BUFFALO, NY-Recent decades have brought plenty of unkind attention upon Buffalo, NY.

Certainly, the city on Lake Erie seems to be an easy mark for such negativity, what with its back-breaking 93 inches of annual snowfall, a substantial loss of industry, a 50% drop in population over 70 years, a lackluster pro sports scene that includes the four-time Super Bowl-loser (the NFL's Bills), and so on.

Yet for those not paying attention lately, Buffalo is in the midst of a remarkable comeback. People are actually excited to shuffle off to Buffalo -- instead of out of it.

And as is the case in many cities around the country, healthcare is one of the major drivers of the revival.

The healthcare renaissance, if you will, is centered on a relatively new and growing medical district just a few blocks north of Buffalo's central business district.

There, the 120-acre Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is bustling. Home to more than 4.5 million square feet of space in hospitals, outpatient buildings, research facilities, cancer care centers, a long-term care facility, and others, the BNMC is poised for even more growth. About 2 million square feet of space has been added in recent years, with another 2 million either underway or planned by 2016.

Like the city itself, the BNMC didn't always thrive, as the area once included shuttered warehouses, weed-infested parking lots and aging housing structures.

Until 2001, that is, when some of the district's major institutions formed the BNMC in partnership with the city of Buffalo, Erie County and two adjacent, historic neighborhoods. In addition to finalizing a 20-year master plan, the BNMC dedicated itself to the “cultivation of a world-class medical campus for clinical care, research, education, and entrepreneurship.”

After a slow start, the BNMC's development ball got rolling in 2005-06 with the opening of the Buffalo Life Sciences complex, a 400,000-square foot conglomeration of multiple research and biomedical facilities. Several other projects were completed between 2006 and 2011, culminating with a $70 million expansion at Kaleida Health's 501-bed Buffalo General Medical Center.

The biggest year so far, however, has been 2012, when three new projects totaling $292 million opened. The largest among them is a 10-story, $291 million research and clinical care building housing the Gates Vascular Institute and the University at Buffalo's Clinical and Translational Research Center.

And the projects just keep coming, with construction starting recently on the $100 million, 287,000-square foot Conventus medical office building being developed by local firm Ciminelli Real Estate Corp. Also underway is the $243 million, 410,000-square foot John R. Oishei Children's Hospital and the $375 million, 500,000-square foot University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

As the BNMC looks to the future, there are plans for even more growth. However, available or redevelopable land is becoming a bit scarce as planners consider courses of action to accommodate growing demand.

John B. Mugford is the Editor of Healthcare Real Estate Insights™, the nation's first and only publication totally dedicated to covering news and trends in healthcare real estate development, financing and investment. For more information, please visit www.HREInsights.com.