feel free to post information from about both sides.

http://www.niagara-falls-hotels-locator.com/Pics/niagara-falls-map-index.gif

Now both sides of the border have a "Development News" thread. :)

I'm pretty sure this is for NF NY

Well, the divide between the US and Canadian forums might as well be the distance between the earth and moon sometimes...

no, anything going on the the NF region could be talked about here. i'm sure most of you guys don't visit the canuk forums and most of them dont venture here either.

Hey, this is a good idea, developments for Niagara Falls (hopefully more in New York). I can tell you right now, it's a BITCH to get any hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario after last weekend. :) I really don't care about NF, ON that much, I mainly focus on Buffalo.

it's a BITCH to get any hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario after last weekend.
What do you mean

State compact allows Senecas more leeway with Falls

NIAGARA FALLS - The Seneca Nation won't have a problem gaining control of streets in the Cataract City that fall within its gaming territory like it has encountered in recent weeks with its planned Buffalo casino.
The Senecas recently offered to pay $631,000 for two blocks of a Buffalo street, where a casino is planned, but aren't required to pay anything for the five downtown Niagara Falls streets that will, or already have, become part of its Falls gaming territory.

That's because New York's compact with the Seneca Nation of Indians, signed by Gov. George E. Pataki in 2002, is written in a way that gives Buffalo latitude when it comes to its city streets, but includes public thoroughfares in the 50-acre section of Niagara Falls land promised to the Senecas.

"Niagara is the only one where a specific site is designated in the compact, and includes all roads," said Seneca Gaming Corp. spokesman Philip J. Pantano.

However, when the street-sale negotiations between the Seneca Erie Gaming Corp. and Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown fell apart earlier this month, Seneca President Barry E. Snyder Sr. made a surprise announcement that the result will be additional development and new jobs for Niagara Falls to come sooner than expected.

Initial Niagara Falls plans include another hotel and a new retail complex, which could result in an additional 1,000 new jobs in the city, as well as a decision to keep upper-level management gaming headquarters in the Falls instead of moving them to Buffalo as had been planned, Pantano said.

Snyder, also chief executive officer of the Seneca Gaming Corp., said that without the sale of the Buffalo street, the planned $125 million, 100,000-square-foot casino has been drastically scaled back. He said that leaves time and energy to expand operations in Salamanca and the Falls.

Pantano said the site of the Falls expansion will be the former Fallsville Splash Park and its associated lots and parking lots. The gaming corporation took title to that land last month through an eminent domain proceeding. The 18 acres at John B. Daly and Rainbow boulevards is planned as a focal point for the Senecas' holdings in the Falls, where a 26-story spa hotel was completed in March.

"Our vision is to create a grand entranceway, so that as visitors come off the Robert Moses Parkway, they are greeted by a world-class facility," Pantano said. "We're finalizing plans internally on an additional hotel space."

Pantano said the retail complex would attract name-brand companies, which would be required to collect state sales tax. That would be a first for the Senecas' Falls operations, which are exempt from sales, hotel occupancy and property taxes because the land is considered sovereign. For instance, the gift shop in the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel on Third Street does not collect sales tax because it is Seneca-owned.

The spokesman also said the land where the former Ramada Inn on Rainbow Boulevard once stood will be used for surface parking for now. The gaming corporation bought the property last year and demolished the former hotel last month.

The Falls gambling complex currently has more than 3,000 workers, and that number is expected to rise to about 4,000 or more in the coming years, Pantano said.

That is encouraging to some lawmakers.

"I've talked to them, and they're going to go from 3,000 to 5,000 workers," said Councilman Louis Rotella. "So that would help the city. Now we have to do our due diligence by getting these people good housing."

We FINALLY have a Niagara Falls Development News Thread. I'm very happy for this thread. It's truly long overdue. It should've been created years ago. :nocrook: :nocrook: :nocrook:

Hey, this is a good idea, developments for Niagara Falls (hopefully more in New York). I can tell you right now, it's a BITCH to get any hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario after last weekend. :) I really don't care about NF, ON that much, I mainly focus on Buffalo.


i'd like to see this more as a tandom thread for both cities.
i really don't think niagara,ny warrents its own thread independent of buffalo.
i think as a thread of cross border interest this does make sense.

it may not seem so today, but the two cities were much more inter-dependent not so long ago. as late as the late eighties/early nineties, the american side was fairly active and the canadian side offered little more than clifton hill, and nightclubs geared at 19 year old kids from buffalo. funny how things change.
have you ever ventured into the old neighborhoods of niagara falls, ontario? not so dissimilar from western new york.

i would love to see these two cities working together for the better good of both. the new passport thing will probably destroy any chance of that, but its nice to hope for.

New blueprint for Falls' tallest building

The United Office Building, once the tallest building in Niagara Falls, is poised to see new life as a residential and commercial complex, ending decades of failed plans, hopes and aspirations.

It took the combined efforts of local developer Carl Paladino and USA Niagara Development Corp., one of the area arms of Empire State Development Corp., to make the $7.2 million project a reality.


Paladino was selected from an request-for-proposal process to re-development the long vacant Niagara Falls landmark. The project is Paladino's first residential effort in the Cataract City.

Crews from Paladino's Ellicott Development Co. are on site converting the 20-story building into 27 market rate apartments and 20,000-square-feet of commercial space.

