Long before the COVID-19 pandemic caused unemployment rates to soar, a group of collaborators in Buffalo were working toward a hands-on, lab-oriented technology certificate program designed to get out-of-work individuals back to work.
Last fall, Mark Hoeber, Dean of Continuing Education at SUNY Erie, began pulling together key local partners to help him build the full stack web development boot camp he saw successfully run in other communities. He identified David Adkins, formerly the VP for Information Technology at the Buffalo News, currently an engineering manager at Facebook, as a partner to develop and lead the course. He also reached out to Sam Marrazzo, BNMC’s Chief Innovation Officer.
Sam provided curriculum support and also brought in Raj Suchak, founder of Grit Seed, which offered the use of its technology platform pro bono to help market the program and identify candidates likely to succeed. Grit Seed’s technology made it convenient for people to wp-contently via text. After a potential candidate expressed interest, they were automatically encouraged to complete the process and answer simple questions.
Cristina Lopez from Workforce Buffalo was instrumental in providing funding for tuition. Seventeen people are currently enrolled in this class, with 14 students’ tuition paid for by Workforce Buffalo as part of its efforts to help upskill unemployed or dislocated workers. Originally designed as an in-person class starting in April, the class launched on Zoom in June and runs through mid-August. Graduates will earn a Microsoft certificate. SUNY Erie is also developing a Google programs and a Facebook marketing course.
Other partners include TechBuffalo and InfoTech WNY, which are helping to connect the students to mentors during the program and employment opportunities after completion.
More than 75 small business owners and buyers from local institutions attended the MWBE Pitch & Roundtable on October 23, presented by the BNMC, ECMC, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park, and the University at Buffalo. The event included an opportunity for some of the small business owners to pitch their company directly to the purchasers in the room (including the other small businesses), and also a roundtable discussion featuring several MWBE business owners who have formed successful business relationships with the institutions on hand. This event is part of the BNMC’s ongoing efforts to connect local small businesses with large purchasers to help grow the economy in our community.
As a small business owner, it is hard to know where to start to make connections with those who make purchasing decisions for large institutions on the Medical Campus. In an effort to support local businesses and introduce them to decision makers, the BNMC and its partners created the Procurement Work Council in 2013, as an outcome of the University at Buffalo’s Opportunities Advisory Council, to find ways to better connect business owners to purchasing professionals on Campus and create business opportunities for local firms.
The Council is made up of representatives from Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University at Buffalo, ECMC, the City of Buffalo, the U.S. Small Business Administration, among others. The goal is to learn more about local businesses and to connect them with decision makers with an emphasis on minority, women and veteran-owned businesses.
The Council hosts quarterly “BNMCWorks” events designed to showcase local businesses to purchasers, including the highly successful matchmaking networking events. These events provide an opportunity for business owners to meet one-on-one with purchasers to make a short pitch about their business and begin business relationships.
Small businesses are often invited to Work Council meetings to share their offerings and it can result in new relationships formed. In fact, a portion of the meeting is dedicated to sharing referrals and providing recommendations to other purchasing managers, helping both the institutions meet their needs and in opening new doors for local entrepreneurs. For more information, contact Marc Pope, BNMC community project manager, at mpope@bnmc-old.local.
Minority, Women & Veteran-Owned Businesses Invited to Purchasing Event on BNMC
The BNMC will host a “matchmaker” networking event on Thursday, March 22 designed to connect owners of small, local businesses with professionals who make purchasing decisions for the institutions on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and partner organizations. The event is free and open to all local businesses, with a particular emphasis on those businesses that are minority, women or veteran-owned, while space allows.
WHEN: Thursday, March 22 from 2 PM – 5 PM, Sign-up for meetings beginning at 1:45 PM
WHERE: Gaylord Cary Room in the Research Studies Center at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Across from Main Hospital Entrance)
WHO: The matchmaker networking opportunity will provide short one-on-one conversations with purchasing executives at the University at Buffalo, Roswell Park, and Kaleida Health on the BNMC, and other large purchasers including M&T and Catholic Health System.
Informal networking and light refreshments will also be available to participants throughout the event.
The event is designed for any local and women, minority and veteran business owners who want to learn how to do business with large institutions. This follows a highly successful event held in September that attracted nearly 70 participants.
Pre-Event Preparation: Interested participants are also invited to join a free pre-event webinar hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration on March 15 at 10 AM -11 AM to learn more about preparing materials, doing market research, creating a capability statement, and other issues pertinent to working with the Medical Campus institutions. The webinar can be found at http://events.sba.gov
The event is sponsored by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) and Roswell Park. Download the flyer.
About the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc.
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC Inc.) is a self-sustaining social enterprise successfully combining innovation, job creation, and urban revitalization. It serves as the umbrella organization of the anchor institutions that make up the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus located within the 120-acre campus bordering Allentown, the Fruit Belt and Downtown. The BNMC Inc. fosters conversation and collaboration among its member institutions, its partners and the community to address critical issues impacting them, including entrepreneurship, energy, access and transportation, workforce and procurement, neighborhoods, and healthy communities, with the goal of increasing economic development and building a strong community. www.bnmc-old.local.
