EDITORIAL: Nursing home takeover among WNY's steps in right direction

Feb. 21--It can only be a good thing that a co-owner of the McGuire Group, Edward Farbenblum, is buying six nursing homes from Absolut, including the ill-famed Absolut Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Aurora Park, which has in the past been among the region's worst.

The McGuire Group is known for operating long-term care facilities that rank high in the federal government's ratings.

Farbenblum, a Long Island businessman, says he will begin serving as a consultant to the Absolut facilities on March 1. The state Health Department must approve the sale arrangement.

The Aurora Park home, located in East Aurora, was among the worst-rated in the state in 2018, though its scores have improved somewhat since.

The News reported last year on lawsuits against the nursing home in which residents and their survivors alleged everything thing from untreated bedsores to broken bones to wrongful death. The facility agreed to pay $820,000 to settle four lawsuits in 2018.

It will take some time for Farbenblum to institute meaningful changes at Absolut at Aurora Park. It should be worth the wait.

Rent a jail cell

The developer Douglas Jemal's renovation of Buffalo's former police headquarters at Franklin and Church streets is intriguing. The building will be turned into 92 studio and 38 one-bedroom apartments, meeting continuing demand for housing in the downtown core.

The art deco building will be transformed, while preserving much of its original style that makes it an architecturally significant building in Buffalo. Jemal is applying for approval from the Preservation Board and Planning Board.

One feature that will set 74 Franklin St. apart from other apartment buildings is the jail-cell block that Jemal says will be restored. That's one building where we wouldn't want to be late paying our rent.

Build a factory

There is more demand for industrial space in Buffalo Niagara than we can supply. That sounds like a good problem to have -- companies want to be here -- but it's still a problem. Economic development officials can't attract new companies to the region, or help ones already here to expand, if there isn't enough factory space in which they can do business.

The Buffalo and Erie County Industrial Land Development Corp. devised one answer: The agency is looking for a developer to put up a "spec" industrial building on part of the former Bethlehem Steel property, just south of Buffalo.

The agency's request for proposals is offering to sell a 10.27-acre parcel to a qualifying developer that will erect a light-manufacturing and warehouse facility of at least 120,000 square feet.

Only about 4% of the existing industrial facilities in the region are available for lease, a report in The News said.

Build it and they will come.

Bond with marine mammals

Aquarium of Niagara wants to enlarge its building to give its seals and sea lions a better space to hang out in.

Five California sea lions, three harbor seals and two gray seals live at the Niagara Falls attraction.

A larger, more naturalistic habitat for the marine mammals is part of the strategic plan unveiled by Gary K. Siddall, the aquarium's executive director.

The building's new M&T Bank Shark and Ray Bay, due to open in June, will allow visitors to touch nonlethal sharks and stingrays. The less lethal, the better.

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