The project is slated to be completed by next spring, Paladino said. When it comes on line, it will have a new name, although Paladino said he hasn't decided what the new moniker will be until construction is further along.

"This is something we first looked at 20 years ago," Paladino said.

The apartments will begin on the building's seventh floor and work their way up to the top. The units will run between 1,200-square-feet and 2,700-square-feet.

Commercial space will occupy the building's first six floors.

The 1929 building, considered by many to one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Niagara Falls, was originally the home of the United Hotel chain and later headquarters for Hooker Chemical Co. Until December's opening of the 26-story Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, the building was the tallest in the Cataract City.

"Of all the progress and investment occurring in downtown Niagara Falls, there is no project more symbolic or that better articulates the Governor's (Pataki) vision for the city's renaissance than (Paladino's) the renovation of the historic United Office Building," said Chris Schoepflin, USA Niagara president.

Paladino is no stranger to tackling tough historic renovation projects. In Buffalo, he converted the former University Club on Delaware Avenue and the former L.L. Berger's department store building in city's central business district into market rate apartments.

Senecas are building a gambling empire next door

By Gary Rotstein, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. -- Frank and Dorothy Giglia of suburban Buffalo visit the Seneca Niagara Casino once or twice a month. They like to play the slots and they're happy to support American Indians instead of "some big national conglomerate," as Frank put it.

John Logan of Swissvale recently made his second trip to the Seneca tribe's other western New York casino, the Seneca Allegany in Salamanca. He and his wife, Louise, rode up for $33 each on a chartered bus with other Western Pennsylvanians.

"I've gambled all my life," said Mr. Logan, 78, a poker and craps player.

The two couples are among the reasons the Seneca Nation is confident about investing $500 million to expand its young gambling empire.

While applicants in Pennsylvania are competing for the right to get slot machines spinning within a year or two, the tribe of 7,400 is building western New York into one of the Northeast's biggest gambling centers. In addition to table games, they operate more than 6,000 slot machines in two locations, and expect to add another 2,400 machines within two years.

Three years after converting the former Niagara Falls convention center into a full-scale casino, the Senecas today will officially open the first 10 floors of a 26-story, 604-room hotel. It will be fully operational by March.

Special guests were given rooms for New Year's Eve celebrations, and Aretha Franklin performs tonight in the hotel's 2,100-seat auditorium. The gleaming glass structure, which is adorned with a 50-foot-tall illuminated feather, is the dominant man-made feature of U.S. side of Niagara Falls, competing for attention and visitors with the much busier Canadian side, which itself has two casinos.

The $235 million hotel project, which has also enlarged the connected casino, is supplemented by a $140 million investment in a more modest hotel and casino in Salamanca, a small town to the south, a little more than a three-hour drive from Pittsburgh.

Built within one of the tribe's two reservation territories in the region, the Seneca Allegany casino-hotel when completed in October will replace a temporary structure that has been luring gamblers from Pennsylvania and Ohio since opening 20 months ago. It's the closest full-scale gambling facility to Pittsburgh.

The Senecas, which took in $337.5 million from gaming in 2004, the last year for which figures are available, are planning a third casino in Downtown Buffalo, between Niagara Falls and Salamanca. It will offer the same array of slots, poker, blackjack, craps and roulette as the others.

In economically depressed Niagara Falls, the Senecas -- historically one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy -- have largely been welcomed as the cornerstone of long-overdue efforts to replicate the tourism success of the town's Ontario neighbor and namesake.

"This is the biggest thing that's happened here in 35 years," Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello said of Seneca Niagara on a recent visit to Hush, its new nightclub aimed at young adults. "Now this has given other developers a reason to give us a second look."

The Senecas' Buffalo project is the only one of its efforts that's drawn notable community opposition. The 3,350 casino-funded jobs already in Niagara Falls and the 4,600 jobs projected for Salamanca by year's end make the tribe's operations attractive to those eager to boost the area's economy.

State and local governments are receiving revenue that didn't exist before, $57.1 million in 2004 and a higher, still-undetermined amount for 2005. The tribe and New York state negotiated a 2002 compact in which the Senecas turn over between 18 percent and 25 percent of slots revenue to the state and local governments.

The 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act enabled tribes to use gambling as an economic development tool, within limits, depending on laws within each tribe's state. If state political leaders are willing to agree, as New York Gov. George Pataki did, tribes can build Las Vegas-style casinos instead of the small Indian slots and poker parlors common in many Western states.

Local government leaders and Seneca representatives say pro-gambling sentiments in western New York stem in part from the legalized gambling already available minutes away across the Canadian border, muting any arguments that the Senecas would create a new vice. And rather than depending on local players and simply redistributing a fixed amount of disposable income, the casinos in both Niagara Falls and Salamanca are targeting tourists.

Seneca Gaming Corp. officials say about one-third of Salamanca's Seneca Allegany patrons are Pennsylvanians and one-fifth are Ohioans. While the non-local percentage is lower in Niagara Falls, that is expected to increase as a result of the new hotel's opening, which will spark marketing efforts in places as far away as Pittsburgh, a more than four-hour drive.

