It took Pediatric and Adolescent Urgent Care of Western New York and McGuire Development Co. three extra weeks to get the approvals needed to move forward with their Amherst project.

It shouldn't have.

The urgent-care center's $2.68 million project ran into a mini-buzz saw during the Aug. 27 meeting of the Amherst Industrial Development Agency.

The project touched a nerve among some IDA directors and Amherst Supervisor Dr. Barry Weinstein. The issue is whether medical projects should be induced in Amherst.

Weinstein raised the issue this summer when an abatement package was approved to help renovate the former Fanny's Restaurant on Sheridan Drive to medical offices. A physician himself - and also a lawyer - Weinstein had some valid points.

Medical offices, like stores, often are driven by locations that are central to their patient base.

True, the new pediatric urgent-care center is centrally located, but - and this is a big but - it is creating new jobs and adding to the local economy, not to mention taking a church property that paid no property taxes and transforming it into something that will pay property taxes.

Still, the abatement package had its critics. In fact, IDA board member and local attorney Robert Ciesielski said he doubted the "uniqueness" of the project. He and fellow IDA director Aaron Stanley voted against the package, which was ultimately approved during a Sept. 17 meeting by a 5-2 board vote.

"To say it is a unique pediatric urgent-care center is stretching what unique is," Ciesielski said.

Dr. Kathleen Lillis, who founded the center, disputed that, saying, "I'm surprised to hear it being called ‘not unique.' "

While there are other urgent-care centers and traditional emergency-room options, the new center will be focused on pediatric patients. It will be open from 4 p.m. to midnight weekdays and noon to midnight on weekends.

James Dentinger, McGuire Development president, said one of the reasons Amherst residents haven't been hit with sharp tax increases is because of projects the IDA induced two decades ago.

And as this collection of office buildings and industrial parks see their abatements fade away, they start paying full property taxes.

"The inducements were the way of getting these projects started," Dentinger said. "And now they are paying full taxes. The IDA, in general, is a large part of Amherst's success."

It's no secret that Evangel Assembly of God Church was looking for a newer, larger site for its growing congregation. It had outgrown its home and ended up moving to Clarence.

McGuire Development took a potentially expensive roll of the dice by agreeing to buy the property and move ahead with development plans. It could have razed the church and built a new building. Instead, it is taking the adaptive re-use route by renovating the church.

"We don't tell people whether to demolish or renovate," said James Allen, Amherst IDA executive director.

The agency does have a targeted adaptive re-use policy pinpointed for specific Amherst neighborhoods. The area of Maple and Ayer roads is not one of those targeted, but saving an existing building fits into the IDA's game plan.

According to agency documents, the urgent-care center will create 22 jobs and have a projected annual payroll of $1.595 million. The renovation will create about 25 construction jobs for another $1.36 million in economic impact.

The pediatric urgent-care center will receive approximately $190,651 in tax breaks in the form of property, sales and mortgage recording tax exemptions.