Services to be provided at the Healthy Living Campus proposed for Downtown Batavia will go hand in hand with services to be offered by medical specialists at Rochester Regional Health’s facility that is planned for Route 98, north of the Thruway bridge.
That’s the assessment of David Ciurzynski of Ciurzynski Consulting LLC, of Attica, who is representing the owners in planning and design for the Healthy Living Campus project, a multimillion dollar joint venture of United Memorial Medical Center and the Genesee Area Family YMCA.
UMMC is part of the RRH system.
On Wednesday, Ciurzynski talked to The Batavian about the status of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative project -- a day after RRH announced that it is seeking to build a four-story, 140,000-square-foot office building on Route 98 in the Town of Batavia, across the road from Federal Drive and near Call Parkway.
“What Rochester Regional Health is doing is giving the (Batavia area) complementary services,” Ciurzynski said, noting that his team is in the process of revising the design of the downtown building. “They’re looking to make sure it has all of the right services in place to accommodate the community.”
Ciurzynski said the two-story Healthy Living Campus facility will replace the current YMCA at Main and Bank streets, and will feature 54,000 square feet of space for YMCA amenities such as gymnasium, pool, locker rooms, multipurpose rooms, exercise rooms and a community living (common) area.
It also will have 10,000 square feet for the hospital’s Healthy Living (diabetes awareness and education) program as well as a medical clinic on the second floor as a teaching unit for medical residents, and space for RRH’s Baby Café, a breastfeeding program run by lactation specialists who offer education and support to any pregnant woman or breastfeeding mom in the community at no charge.
“It’s all about having multiple access points (to health and wellness),” he said. “Part of the Downtown community wants services that are within walking distance, so that’s what this will be able to provide. The one near the Thruway will be able to service a wider region – with a variety of specialists.”
UMMC President Dan Ireland said that specifics regarding what practices will be in the Town of Batavia building will be revealed as the project progresses.
Ciurzynski called the Healthy Living Campus “the hub of the community,” with a total investment expected to approach $30 million.
The YMCA part of the proposal, estimated at $22.5 million including design fees, has received a DRI award of $4,075,000. The hospital piece is close to $10 million, Ciurzynski said, and has received a Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program II grant from the Department of Health for $7.5 million.
“We’re looking at the Healthy Living Campus as being that entire block – between Main Street and Washington Avenue, with the Jerome Center and everything (from Wiard Street west),” he said. “We’re trying to make everything complementary and symbiotic among all the buildings.”
The campus will cover around 15 to 20 acres in the heart of Batavia and will have ample parking and greenspace, Ciurzynski said.
“There so many wonderful services there between the Office for the Aging, the (Jerome Apartments) senior residency, YMCA and urgent care,” he said. “We will be taking down the boiler house and smokestack (behind the Jerome Center at 16 Bank St.) and making parking area and greenspace. We’re trying to find a way to make that the centerpiece of the community.”
Ciurzynski said he hopes to break ground next fall and see it through to completion by the end of 2022.
As far as the Office for the Aging is concerned, he said it will stay at its current location on Bank Street after separation from the YMCA building that will be demolished. He did say that the OFA could move into an expanded part of the new building in the future.
CPL of Rochester (formerly Clark Patterson Lee) has been selected as the architect, picking up where Gro Development LLC, a national company that designs YMCAs and other community-based facilities, left off.
