Grandinetti's Parking Numbers May Be a Bit High

Kristen Grandinetti supports ceding her legal right as a council member to review and approve all contracts. So much does she trust the man, Paul Dyster.

Niagara Falls Council member Kristen Grandinetti, a staunch supporter of Mayor Paul Dyster, and therefore the Hamister hotel project, has told the media what she thinks the benefits of the project are to the City of Niagara Falls.

One of these is the revenue she thinks the city will earn from paid parking.

If the Hamister hotel is built, the building will occupy most of the proposed 0.88 acre site. The plan is for patrons of the hotel complex to use the city's Rainbow Ramp, a five-story, 1800-space parking facility.

Part of the plan, according to the renderings, is to build a covered walkway above Rainbow Blvd. connecting the hotel with the ramp so patrons will not have to go outside or cross the street to enter the hotel.

Grandinetti told YNN, "They're going to connect to our parking ramp, where they will be renting between 75 and 100 spaces per year, which will be annual income for us. I believe it will be close to $100,000 annually."

Grandinetti is wrong on her numbers.

At the Rainbow Ramp as of now, we learned, anyone can rent any number of spaces for $1 a day.

If Hamister were to rent 100 spaces, he would pay $100 a day or $36,500 per year.

Grandinetti's $100,000 is off by 300 percent.

One only hopes she isn't off by that much in all her estimates.