MEDIA REPORTS STUPENDOUS ACHIEVEMENT, OR, HOW TO FILL A HOLE IN NIAGARA FALLS

As some people know, I filled a hole in Niagara Falls. Since this hole affected the modern history of Niagara Falls, someone should record it in historical perspective. It might just as well be me.

Rather than tell it in my own words, though, I will tell the story mainly through reports in the local media.

In 2003, four years after it was dug, the Niagara Falls Reporter wrote of how this hole came into existence: "The Aqua Falls project was announced to great fanfare in July of 1999 by an international development company headed up by Gilles Assouline and David Ho. ƒ Described as 'multimillionaires' during the summer of 1999 by the local media, Assouline and Ho began digging a hole adjacent to the Occidental Chemical Building on Niagara Street in the hopes of putting their new aquarium there.

"The project was described as an oceanographic experience that would be like no other. Spectators would be permitted to view the sea from a 'beach' on the first floor to the 'sea bottom' some 45 feet below, through a series of glass tunnels."

After digging the hole and putting a fence around it, right next to the Niagara Falls State park, the two "multimillionaires" ceased construction and, although promising construction would restart soon, the hole sat empty for six years.

During these years, the Niagara Falls Reporter was candid. David Staba wrote of Aqua Falls as a "35-foot-deep pit that seemed to suck hope from the entire city.'" Frank Thomas Croisdale called it, as early as 2002, "the fictional AquaFalls." Mike Hudson wrote: "the moribund AquaFalls project drags on like a bad soap opera." And complained that "AquaFalls' (hole is) undermining sidewalks and filling the city's sewer system with millions of gallons of dirty groundwater."

While work was stalled, the hole almost blockaded the state park and, literally, millions of Niagara Falls tourists had to walk on the street to get to the park because sidewalks were indeed collapsing. Hudson described the hole as a "40-foot-deep deathtrap," while Staba reported, "Various alleged financiers came and went and promises of work starting in 'two more weeks' abounded... Yet the pit remained, providing a huge liability risk as well as an open wound on the civic psyche."

Almost five years after it was dug, on May 4, 2004, Hudson observed, "Aqua Falls remains a 40-foot-deep hole in the ground, one of the last sights tourists get to see as they drive toward the Rainbow Bridge and Canada."

Alleged "multimillionaires" David Ho and Gilles Assouline -- left an eyesore for a city in which they, of course, did not reside.

On December 9, 2004, I relieved David Ho from his management of the property. As the Reporter announced: One Niagara LLC acquired "the property that's home to the AquaPit and the glass-encased former Occidental Chemical headquarters during a foreclosure auction at City Hall ƒ Frank Parlato Jr. is the president of (One Niagara)."

The Buffalo News reported (12/14/04), "That means AquaFalls ƒ Niagara Falls' signature eyesore, has finally been pronounced dead."

Naturally, my first goal was to fill the hole.

By spring, 2005, the News reported (4/24/05) my plans which called for "a fleet of 10 or more trucks to dump 10,000 to 15,000 tons of stone into (the hole) below the water table (to allow) water to pass through. Then it will be covered with about 50,000 cubic yards of clay-rock fill."

On May 10, 2005, I began. WBEN radio announced it first: "It has become a symbol of missed opportunities and mismanagement in the onetime honeymoon capital of the world. But now, a gaping 40-foot hole in the heart of downtown Niagara Falls is finally being filled up. Developer Frank Parlato tells Newsradio 930 WBEN ƒ the removal means a blight that greeted people as they entered the city from the Rainbow Bridge will be no more."

Television cameras arrived. WKBWTV reported: "Almost six years after the announcement to bring the $35 million Aquafalls Aquarium project to the Cataract City, the project is now officially dead and almost buried."

The Niagara Gazette reported (5/11/05) "Ten trucks cycled into a deep pit at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Niagara Street (unloading) piles of thick rock ƒ The steady construction work marked the end of an era."

An era of a cavernous hole being the visible symbol of our despair was ending: By early next spring, the Gazette reported (March 23, 2006), "The infamous, outdoor stain on the city's image is between six and 10 feet from reaching ground level."

A month later, (4/25/06) the Reporter was to pronounce: "The developmental disgrace known as AquaFalls, and later AquaPit, officially disappeared from the downtown landscape -- if not the collective psyche of Niagara Falls -- late last week."

That same day, WGRZ TV filmed the now-filled hole and reported: "The giant pit ƒ is filled now, but what's next? Buffalo developer, Frank Parlato, says he's turning it and the adjacent building, into a giant tourist center to greet those coming into Niagara Falls, N.Y."

A year was to pass to allow for settling. Paving began on Friday, May 11, 2007. The Gazette editorialized (5/18/07): "By Niagara Falls standards, Friday was a huge day for the city. With the paving of the dirt lot at One Niagara ƒ it truly was an end to all signs of the failed AquaFalls project that has lingered in the city like a ghost for more than seven years. Now, Frank Parlato ƒ said he will resume using the site as a paid parking lot in conjunction with a food and souvenir attraction he will operate again on the first floor of the nine-story glass building. It's no giant tourist-attracting project like you might see across the river, but on this side of the border, sadly, it's a pretty big development."

In largely vacant downtown, it was development. In July, legendary Gazette columnist Don Glynn noted: "Parlato is no dummy when it comes to marketing. The building facade has been spruced up with beautiful flags of several countries, what visitors might find at a state capitol or in the United Nations plaza. Maybe even at the city's official information center."

In August, the Gazette reported, I filed permits to "open up the top floor at One Niagara, which will provide a panoramic view of the American falls." Two days later, the Gazette editorial board called my plan to open the top floor to the public -- a "good sign," adding, "If he wanted to, he could simply run his parking lot and first floor vendor plaza, make a lot of money and be done with it."

That same week, the Buffalo News reported: "The first floor now bustles with food stands and souvenir vendors. A 40-foot excavation ƒ has been filled and is a paved parking lot that fills nearly daily."

In the end, there is a dignity to all things, if we choose it. And, though we may stumble and grasp at things, and err, if our intentions are good, we will one day prevail.

It is my uncurbed hope to make One Niagara a genuine world-class attraction. And, to the local gentry, I might add, come see for yourself.

And let it be remembered, I began by filling the hole.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS AD ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER