It's been nearly five months since the Seneca Nation of Indians accomplished its 101-day miracle and opened the casino here, something most people thought would trigger a torrent of major new development.
There have been some encouraging signs. Since Steve Fournier opened his Cafe Etc. on Third Street last year, two other upscale night clubs have opened and a third is in the works, perhaps heralding a rebirth of what was once the most vibrant street in the city.
Niagara Falls Redevelopment's $3.5 million purchase of the former Nabisco complex on Buffalo Avenue indicates that New York real estate mogul Howard Milstein remains serious in his commitment to the city, and a consortium led by NFR founder Edwin Cogan is in the process of closing a $4.5 million deal for the former Saint Gobain property at Niagara Falls International Airport in order to convert it for use as an air cargo terminal.
But, despite these successes, the only non-Seneca construction to take place in the city's tourist district since the casino opening has been the erection of hundreds of ugly metal pipes, sticking up about four feet out of the ground and placed every dozen feet or so along every thoroughfare within a three-mile radius of the gambling mecca. These will eventually be capped with parking meters.
And a series of announcements made over the last 10 days by developers and government officials ring particularly hollow to residents of a beleaguered city who have heard more than enough promises about coming revitalization to last several lifetimes.
On May 15, developers of the AquaFalls project told members of the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency that the project "has not stopped" and that its owners "have been working behind the scenes." Funding for the $50 million underground aquarium would likely be forthcoming in "about two months," they said.
A quick check of the Reporter archives shows this to be the 57th time in the last four years that someone said the resumption of the project was months, weeks or even days away. The guilty parties have included local developer James "Harry" Williams, who owns a piece of the project, Mayor Irene Elia, who just wishes it would happen, and various columnists at the Niagara Gazette, who pretty much believe whatever they're told.
In the meantime, the work site -- located at the intersection of Rainbow Boulevard and Niagara Street -- remains the No. 1 eyesore in the tourist district, a massive, 40-foot-deep hole in the ground right at the entrance of the state park and the Rainbow Bridge.
Developer Carl Paladino has also been having trouble with his much-ballyhooed plan to renovate and re-open the landmark United Office Building. In that respect, he's joined an elite club that has included hotelier John Prozeralik, Neighborhood Housing Services and Niagara Falls Redevelopment over the last decade.
Like the other would-be developers, Paladino's announced plans called for a mixed residential and business use for the art deco structure, which has sat unused for a dozen years. Unlike them, Paladino's plans were strictly upscale, complete with $1,700-a-month condos and specialty boutiques.
Paladino's problem is with the State Historic Preservation Office, which is demanding that the exterior windows on the 20-story building be restored rather than destroyed and replaced with modern windows.
"They're not practical," he told a reporter. "A lot of historical projects are lost because these impractical people make decisions when they don't have anything at stake."
Not that Paladino has much at stake, having gotten the building from the city for the princely sum of $1. He does, however, know quite a bit about historical projects being lost, as he has made something of a career out of tearing down landmark buildings for use as parking lots in Buffalo.
In turning the property over to Paladino, the city became liable for the repayment of a $675,000 federal Housing and Urban Development grant that was used to gut the building's interior back when plans called for the construction of low-to-moderate income housing there.
Given the developer's remark last week, the city may never see a return on its investment. Considerable media attention was devoted last week to the landing of a Boeing 727 freighter at Niagara Falls International Airport by Kitty Hawk Cargo, a Fort Worth, Texas-based company.
"It is an extraordinary piece of news," said Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Chairman Luiz Kahl. "It is extraordinary to us at the NFTA, it is extraordinary to Niagara Falls and to the entire region."
Equally extraordinary, though Kahl failed to mention it, is the fact that landing fees normally charged for aircraft using the airport were waived for the Kitty Hawk flight. Additionally, the plane took on no fuel here, making the financial benefit of the highly hyped landing to the airport, and the community as a whole, less than zero.
If the aircrew sent out for sandwiches during their brief layover, it wasn't noted in the press. The landing came in the wake of efforts by the Industrial Development Agency, through its subsidiary Niagara Airport Development Corp., to wrest control of the facility from the Buffalo-based NFTA.
More than a few here are suspicious of the fact that a commercial plane finally landed at the moribund airport, which has been kept mothballed by the NFTA for the better part of three decades.
"You've finally got something going on out there, and they all of a sudden come up with this deal," one observer noted. "Where have they been for the last 30 years?"
There has long been a feeling that the NFTA -- which has a significant investment in the Buffalo airport -- has opposed allowing any significant air traffic in Niagara Falls in order to protect its interests.
But probably the most egregious phony announcement in recent weeks came from USA Niagara Development Corp. honcho Michael Wilton, following a unanimous ruling by the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court in favor of the state's efforts to exercise its eminent domain powers in gaining ownership of the former Falls Street Faire for use as a convention center.
USA Niagara Development was set up in January, 2001, as an arm of the Empire State Development Corp. to spur a revitalization of the city's tourist district. Nearly two-and-a-half years later, the results have been negligible. The agency, like many private developers here, has spent much of its time and effort hiring "consultants" and engaging in litigation.
Following the ruling, Wilton was careful to say that -- because it was a unanimous decision -- the building's owners, New York City-based investment firm Cornerstone Equity, have no "automatic" right to appeal to the state's highest court. Construction on the project could begin almost immediately, he said.
He didn't say that Cornerstone couldn't appeal, and he didn't even mention possible appeals to the federal court system.
Cornerstone Equity is represented by the prestigious law firm of Goldstein, Goldstein, Rikon and Gottlieb, which has made something of a specialty of fending off attempted eminent domain seizures in New York State. The firm represented the famous Nathan's hot dog stand on Times Square when the state wanted to revitalize that district and, despite the fact that Nathan's didn't even own the building in which the store was housed -- having but a simple lease -- the case dragged through the courts for nearly seven years. The state eventually ponied up a muti-million dollar settlement to the restaurant's operators.
For more than a year now, Wilton has been announcing that work on the dilapidated Falls Street Faire would begin immediately, if not sooner. Meanwhile, the city has lost more than $15 million in convention business.
If he keeps it up, Wilton might even match the mighty record for misstatement set by the folks at AquaFalls.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 20 2003 |