If all goes as expected, Niagara Street's most blatant monument to bad taste, bad ideas, shattered dreams and poor planning will soon be nothing more than the sort of memory one can only hope that drinking may erase.
We're talking about Pizza Hut, that sad reminder of the late Jake Palillo's Herculean effort to save our fair city from the evils of private development downtown. The Seneca Nation of Indians is expected to close on the property shortly, and the wrecking ball ought to be there by June.
A little history: When the Benderson Corp. announced plans in the mid-1990s to build a "mega-mall" on the fallow fields and crumbling neighborhood that comprised the south side of Niagara Street between Seventh Street and Portage Road, the brain trust running Pizza Hut seized upon the opportunity to build its first store in Niagara Falls.
Why anyone thought that this city needed a Pizza Hut is beyond comprehension. Did people here suddenly decide they were tired of the pies from Frenchy's, La Hacienda, Jaco's, Buzzy's, Donatello's, Goodfella's, the Como, Ventry's, the Pizza Oven and Sammy's? "Let's try that new Pizza Hut pineapple and ham!"
Don't get us wrong, Pizza Hut has its place. Like Montana or something.
Anyway, as we all know, Palillo moved heaven and earth to block Benderson's project, and the developer took it out to the Town of Niagara, where residents now benefit from the millions of dollars in real-estate taxes it provides.
The Pizza Hut was built smack-dab in the middle of enough vacant land to grow corn on -- which, had it been done, likely would have made the people who ran the place feel more at home. In desperation, they all but gave their product away for free, stuffing the Sunday papers with two-for-one coupons and other temptations. Still, it had to be one of the least successful stores in the chain.
Mayor Vince Anello was but a wee sprout back then, and Palillo's lessons about driving away potential developers seem to have made a great impression on him. Likewise, our city's current economic development director, Ralph Aversa, still talks excitedly about the possibility of luring a Jack Astor's, TGI Friday's or some other tasteless excuse for a restaurant downtown.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 27 2007 |