For more information, contact:
Marc Pope
Community Program Manager
Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
mpope@bnmc-old.local | 716.218.7358
Green Team Keeps the BNMC Shining While Building Skills And Gaining Employment
If you have spent time on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus or in the BNMC’s Innovation Center, you have probably encountered one or more members of our “Green Team,” a group of individuals currently working as part of an wp-contentrentice-style program while handling building maintenance and landscaping for the BNMC. The small but impactful program helps nearby residents gain a variety of skills so that they can obtain, keep and realize success in future jobs.
The Green Team currently includes members of Buffalo’s refugee population who are working to improve their language skills along with their knowledge and abilities in areas that will provide opportunities for full-time employment. A total of 11 residents of the City of Buffalo have successfully completed or are currently part of the program, with members successfully “graduating” into new full-time, permanent jobs.
The workforce development program was created to provide a holistic wp-contentroach to preparing people who may have barriers to employment with the practical and life skills needed to be successful. In addition to building skills and experience by maintaining the BNMC’s multiple properties on the Medical Campus, the team also has classroom training in skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical, carpentry, HVAC, and horticulture. A dedicated workshop, built by Green Team members and the BNMC team together at the Innovation Center, is used for both practical purposes and hands-on training.
Recognizing that life circumstances can create issues that negatively impact successful employment, the program also includes education and guidance in areas such as communication, financial literacy, time management, computer skills, resume writing and much more. We also work with our team to overcome hurdles to employment including obtaining a driver’s license and or finding childcare when necessary. Personal mentoring for team members is also an integral part of the program to better understand some of their challenges and to help them overcome barriers to future success.
The newly opened $270 million John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital was a page turner in the latest chapter of the burgeoning downtown Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
So was the December opening of the University at Buffalo’s $375 million new home for its Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.
The completion of the new projects mark a turning point for the 120-acre campus at the epicenter of Buffalo’s renaissance.
In 2002, the campus was in its infancy with just three companies. Now boasting 4.5 million square feet of development and $1.4 billion in investments, the campus has moved beyond just medical institutions. It has taken shape with a diverse mix of health care, life science and technology companies, becoming fertile ground for entrepreneurs and their startups.
There is still more to come.
Campus planners are aiming for BNMC to rival medical campuses in places like Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Among the next steps are strengthening ties with higher education and the private sectors.
“We are so well positioned with all the institutions and assets that are here and now want to embrace the excellent universities and colleges,” said Matthew K. Enstice, CEO and president of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. “We plan to build out” – meaning renovate – “more space for them to have a location so they can interact and be a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that we have here.”
A big part of that vision is twp-contenting into local small and large companies, especially mature ones, and including them in the campus’ vision for its innovation district. “The world is changing so quickly in technology, that we’re putting a structure in place to help multiple, different companies innovate,” Enstice said.
Here’s what’s coming next on the Medical Campus:
• Design work is expected to start for renovation of existing buildings on the former Osmose Holdings site. In 2016, BNMC bought the 4.4-acre parcel, which is located at the northern edge of campus at Ellicott and Best streets and has parking for 200. It is expected to be a magnet for mature private-sector companies, along with universities and colleges, but will not be a second incubator, BNMC officials say.
• Ellicott Development Co. has a $4 million adaptive reuse development project underway at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, just north of the campus at Main and Best streets. To the south, Ellicott is planning a six-story retail and office building at 1091 Main St.
• Along the western edge of the campus, design work will begin for a redo of a critical stretch of Main Street from Goodell toward Canisius College. Meanwhile, a $7.5 million overhaul of Allen Street, including redesigned sidewalks and widened sections of the street, is expected to begin. Work will be done in phases, stretching from the eastern end of Allen toward Wadsworth.
• Workers will put the finishing touches on the exterior of UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, which opened to students earlier this month at 955 Main St. Final terra cotta panels are being installed on the Washington Street side of the building by spring. Most of the university’s labs are being moved in from mid-January through mid-March. With the medical school fully operational, 2,000 faculty, staff and students will be there daily.
• The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s newly renovated Allen Medical Campus Station has been integrated into the medical school. The station features “Gut Flora,” a colorful public art sculpture by Shasti O’Leary Soudant, and a newsstand opens this month. A one-block tunnel that serves as a pedestrian passageway to Washington Street will open beneath the medical school.
• The campus’ ninth pedestrian skybridge will be designed and constructed later in the year. It will span High Street, linking the Conventus medical office building to the UB Medical School. The new $1.5 million connector comes after three other skybridges just opened in November: one from Conventus to Oishei Children’s Hospital, another from Children’s Hospital to Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute, and a third leading out the back of Children’s Hospital to a new parking ramp at 854 Ellicott St.
