UB adds to downtown presence
Second building in Goodell campus increases a core commitment
Updated: 10/28/07 9:04 AM
University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson’s announcement that the school will expand its downtown presence by erecting a new building along the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is another piece of welcome downtown development news.
The new UB Educational Opportunity Center will be built at Ellicott and Goodell streets on a parking lot next to the former M. Wile building, which UB bought last month to relocate several community outreach programs. Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples deserves credit for securing $26 million in state funding for the $30 million building.
While it is encouraging to see the university keep its promise to expand its downtown presence and, while doing so, further its goal of community outreach to individuals in need of GEDs and other employment training, there is also the need to keep the medical campus and its environs focused on medical research. Medical programming for the new UB complex there, according to university officials, is not finished.
Nonetheless, the university’s dedication to downtown can only prove beneficial to the city, as UB continues its ambitious growth plans.