"The extent to which we relied on local patrons up to now has been by design," said Seneca Gaming spokesman Phil Pantano. "We didn't want to bring people up from longer distances if we didn't have [an overnight] place to put them."

The Senecas have also benefited from their permanent ties to the area. The Senecas have federally protected territory in two separate areas around Salamanca and Irving, which is closer to Buffalo. About 10 percent of casino employees are Indians, Mr. Pantano said.

Indian tribes can bypass the federal, state and local taxes owed by other businesses, which rankles some private businesses competing with them. But with the lack of economic activity in Niagara Falls before the casino, and with local redevelopment funds made possible by the Senecas' revenue-sharing, many entrepreneurs have accepted or embraced their operations, said David Fleck, owner of the Howard Johnson Hotel Closest to the Falls.

Their new hotel, he said, "is gorgeous. They've done a fantastic job." Mr. Fleck, the president of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association, said he doesn't mind the competition, considering his nightly rates are about half the $100 and up the new hotel will charge to cover its higher-scale amenities.

Barry Snyder, the elected president of the Seneca Nation, said most of the casino profits thus far have been directed toward reducing the debt tied to the expansion projects. But some money has been used to offset cutbacks in federal aid to reservations, subsidize home mortgages for tribe members and support capital improvements to educational and health facilities on the Senecas' land. The tribe is also creating a foundation to combat diabetes, a disease that particularly afflicts Native Americans.

In addition, the 7,400 individuals across America accepted as Senecas (based on their mothers' blood lines), receive quarterly dividends from casino operations. Those have totaled about $8,000 each in windfalls from the three years of gambling expansion, Mr. Snyder said. The gaming took off only after the tribe narrowly approved it in a referendum.

With the gambling growth occurring so close together geographically, in such a short time span, it would seem the Senecas' biggest concern might be over-saturation. John Pasqualoni, hired as Seneca Gaming's president after previous positions in Atlantic City and Connecticut, professes not to be worried.

"We're looking to grow the corporate pie," Mr. Pasqualoni said. "We'll share some, but also pick up additional markets. Allegany has proven that [can happen]."

As for competition from Pennsylvania, with a new racetrack in Erie to offer slot machines, Mr. Pasqualoni insisted the table games, hotels and entertainment venues the Senecas feature will help them retain many customers.

"We're not just a place to roll into and play slots," he asserted. "Will they steal some business from us? Without question, but we're more of a destination resort."

(Gary Rotstein can be reached at grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.)

$300M Resort Expansion Planned for Niagara Falls
August 14, 2006
By Dees Stribling, Special Correspondent


Grand Niagara Resort Inc., a partnership that owns and operates a new golf course in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is planning a C$300 million expansion of the facility. At its completion, scheduled for 2010, the 800-acre complex will include another golf course, a Hilton hotel, conference facility, time-share condos, homesites, a winery and a pair of manmade lakes.

"The biggest driver for the development is that the area is lacking a 12-month conference destination," Graham Cocking, director of sales and marketing for Grand Niagara, told CPN this afternoon. "Also, there's a tremendous demand for a full-service golf resort."

According to Cocking, the Grand Niagara development will be the first such full-service golf resort built in Ontario in the last two decades. The development will also benefit from the fact that Niagara Falls is already an established tourist--and more recently, meeting--destination, he noted.

The project is a joint venture between A.D. Sharp Development Co. and the Consulate Development Group, both of Mississauga, Ontario. The JV has been assembling land for the project along the Welland River for about seven years. Last year it opened the 18-hole Grand Niagara Golf Course, which was designed by renowned golf course architect Rees Jones Inc.

Investors in the first course included golfer Greg Norman, who will lend his name to the second 18-hole course. The Hilton will include 350 rooms and a 20,000-square-foot spa and recreation area, and there will be about 300 time-share units and 220 homesites.

Public gets first glimpse of ‘Magical Land of Oz’

by Ralph Schwarz
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune,Lewiston Porter Sentinel

Wheatfield residents, local politicians and business leaders got their first peak at the proposed “The Magical Lands of Oz” theme park during a public scoping session on Monday.

With more than 300 people packing the Wheatfield Community/Senior Center, representatives from Oz Central LLC revealed some of the project’s attractions while soliciting public input to be included in the finals scoping document, which the developer has to file as part of the mandatory State Environmental Quality Review study.

“Our goal is to create a theme park that would make you believe you’ve been transported to the Land of Oz,” said Richard Burch, president of Oz Central.

After studying sites across the United States for more than a year, the Kentucky-based company declared Wheatfield last July as its first choice for a $800 million theme park and destination resort, which would revolve around characters and stories from the popular “Wizard of Oz” books by L. Frank Baum.

Year-Round Attraction

The first phase of the project would see the construction of a 442-acre theme park in the eastern portion of the 800-acre complex, sitting within the boundaries of Williams, Jagow, River and Witmer roads. With more than 80 to 85 percent of its attractions to be located indoors, the park would be capable to operate 12 months a year.

“Some of this park would be seasonal, while some areas would be covered but not climate controlled,” Burch said. “And our third part would be the indoor element where you would be in climate-controlled conditions.”

According to the proposed site plans devised by former Disney designers, visitors would reach the theme park via an extension of the LaSalle Expressway, which leads into a 1,000-acre, 12,000-car parking lot. From there, a shuttle would take them to the entrance, which represents present-day Kansas, and transported through a virtual tornado to Munchkin Land, Emerald City and places like Quadling County, Gillkin County and Winkle County.

