By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

With a new tenant signed and deals close for several more, McGuire Development Co. LLC is ready to begin work on the second phase of the nearly $10 million medical campus it is building on Maple Road in Amherst.

Company officials confirmed that University Pediatric Dentistry P.C. will occupy the remaining 9,000 square feet in a recently renovated former church at the corner of Maple and Ayer roads. The building is anchored by Pediatric and Adolescent Urgent Care Center, which opened in November.

University Pediatric Dentistry is moving from Hopkins Road. The office has nine pediatric dentists who work in correlation with the University at Buffalo.

The new office is slated to open in March and will be its fifth regionwide.

With the former Evangel Assembly of God Church rectory fully leased, McGuire will turn its attention to developing and constructing the second phase of the medical campus - a two-story, 45,000-square-foot building.

"We're very much ahead of schedule in terms of our development time frame," President James Dentinger said. "Because of that, we are moving ahead with the second phase."

The building, designed by Carmina Wood & Morris Architects, should be under construction this spring, with a targeted completion date of early winter 2012. Dentinger estimates the building will cost more than $7 million to develop. The project is being privately financed, he said.

Several medical tenants are close to signing deals, he added.

Unlike the former church, which evolved into a pediatric-based medical center, the new building will house more general medical practices, Dentinger said. The complex is the latest in a series of medical-based developments by McGuire in recent years. Others include the Brain and Spine Center in Amherst, the Omni Pain & Wellness Center in Hamburg, Wehrle Professional Center in Williamsville and Lakeshore Family Medicine complex in Derby.

The Evangel Assembly of God Church moved from Amherst to Clarence last year.