• By late May, the $40 million, 1,825-space parking ramp behind Oishei Children’s Hospital at 854 Ellicott will be completed. The top half of the eight-story ramp has been under construction since late 2017. The bottom half of the eight-story ramp opened Nov. 10 with Oishei Children’s Hospital.
• The 128,000-square-foot Thomas R. Beecher Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott St. will be completely full by the end of March.
It’s been clear for awhile that ACV Auctions needed an office.
Turns out it didn’t need to leave the building.
The fast-moving technology startup, which offers a software platform for wholesale used car auctions, signed a lease Monday for a 10,000-square-foot office in the Thomas R. Beecher Jr. Innovation Center. The space will be renovated by building owner Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc. and the company expects to move in by spring.
Company CEO George Chamoun said the space will be a large open floor plan with conference rooms and a modern tech vibe – including no executive offices. Chamoun and other managers will sit among the rest of the company’s employees.
The office is expected to accommodate up to 130 employees, which means it’s likely to be full soon. Chamoun said ACV will keep its various smaller offices around the building for personnel overflow.
Overall, ACV Auctions currently has 160 full-time employees.
That’s a far cry from the company’s formation in 2014, when Joe Neiman, Dan Magnuszewski and Jack Greco announced they had co-founded the company. Since that time, the company has raised about $21 million in private capital in three separate fundraising rounds. It also won the $1 million grand prize in the 43North business competition in 2015.
Since it was founded, ACV’s home base has been the Z80 Labs technology incubator, which is on the Innovation Center’s ground floor. Its team now takes up a sizable chunk of that real estate, while engineers, sales teams and others have separate offices in smaller rooms around the building.
Chamoun said the move gives ACV its own branded space without the tremendous logistical hurdles of an extensive real estate search. Various local technology firms have taken years to find the right mix of price and parking combined with a modern technology vibe in downtown Buffalo.
The third floor office also has large windows looking out to the burgeoning medical campus, with views of new buildings like the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Kaleida Health’s new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital.
“The landlords here have been great to us, and this allows us to continue doing our job right now,” Chamoun said. “It’s a great location and allows us to put around own brand around it.”
According to Chamoun, ACV’s job is to continue establishing its presence in new territories throughout the United States. ACV hires employees in each of its territories – including 33 territory managers – and then seeks to build a market of wholesale dealers and buyers, who can do real-time auctions on an wp-content instead of bringing vehicles to a physical auction.
The company has now extended south to Florida and has begun fielding requests from new territories. It is in the preliminary stages of considering a large new injection of funding in 2018 to accelerate growth.
Chamoun said ACV’s revenue is up 600 percent from 2016 and the company is hitting its financial milestones.
The company is also developing new products toward the goal of being a comprehensive solution in the wholesale automotive world.
“Buying and selling wholesale is all about trust,” Chamoun said. “We are building a product portfolio that’s built around trust for both buyers and sellers.”
On September 26, BNMC, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Kaleida Health, University at Buffalo and ECMC held our free Annual BNMC Works MWBE Networking Event at UB’s Educational Opportunity Center. More than 100 people attended this event designed to connect small, local businesses, particularly those that are minority, women or veteran-owned, with those that make purchasing decisions for the institutions on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and partner institutions.
Small Businesses Invited to Connect with Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Institutions and Partners
Minority, women and veteran-owned businesses a focus for event that includes speed networking, presentations on how to do business on the Medical Campus
Buffalo, N.Y., September 5, 2017 – Small, local businesses, particularly those that are minority, women or veteran-owned, are invited to participate in an upcoming BNMC Works informational workshop and networking session designed to connect business owners with those that make purchasing decisions for the institutions on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and partner institutions. The event is free and open to all local small businesses while space allows.
The event will be held on Tuesday, September 26 from 2 PM – 5 PM at the University at Buffalo’s (UB) Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) at 555 Ellicott Street. BNMC Works will include presentations by UB, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Kaleida Health, and Erie County Medical Center on how to do business with each institution, a speed networking opportunity that will provide one-on-one conversations with purchasing executives, and the chance to informally network with representatives from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus institutions and other participating businesses. Local vendors will provide complimentary food and beverages.
The event is designed for any local and women, minority and veteran business owners who want to learn how to do business with large institutions. Area employers are also encouraged to participate in the networking portion of the event beginning at 3:30 PM. Interested participants can register by September 20 at www.bnmcworksnetworking.eventbrite.com.
BNMC Works is sponsored by the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC), and UB’s educational Opportunity Center, in partnership with UB, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Kaleida Health and Erie County Medical Center.
About the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc.
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC Inc.) is a self-sustaining social enterprise successfully combining innovation, job creation, and urban revitalization. It serves as the umbrella organization of the anchor institutions that make up the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus located within the 120-acre campus bordering Allentown, the Fruit Belt and Downtown. The BNMC Inc. fosters conversation and collaboration among its member institutions, its partners and the community to address critical issues impacting them, including entrepreneurship, energy, access and transportation, workforce and procurement, neighborhoods, and healthy communities, with the goal of increasing economic development and building a strong community. www.bnmc-old.local.