“We expect this to be one of the most significant technologically superior theme parks in the world,” Burch said, adding that the “Oz” design team will carry this technology throughout the attractions within and beyond the park. “We have some surprises.”

‘Landmark Tower’

Each of the different lands will have its own “e-ticket” or virtual realty event based on L. Frank Baum’s stories and characters, Burch added. Other highlights include a botanical garden, which would incorporate the surrounding wetlands as part of a nature conservation effort; a statue of Baum; a castle; a three-story carousel; and the “Kansas Landmark Tower,” a 1,000 feet tall structure with an observation deck at 650 feet.

“There is a structure around this that looks like a framework of tornado,” Burch said. “The proposal of the architectural firm is that we would run steam through it. So once every hour, the steam would be released and this tornado would appear before your very eyes.”

Also included in Phase I are the construction of a themed flagship hotel with 200 rooms and dining and entertainment facilities, an administration/office building, maintenance and safety buildings, an emergency generator station and an extension of the LaSalle Expressway, which would serve as the primary access road to the theme park.

Wheatfield Supervisor Timothy Demler said it would take about 12 months for the Wheatfield Planning Board and other involved agencies to approve the site plan for the project.

“In a very rapid sense, a project like this could be started about a year or 18 months from now,” he said. “It would be about a three-year construction window, according to the developers, and they are hoping to be operational by 2009 or 2010.”

The second phase of the project would add four more hotels with a total capacity of approximately 800 rooms on 64 acres along an internal circulatory road leading up to the north-central portion the complex. Phase III would see the construction of additional retail, dining and entertainment facilities on approximately 300 acres in the western section of the theme park/resort, as dictated by market conditions.

Sales Tax Revenue

Once opened, the theme park would generate sales tax revenue between $50 million and $70 million a year in new sales tax revenue, Demler said.

“To put this into perspective: The town of Wheatfield currently budgets just under $11 million, with about $2.6 million coming in sale tax revenue from Niagara County,” he said. “If we add $50 million to $70 million in new sales tax revenue from a private project like this, we could cut county property taxes in half or maybe even further. And that is something that we desperately need.”

Demler pointed out that the town would ultimately have a stronghold on the Niagara County Legislature when it comes to the redistribution of the county portion of the sales tax collected from the “Oz” project.

“The town of Wheatfield would pursue exemption and preemption; in other words, rather than let the county have a $35 million cut, the town would keep it all,” he said. “The town would have a lever over the county to require a reduction of the property taxes, not just in Wheatfield, but in all of Niagara County to make us competitive again.”

Polishing up Main's architectural gems
By GAIL FRANKLIN
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
7/31/2006

(From the personal experience of gutting and rebuilding properties, Richard A. Hastings sees a chance to restore lost beauty to Main Street.)

NIAGARA FALLS - Richard A. Hastings, a major property owner on North Main Street, says he will soon begin a $1 million project to salvage three beautiful but ailing buildings in a neglected section of the city.
"My interest was to historically preserve the North End," said the Youngstown resident, who has been buying dozens of properties on and around Main Street for nearly a decade. "I think we need to recognize that these old buildings have character. It will never be how it was, but we can make it into something along the lines of Center Street in Lewiston."

Hastings is finalizing a public and private financing package to renovate 1810, 1812 and 1700 Main St., and bring back retail to the storefronts and a dozen new apartments on the upper floors.

"When I see this building, I don't see what you see," Hastings said of the old Quinn-Block building at 1812 Main St. "I see what it can be. I gutted this myself."

City Historian Thomas Yots said he sees the importance of the buildings Hastings has chosen, especially the Quinn building with its Gothic architecture and 1700 Main St. - known locally as the Moses building - with its white terra-cotta finish.

"Those are two of the most important buildings on Main Street because they have architectural distinction," Yots said. "This is going to be good for Main Street."

Hastings said he has agreements with retailers for all the storefronts, including a Southern-cooking restaurant and a cell-phone store. Seven apartments in 1812 Main St. will have access to a rooftop garden in the back, and Hastings said he will expose its 100-year-old brick-and-steel railroad beams.

The Lewiston native worked for American oil companies in Saudi Arabia for many years before returning to the area to live in Youngstown with his wife. Hastings also owns the Silo Restaurant in Lewiston and the vacant historic Frontier House, which he says is planned for new tenants as well. He has faced some criticism for not developing the buildings he bought in Niagara Falls, but he says the economy is difficult and he has been waiting for the right time.

In 2003, he renovated the third floor of 1902 Main St. into seven loft apartments using a federal Community Development grant, which has such strict income guidelines that it's hard to attract tenants, he said.

e-mail: gfranklin@buffnews.com

http://buffalonews.com/editorial/20060731/1070376.asp
__________________

Nearly $24 Million in New Funding Will Help Spur Economic Development, Enhance Infrastructure, and Promote Tourism

Governor George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that makes available $23.9 million to support a number of key economic development, infrastructure, and tourism projects in the Niagara Falls region. The funding represents the local share of the second and third year (2004 and 2005) casino revenues from the Seneca Niagara Casino.

