Building on our past to create our future

ACADEMY PLACE   ~ A Community Development Project

Total Project Cost: $ 10+ million ~ (95% of funding acquired as of April 2008)

This strategic initiative is a three-year plan to transform a 77,000 square feet school building into affordable senior housing, a child and adult daycare center, and business, office, education, & community space.  By adaptively converting this former school building, located along Cattaraugus Creek, the Academy Place project will strategically accomplish the following goals:

Academy Place is the result of concentrated deliberations over five years by thirty key community leaders.  The Academy Place initiative is based on identified needs, fiscal viability, sustainability, and broad-based, enthusiastic support from the community.  Under the stewardship of The Healthy Community Alliance, a not-for-profit rural health network, established in 1996 to maintain and improve local healthcare services during times of great change, Academy Place holds to its same mission, “to improve quality of life in rural communities.”  Academy Place also supports various federal, state, and regional goals for job creation, economic development, elimination of blight, availability of affordable housing, and improved community services.

 Since the close of the school in June of 2002, The Healthy Community Alliance has spearheaded the effort to transform this once bustling home of education, teeming with students, to a multi-faceted community resource designed to meet the growing needs of a diverse population.   Academy Place is now at the crucial juncture of planning the next three years to realize this vision.  Six areas of focus form the basis of moving forward.

 GOAL 1         Senior Housing

Develop 32 units of affordable senior housing.  This plan calls for the conversion of the second and third floors of the former school building into thirty-two (32) apartments (28 one bedroom and four two bedroom) for well and frail elderly. Plans for the residential units include two elevators, a large community room with kitchen area, laundry facilities on each floor and adequate parking for residents and guests.

The units will be available for well and frail elderly, 62 years of age and older, with incomes below 50% of the area median. Residents will be required to document that they meet these eligibility requirements prior to occupancy and will be required to certify their incomes annually.

 GOAL 2        Child & Adult Daycare   

Establish, through the TLC Health Network, a 5,000 square feet child and adult daycare center for up to 76 children and 12 adults on the first floor. Since there are no licensed childcare facilities or adult day care programs in the area, the center will fill a long standing, unmet need.

 GOAL 3        Business Space

Develop a 7,500 square feet space to house a consumer-operated food vending business focused on offering developmentally disabled consumers meaningful employability skills and employment opportunities. 

 GOAL 4        Education & Community

Provide space for education and community programs. A “Network Neighborhood” computer room is being planned that will provide space and computers for seniors and others to learn about computers and access the internet. School and community groups to present music and entertainment as well as educational programs are preserving the school’s auditorium for use.

 GOAL 5        Senior Dining

Establish a congregate senior dining site through Cattaraugus County Department of Aging.

 GOAL 6        Employment

Create a minimum of 40 new jobs and retain a minimum of 50 current jobs.

Secured Funding

NYS Office of Children & Family Services(OCFS) ~ $202,400

Village of Gowanda VCR grant - $35,000

Sen. Catherine Young Member Initiative grant - $15,000

Univera’s “Caring for Comunities” -  $21,000

NYS Empire Zone Capital Credit Community Development Project - $250,000 in tax credits

US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development 202 Funds ~ $1.938 million

HSBC ~ $5,000

Erie County HOME Funds - $45,000

Erie County Community Development Block Grant ~ $150,000

John R.Oishei Foundation - $70,000

Individual Contributions - $260,000

East Hill Foundation - $25,000 

NYS Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR) HOME Funds - $850,000

RESTORE NY ~ $1.5 million

Affordable Housing program through HSBC ~ $272,000

 The Need for Action

                          In cities and villages around the country and right here in Western New York, school buildings that were once filled with children and served as a focal point for community life, now stand abandoned, boarded up and vandalized.  These once beautifully cared for and maintained buildings have become dangerous eyesores, and even worse, a magnet for vandals and a more serious criminal element. Although some school buildings have found new life as community centers or apartment complexes, this is the exception rather than the rule. The potential for transformation is often overlooked, especially in small, economically depressed rural communities where revitalization is needed the most. This is not the case with the Academy Place Project in Gowanda, New York. Transformation and revitalization are the key components of this grass roots, community-based initiative, which grew out of a volunteer task force that began planning over five years ago – before the Center Street Elementary School closed its doors. 

Academy Place represents a rare convergence of community need and purpose. In the short term, making it a reality will breathe new life into one rural community; in the long term, Academy Place can be a blueprint for other similar communities (and there are many) to emerge from decades of decline into a new era of hope and promise.  

Academy Place Advisory Council

            In 1999, the Gowanda Central School Board of Education appointed a 30-member task force to lead the way in determining the best possible use for the vacated Center Street Elementary school. With transfer of the property immanent, the Healthy Community Alliance  named a 9-member Advisory Council to provide administrative oversight for the project.

            If you would like to learn more about this exciting community initiative, call the Healthy Community Alliance office at 716/532-1010 or contact any Advisory Council member.

Members of the Council include:
Mike Hutchinson, Chair, Village of Gowanda
Rob Gaylord, Co-chair, HSBC
Mel LeBar, Supervisor, Town of Persia                                                                                        John Cureo, Lawley Benefits Group
Mary Anderson, Cattaraugus Community Action
Cheryl Story (HSBC bank manager)
Melvin LeBar, Supervisor, Town of Persia                                                                                Richard L. Kazmark, Secretary, HCA Board of Directors
Mark Nephew, President, Gowanda Central School Board of Education
Joseph H. Vogtli, President, Gowanda Area Redevelopment