Ciminelli Real Estate Corp.'s new Conventus building on the edge of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus has earned LEED Platinum status for its "core and shell" - making it the only project in Western New York with that distinction.

The developer and its investment partner, Seavest Healthcare Properties LLC, said the U.S. Green Building Council awarded the status to the seven-story, 350,000-square-foot complex based solely on the outer structure, which was substantially completed in June. The building includes a mixture of clinical, office, research and retail space.

The building at Main and High streets features a 12,000-square-foot "green" roof with drought-tolerant plants to reduce storm water runoff and energy use for cooling, as well as low-flow plumbing fixtures that save over 500,000 gallons of water annually. The construction also diverted more than 80 percent of waste from landfills, while more than half of the building materials were made from recycled material.

The LEED rating system evaluates buildings, homes and communities for their environmental and human health performance. Conventus performs 30 percent better than standard code requirements. Only three projects in the entire state have received LEED Platinum for the core-and-shell of a building.

"Our project team, including our architects and engineers, was acutely aware of the high standard we set at the earliest stages of development and planning," said Denise Juron-Borgese, vice president of development and planning for Ciminelli. "Working meticulously to meet LEED certification objectives throughout our project resulted in a very efficient and environmentally sound building that will endure the test of time."