On August 18, 2002, the Governor and the Seneca Nation signed a gaming compact establishing the Seneca Niagara Casino. Under legislation which authorized the compact, the host municipalities receive a portion of the casino proceeds to support economic development, infrastructure improvements, and related costs associated with the casino.

“Over the past 11 years we have been committed to making smart investments in the future of Niagara Falls including over $95 million invested in the last five years, and today we continue to build upon that record with the announcement of this new funding,” Governor Pataki said. “Our ongoing efforts to revitalize the City and surrounding area have made possible new investments, new jobs, and a brighter future for the people of the region, and with these key projects we’ll be able to ensure that we continue making progress on our goal of bringing back this premier destination.”

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said, “These funds are a tremendous investment in Niagara County that will benefit the economy, boost tourism, strengthen health care, and improve transportation and the environment. I’m pleased the agreement has been signed and that these critically important local investments can move forward.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, “This agreement is an encouraging and greatly needed step that will provide significant benefits to the City of Niagara Falls, its residents and the surrounding community. At the same time, we in the Assembly recognize that more needs to be done to boost the economy in Niagara Falls and throughout upstate New York and pledge to continue our efforts to achieve economic prosperity all through the state.”

Senator George Maziarz said, “It’s great news that all sides have signed the casino revenue MOU for 2004 and 2005. These funds have been sitting in Albany for far too long and now they can flow back to the local community, which is desperately in need.”

Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte said, “This is a long time in coming and will provide the city a substantial financial boost in making infrastructure improvements and moving forward on key economic development projects including neighborhood revitalization. I’m certainly going to keep fighting to get Niagara Falls its deserved fair share. We’re not there yet, but some real progress was made today.”

Niagara Falls Mayor Vincenzo V. Anello said, “This agreement clears the way for the City of Niagara Falls to take action on much needed road improvements, economic development programs and address the quality of life issues that are important to City residents.”

The MOU agreed to by the Governor, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver makes available $23.9 million in casino revenue. The City of Niagara Falls will receive approximately $10.6 million of the funding for community programs, economic development initiatives and infrastructure improvements and $6.1 million will be used to support tourism promotion and City health and education groups.

In addition, the USA Niagara Development Corporation, an agency created by the Governor in January of 2001 to support and promote economic development initiatives solely in downtown Niagara Falls, will receive up to approximately $7.2 million to support a number of key economic development projects located in downtown Niagara Falls including the Niagara Experience Center, the Old Falls Street streetscape project, and the Conference Center Niagara Falls.
Today’s announcement provides the following important initiatives with critical funding:

· $3.9 million – To support community development programs for residents and business owners, improvements to City parks and recreation facilities, the Niagara Falls Housing Authority’s HOPE VI public housing project, and funding for casino related expenses incurred by the City Public Works and Public Safety departments and lost interest revenue for the City of Niagara Falls.

· $3.9 million – To support economic development programs designed to attract new businesses and private-sector investment, and enhance funding for current programs available through the city’s Urban Renewal Agency.

· $3.1 million – To support a new Old Falls Street streetscape and new downtown signage/way-finding system within the downtown development district. Improvements include new paving, full-depth roadway reconstruction, drainage systems, new granite curbing and accessible curb-cuts, limited vehicle access, built-in measures for closing off the street for festivals and events, new lighting, street furniture and landscaping.

· $3 million – To support the development of the Niagara Experience Center (NEC) project and costs related to site acquisition/preparation and the State Environment Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) process. The NEC will serve as an authentic, cultural tourism attraction that will encourage complimentary, high-quality, private investment in hotel, food, and entertainment in the immediate downtown area, thereby extending the length of stay for visitors in Niagara Falls.

· $2.7 million – To support improvements to roadways, sidewalks and other infrastructure projects.

· $2 million – To support capital improvement costs for a new terminal at the Niagara Falls International Airport.

· $2 million – To support the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation’s (NTCC) tourism promotion and marketing efforts for the City of Niagara Falls and Niagara County.

· $1.1 million – For operating costs related to the Conference Center Niagara Falls which opened for business in 2004 and generates an estimated $13 - $19 million in annual direct spending on local hotels, food and beverage and transportation in the region.

· $1 million – In aid for the Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital.

· $1 million – In aid for the Niagara Falls City School District.

· $100,000 – For the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency’s economic development fund to facilitate private investment, private sector job creation and expand the tax base within Niagara County.

The MOU agreement making available $23.9 million in new funding builds upon the Governor’s record of investing over $95 million in the revitalization of the City of Niagara Falls over the last five years, and includes the following projects:

· $44 million – In improvements to Niagara Falls State Park;

· $18.8 million – For the award-winning Conference Center Niagara Falls which is currently scheduled to host 300 events in 2006;

· $10 million – For the Niagara Experience Center, a project envisioned to be a world-class attraction and visitor destination developed from within the Niagara Falls community over the past two decades;

· $6 million – To support the $22.3 million transformation of the Holiday Inn Select into the Crowne Plaza, which will create more than 100 new jobs and $1.6 million in new property taxes for the City, county and school district;

· $5 million – In multi-modal construction funding for the Robert Moses Parkway South project;

· $3.3 million – For Niagara Gorge Discovery Center and improvements to DeVeaux Woods and Whirlpool State Park;

