complexes - that Delta Development operates in Western New York.

Pending various approvals, the renovation project should start by early spring. The apartments should be open by spring 2011. More than 200 people have expressed an interest in living there. The three-story complex will have 30 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom apartments.

Delta Development is working with KeyBank on both construction and permanent financing for the project. The City of Buffalo, through its HOME financing program, has offered $900,100 for the project. Living Communities LLC has been retained as Delta's development partner." M. Scott Allen of GAR Associates, Inc. completed a market study for this project in 2008.

Buffalo Business First
November 2009