BUFFALO, N.Y.- Kaleida Health recently broke ground on a new $64 million long-term-care facility along Michigan Avenue.

Being constructed in the block bounded by Michigan Avenue and Maple, East North and High streets, the facility, when completed in 2012, will be the first nursing home built in Buffalo in decades. It will also add healthcare services in a neighborhood designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a “medically underserved area.”

“This project, just blocks from the new heart and vascular institute already under construction, is another example of Kaleida Health’s commitment to delivering quality, compassionate care to all Western New Yorkers,” said James R. Kaskie, president and CEO of Kaleida Health. “Our physicians, nurses and other healthcare processionals are focused on advancing people’s health in the communities we serve.”

“As our nation’s population ages, there will be greater demand for healthcare services such as those that will be provided in these new facilities,” Kaskie added. “Despite the prolonged recession, large numbers of uninsured and underinsured patients and dramatic changes affecting the entire healthcare industry, Kaleida Health is working to ensure that Western New Yorkers have access to the healthcare services – and employment opportunities – they require now and in the future.”

At four stories and 300 beds, the new 200,000 square foot facility will fill a gap in long-term-care services resulting from the closure in recent years of Grace Manor, Nazareth, St. Francis and other skilled nursing facilities in the city. It is scheduled to include a range of services including long-term care, sub-acute, pediatric and ventilator beds.

"We are excited to begin construction, and to continue to play an integral role providing quality health care for Buffalo-area residents,” said Maureen Caruana, Kaleida Health’s vice president for long-term care. “The state-of-the-art facility will utilize a household-style design with exceptional living and outdoor space for adult and pediatric residents. This means a better quality of life for residents in our care."

The project will replace two nursing homes operated by Kaleida Health — the 242-bed Deaconess Center on Humboldt Parkway and the 75-bed skilled-nursing unit in Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital. Both of these facilities are scheduled to close within two years per recommendations from the “Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century,” commonly known as the Berger Commission, which sought to provide more efficient and affordable care for New Yorkers.