· $3.2 million – For the reconfiguration and streetscape program on Rainbow Boulevard North and South, including $500,000 in multi-modal funds to incorporate elements consistent with the joint USA Niagara/City of Niagara Falls $3.5 million Third Street reconstruction/streetscape project;

· $2.7 million – In New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) funding for a new fleet of natural gas powered trolley vehicles to provide circulator access between various hotels and attractions in downtown Niagara Falls;

· $1 million – In pedestrian access improvements on all state-owned routes in downtown Niagara Falls, including a new signature pedestrian stairway/gateway near the Old Main Street entrance to the State Park;

· $500,000 – In Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act and federal Land and Water Conservation funding for the restoration of the former Niagara Falls High School for the Niagara Falls Arts and Cultural Center (NACC);

· $400,000 – In interest-free financing to Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center to help support the hospital's construction of a state-of-the-art heart center and emergency department; and

· $100,000 – In Base Retention Funds to assist local efforts in the successful fight to save Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station from being closed as part of the 2005 base realignment process.

It's great to see a thread for Niagara Falls.

Two suggestions though...

When posting old news articles it would be helpful to leave the Date on the article. It gets confusing when its says something was "announced today" when it actually happened 4 months ago.

Also, since this thread is going to be about both NF NY and NF Ont, it may be good to spell out which one you're talking about. The articles often just say Niagara FAlls, and you have to figure out which one. (usually not too hard to figure out for us, but not everyone reading these are locals)

RTJ2 and Seneca Nation to build golf course near Niagara Falls
| Monday August 7, 2006 | 12:16:13 pm

Building on success with the Oneida nation of central New York, Robert Trent Jones II has entered into an agreement with the Seneca of western New York to build a golf course in the town of Lewiston, a few miles north of Niagara Falls. The site, next to Joseph Davis State Park, had been slated for golf course development for years. The financing never came together, and the project repeatedly stalled. Then came the Seneca nation. After an exhaustive search that included Jack, Pete, Greg, and other name architects, they decided to employ RTJ2 to design their Niagara County golf course.

Not much is known about the layout, other than its intent to work in harmony with the land. That should not be too difficult, as the land is fairly flat. Only to the south of Buffalo can hill country be found. However, the Oneida's Kaluhyat course at Turning Stone resort was built on similar land, and the results were quite stunning. In fact, it is safe to say that, alongside the Smith and Fazio courses at Turning Stone, the Jones2 course is easily the most difficult of the trio. Only the lack of spectator viewing areas and movement corridors keeps it from being used as a tournament venue (this year alone, Turning Stone hosted the National Club Pro championship and the B.C. Open). What is known, though, is that the routing plan will work in a somewhat clockwise manner, to ensure that the majority of wayward shots (read: slices by righties) will not trespass onto local highways or neighboring homesites.

Although no shovels have been ceremoniously planted in the ground, the Seneca course is projected to open in 2008. Given the history of Revolutionary conflict and the native connection to both sides in the American Revolutionary war, a historical tie-in seems possible, if not probable. The partnership of Robert Trent Jones II as lead architect and Ty Butler as project architect will repeat their Kaluhyat success at Lewiston.

An interesting footnote to the story is the River Oaks element. On Grand Island, a six-mile long oasis situated between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Desmond Muirhead crafted an intriguing layout, filled with challenge and deceipt, before descending into madness. Adjacent to a Holiday Inn, River Oaks presented a unique possibility for the Seneca. The nation explored the opportunity of purchasing and rennovating the course, before deciding to construct a new 18 north of Niagara Falls.

O.R.E. to develop $70-million condo tower in Niagara Falls, Ont.


Mississauga company O.R.E. Development Corporation announced plans to build a 29-storey condominium tower in Niagara Falls, Ontario with a view of the falls and the Niagara River. Poised to draw investors from around the globe, the $70-million-dollar project is the first residential building of its kind in the burgeoning Niagara region.

"With its proximity to international borders, its booming tourist economy and the rare beauty of the area, Niagara Falls is a perfect location for a world-class, urban residential development," said J. Marc Baronette, Director of Business Development, O.R.E. "The Niagara Condominium Residences will help diversify housing opportunities and reinvigorate the face of this international destination."

The condominiums will be built on 1.45 acres of lush residential land edging the Niagara River Gorge just minutes from the falls. The stunning 29-storey tower of glass with masonry accents was designed by award-winning architectural firm Diamond + Schmitt Architects. The internationally-recognized firm also designed the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Canada's first purpose-built Opera House, unveiled last month in Toronto.

"The design of The Niagara combines the urban streetscape of townhouses and low-rise apartments in the mature Clifton Hill neighbourhood with a slender tower capturing spectacular views of Niagara Falls and the Gorge," said architect Don Schmitt. "Working with O.R.E. Development Corporation we have designed an exceptional residential environment which will set a new standard of excellence."

The 250-unit building will feature garden units, a roof terrace, a large fitness area, an indoor lap pool and parking for 350 cars. Available in one- or two-bedroom units, The Niagara Condominium Residences start at $169,900 and will be available for sale this summer. O.R.E is scheduled to break ground next spring with completion set for 2009. More information can be obtained by visiting www.niagaracondos.ca.

