A three-story, 50-unit apartment building is headed toward final approval on land tucked behind Samuel's Grande Manor in Clarence, with the project's developers now seeking the last sign-off from town officials after years of false starts on the property. The $15 million project would rise on a northern portion of the site behind the longtime banquet facility, and the venue itself will stay open and untouched by construction.
A Deal Years in the Making
According to Buffalo Business First, developers behind the proposed apartment building are now seeking final approval from the Town of Clarence. The project traces back to the owner of Samuel's Grande Manor, who spent four years trying unsuccessfully to redevelop the rear portion of his family's banquet facility before deciding to sell that land to a pair of developers planning the 50-unit complex, as reported by The Buffalo News.
The developer identified in local coverage is McNamara Development, which plans to build the three-story, 50-unit structure on the northern portion of the property sitting behind Samuel's Grande Manor, per a report from Audacy/WBEN. That same reporting pegs the project's price tag at $15 million and notes that Samuel's remains open and will not be impacted by the project.
Tax Break Sought, Approval Still Pending
McNamara Development hopes to garner a seven-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes package from the Clarence Industrial Development Agency, the station's report states. Still needed is a final set of approvals from the Clarence Town Board before the project can move forward.
Construction is expected to start later this year and take slightly more than one year to complete, according to the same WBEN account.
Part of a Broader Housing Push in Clarence
The Samuel's Grande Manor project isn't the only residential development working its way through Clarence. The Buffalo News previously reported that a pair of mixed-use proposals were poised to bring additional apartments and retail space to Transit Road and Sheridan Drive — Rane Property Management's project at 7621-7631 Transit Road and the Green Organization's mixed-use building at 9150 Sheridan Drive. The Buffalo News reported those two projects would add 38 apartments in its article text, though the piece's headline cited 40 units, a discrepancy the available reporting does not resolve.
Separately, Business Journals reporting from last year found that U.S. Census Bureau data showed multifamily construction on the rise across Erie County, though the newspaper noted the City of Buffalo's years-long gap in submitting data to the bureau muddies the overall picture. Against that backdrop, the Samuel's Grande Manor project stands as one more marker of apartment demand pushing into Clarence's established commercial corridors.
