Ciminelli of Ciminelli R.E.: Developing $100 million project

The NYREJ recently sat down with Paul Ciminelli, of Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., for a question and answer session. Q: What has been your companies' biggest challenge so far this year? A: Simply because of the complexity of the project and the deal itself, our biggest challenge was getting our new $100 million medical office project, Conventus, underway. Conventus, located at the northern gateway to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, will be the hub that physically connects to both the new University and Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and to the new John R. Oishei Children's Hospital. There are so many moving parts due to the number of entities with which we are collaborating. Challenging, but also very, very rewarding! (See below.) Q: What has been your companies' greatest accomplishment? A: The commencement of Conventus, our 300,000 s/f, $100 million medical office project on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. Conventus is the first private investment on the campus, and it is also the largest project we have undertaken to date. With so much happening on the Campus over the next four years - the new Children's Hospital and UB Med School will also be completed - it's an exciting time to be developing there. Q: What are you and your firm looking forward to in 2014? A: We look forward to expanding our service footprint into the Stamford, Connecticut market as co-developer (and, ultimately, property manager) of the new Stamford Transportation Center, a $550 million mixed-use, transit-oriented project that will commence next year. Q: What can your company offer our readers? A: Ciminelli Real Estate offers a wide range of real estate-related services, including development, acquisition/disposition, property and asset management, real estate consulting and leasing to over 350 national and international clients throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Florida. Paul Ciminelli is president and CEO of Ciminelli Real Estate Corp., Buffalo, N.Y.