On June 12, Niagara Falls City Council gave O.R.E. 'approval in principle' to move forward with the project. At last night's meeting, City Council passed a by-law adopting the Official Plan Amendment implementing Council's approval of the development. This Amendment and supporting documentation will be forwarded to the Regional Municipality of Niagara for final approval.

Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. negotiated the land purchase and Pat Baker of Baker Real Estate will handle condominium sales targeting local, national and international buyers looking to be part of this innovative development in an internationally recognized tourist area.

"The prolific condominium development proposed by O.R.E will add an important residential development dimension to the Niagara Falls central business and tourism core," said Paul Azzarello, Commercial Sales Representative, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. "The endorsement by the City of Niagara Falls Council will help to pave the way for this exciting landmark development."

double post

HERE ARE DEVELOPMENTS IN NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK:

Niagara Seneca Casino & Hotel Niagara Falls, NY 27 Floors
United Office Building Niagara Falls, NY "under Renovation" 20 floors:
Holiday Inn Select being renovated into Crowne Plaza Hotel:

I Love This Postcard:
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/9468/unitedartop6.jpg

Visit:http://www.niagarafallsusa.org/index.html for more information.

good idea.

I think Niagara Falls, NY, could do really well with yuppies. They could build condos, bar and nightclubs, etc. The place is already a tourism magnet, especially for families, but neither city on either side of the border has really catered to young single people. Their disposable income could go a long way: they could wake up and look out the window of their 20th story condo unit and see the Falls. After work at some tourism spot like a hotel or something, they could go out with their friends to some nice nightclubs, bars, louges, etc. These same bars, if they're good enough that they get a reputation around the country, could help bring singles in as tourists, and provide even more tourist dollars to help pay for tourism jobs.

I think both Niagara Falls cities have the potential to be a huge boom town, like Las Vegas is right now. The Ontario side is starting to get like this, with the ferris wheel, casinos, museums about oddities, etc, but more could be done.

REMOVED:

I think Niagara Falls, NY, could do really well with yuppies. They could build condos, bar and nightclubs, etc. The place is already a tourism magnet, especially for families, but neither city on either side of the border has really catered to young single people. Their disposable income could go a long way: they could wake up and look out the window of their 20th story condo unit and see the Falls. After work at some tourism spot like a hotel or something, they could go out with their friends to some nice nightclubs, bars, louges, etc. These same bars, if they're good enough that they get a reputation around the country, could help bring singles in as tourists, and provide even more tourist dollars to help pay for tourism jobs.

I think both Niagara Falls cities have the potential to be a huge boom town, like Las Vegas is right now. The Ontario side is starting to get like this, with the ferris wheel, casinos, museums about oddities, etc, but more could be done.

Agree, attracting more yuppies would help Niagara Falls NY. But even more, it should be using its world-class name to attract new immigrants. NF NY is attracting just a tiny fraction of the immigrants that similarly-sized Utica NY & even less per capita than Buffalo. Immigrants would fill up & fix up a lot of NF, NY's houses & storefronts & generally add some vitality to the local economy.

OLD NEWS BUT WORTH REPEATING:

Published: January 01, 2006 11:43 pm print this story email this story comment on this story

Hotel squeeze challenge for Atlantic City, Falls
BY DENISE JEWELL
Niagara Gazette

Expansion projects at Atlantic City casinos have added nearly 4,000 new hotels rooms in the last few years, pushing the total number above 16,000 at a dozen casinos and other hotels.

That’s still not enough.

“We could use probably at least 5,000 more rooms, I’d say,” said Susan Ricciardi, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic City Visitors and Convention Authority.

Ricciardi said the city’s 500,000-square-foot convention facility, built at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway in 1997, needs additional rooms that can be dedicated to serving large conventions.

“We haven’t reached capacity yet,” said Joseph Kelly, president of the Atlantic City Regional Chamber of Commerce. “We have a beautiful convention hall, but part of the challenge is the demand and the in-house programs at the various casinos. They fill their rooms with their customers. Now you want to bring in a convention and the access isn’t there.”

A 2003 Rutgers University economic outlook study of the future gaming impact on Atlantic City found that the city’s hotel capacity typically exceeds 90 percent. Compare that to Niagara Falls, where David Fleck, the president of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association, has said occupancy rates have fluctuated wildly between summer and off-tourism months.

“We need to continue to add hotel rooms to the market place, because that’s a whole other side of the business — those that aren’t necessarily coming for the gaming experience, but are coming as part of a convention,” Kelly said.

Hotel rooms have been a focus, too, for Niagara Falls, where the operators of the Conference Center Niagara Falls have complained that a lack of upscale hotel rooms has made it difficult to attract corporate meetings or other small conventions.

David Rosenwasser, president and CEO of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., said meeting planners and tour operators are often looking for a range of hotels.

As the Seneca Niagara Casino Hotel and Spa fully comes online this spring, tourism officials in Niagara Falls are waiting to see how much of the 600-room hotel can accommodate non-gaming visitors.

New York State has also agreed to invest up to $7 million in a $22 million renovation project at the Holiday Inn Select at the corner of Third and Niagara streets in Niagara Falls to upgrade the hotel to a Crowne Plaza.

