"A senior citizens apartment complex in Orchard Park is receiving nearly $1.4 million in tax breaks through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency, despite the objections of County Legislature Chairwoman Lynn M. Marinelli.

The agency approved property, sales and mortgage tax breaks Monday for the 90-unit Eagle Crest Senior Village complex on Weiss Avenue in Orchard Park that is being planned by an offshoot of real estate development firm Calamar.

IDA officials said the 82,000- square-foot complex will help fill a growing need for affordably priced senior citizens apartments in the Southtowns. The apartments, which are expected to rent for $850 to $950 a month, are for senior citizens capable of an independent lifestyle, said Karen Fiala, the IDA’s coordinator of tax incentive products.

The $8 million project will fill a void for middle-income senior citizens, who have too much money to qualify for subsidized housing, yet can’t afford to live in a more expensive life-care community, she said, noting that 28 percent of Orchard Park’s population is 60 or older.

Senior citizens housing complexes often have received IDA tax breaks, as developers launch new projects in response to the growth in the region’s elderly population. The number of households consisting of people 60 and older in Hamburg, Orchard Park and West Seneca is expected to grow by nearly 9 percent over the next five years, IDA officials said. Even with the tax breaks, the project is expected to generate an additional $824,000 in local property tax revenue and payments, IDA officials said.

The IDA also approved sales tax breaks of as much as $65,000 for Windham Professionals, a debt collection agency that is expanding its operations, with plans to hire 120 new workers over the next two years. The sales tax break covers the purchase of as much as $740,000 in new equipment, computers, furniture and machinery as part of Windham’s plans to expand its second-floor offices at 300 Gleed Ave. in East Aurora.

Empire State Development Corp. last month gave a $280,000 grant to the Salem, N. H.-based national debt collector, which handles past-due government-guaranteed student loans and some private loans. The company, which now employs 80 people in East Aurora, plans to boost its work force to 200 within two years." M. Scott Allen of GAR Associates, Inc. completed a market study for this project.

 The Buffalo News
October 2009