Via The Buffalo News
By Jay Rey
Ellicott Development Co. plans to redevelop the former Cantalician Center for Learning on Eggert Road in Amherst into apartments and office space.
The development company, owned by Carl and William Paladino, plans “substantial interior and exterior” renovations on the three-story building at 1350 Eggert Road, near Crosby Boulevard, said Sean W. Hopkins, attorney for the developers.
The project would include 38 apartments, as well as 5,100-square-feet of office space on the first floor of the former school, Hopkins said. Plans also call for 94 parking spaces on the more than three-acre site, as well as a small addition that would be no higher than the current height of the building.
The project was unveiled Thursday to the Amherst Planning Board, which recommended rezoning the site for the office-apartment project. It’s likely to go before the Amherst Town Board for rezoning approval sometime in April or May, said Gary Black, the town’s assistant planning director.
“Because of its location and size, it’s an important building to reuse,” Black said.
The building was the old Eggert Road Elementary School until the Cantalician Center purchased it from the Amherst Central School District in 1982.
The building housed programs for children with developmental disabilities, but when the Cantalician Center consolidated facilities the property was sold last summer to Ellicott Development for $700,000.
Ellicott scaled back from its original plans, after talking with neighbors, Hopkins said. A few residents still raised concerns to the Planning Board about increased traffic and the potential loss of playground space on the site.
“The general opinion is this is a good use of the land,” said Charles Gilbert of the Eggertsville Community Organization.