“Within a matter of months, we’re going to have a 1,000 new hotel rooms,” Rosenwasser said. “We now have to go after a whole different market that we really didn’t have the opportunity to pitch before.”
http://www.accessniagara.com/lo/?l=67

The pre-cast concrete makers are going to be very busy supplying the skin for those new hotels on the Ontario side. :puke:

They should build condos on that aqua world site. The hole is already dug. Close to the falls.

Are they really gunna build this?

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/468/2812502550086450214aazaodphja4.jpg

:puke:

I dunno, I'm looking at the numbers (sales tax revenue and tax rates) for Niagara County now and after the proposed OZ Park is built. If the Niagara County government can add 50 million to the budget, OR cut 50 million in taxes from property tax rates...will it mean anything?

Niagara Falls USA is a wonderful place, but they are financially screwed...perhaps lightening the tax burden can do something here...it can give business a chance.

Together with tax cuts, tourism advertising and overall fiscal stability...I see hope. :)

Are they really gunna build this?

Apparently they are still planning on building this monster, and maybe starting the footwork this winter. I guess with a project of this size, you just have to play the waiting game and see if their intentions are real.


I agree with the others who have mentioned Condominiums, I am personally suprised at the lack of Condo's anywhere on the Canadian side. We have some impressive spots to showcase, especially the one with the big waterfall! And the American side, what a great area to tap into, you could have some amazing views as well. I believe in trying to get people here for vacations, but we need to get people to move here as well.


The one thing I would love to see done is an upgrade of the Days Inn on the American side, it is so dated looking and could use a little TLR. "Tender Loving Repair."
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1237/daysi1lf8.jpg

Or TLD - "tender loving demolition" ;)

Or TLD - "tender loving demolition" ;)
I dunno, that's a fairly common architecture for hotels, albeit an ugly one. I'd say what it needs first is a smaller logo, that one on there is just waaay too ungainly.

Speaking of big logos, my favourite :) hotel in NFON is the one just north of the Rainbow Bridge that has the big red letters "INN". That place just exudes class, IMO.

Or TLD - "tender loving demolition" ;)

I'm for giving the entire city of NFNY some TLD.

It's sick how much development is going on in Niagra. :cheers1:

I'm amused by the fact I can see the Days Inn logo when I'm walking from my car towards my summer job on the Canadian side.. lol
the logo is so big it's definitely got that 'kitschy' aspect to it.

Last approval awaited on courthouse project
By GAIL FRANKLIN
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
8/22/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - A detailed site plan for the city's estimated $42 million courthouse and Police Headquarters could be submitted Wednesday - several days later than promised - but only if the last affected property owner decides to grant permission.
"We legally cannot submit the site plan without [the owner's authorization], and the project is delayed from that point forward," Kevin Greiner of Ciminelli Development Co. of Amherst said Monday. "The last authorization is critical."

The question of eminent domain has been brought up before, and Corporation Counsel Damon DeCastro said he is just waiting on the developers to tell him when they feel negotiations have failed to start those proceedings.

Ciminelli and Largo Real Estate Advisors of Amherst are the city's lead developers on the municipal building project.

Greiner said all but one of the affected property owners on the North Main Street site have come to agreements on purchase prices and have signed letters authorizing a site plan to be submitted for a building on their land.

Greiner was speaking Monday in City Hall to a few members of the Municipal Building Complex Committee, the mayor, Council Chairman Charles Walker and DeCastro. The committee did not convene its planned meeting Monday because several of its members were absent, and DeCastro called for a closed meeting to discuss the implications of the property owner's refusal to sign an authorization.

After an hourlong executive session, DeCastro said a decision about eminent domain could be made soon.

"It's going to add time and additional cost for the city to bring the proceedings," DeCastro said. "But we have been told in turn by the developers . . . that eminent domain may actually be cheaper."

He said the price the city would likely have to pay for the property under condemnation and eminent domain would be less than what the property owner is asking for.

Also at the meeting, Greiner said traffic and geotechnical studies that have been completed are pointing to the possibility of lowering the cost of the project.

"We got some information . . . that's beneficial," Greiner said. "It would give us more flexibility to shrink the footprint and size [of the building]."

DeCastro said he is more concerned with getting a definite cost per square foot of the building, which has not been supplied yet.

"That's been the goal all along," said Mayor Vince Anello. "That has always been the feeling, that we would refine" the size of the building in order to cut costs.

In fact, the city originally had proposed including the fire administration, technology and records departments within the municipal building but took them out to save money.

email: gfranklin@buffnews.com

Tourism numbers look good

Several businesses report good tourist season
By Don Glynn
Niagara Gazette

While the attendance figures are still being compiled, it is evident from an early analysis that the 2006 tourist season will go down in the books as a generally good one.

Despite reduced lanes and road reconstruction in downtown Niagara Falls, the nation’s oldest state park was bustling with a steady influx of visitors for most of the summer. Area attraction operators also agreed that business was steady for the past two months.

As this long holiday weekend approached, South End hotels were asking upwards of $225 per night. Meanwhile, some motel operators along Niagara Falls Boulevard (Route 62) were expecting get $125 to $150 per night.

David Fleck, general manager of the 80-room Howard Johnson’s Hotel on Main Street and president of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association, said he was virtually sold out several days in advance of Labor Day.

He estimates that overall, for the year, his occupancy rate will hover at 56 percent.

“That might not sound like a whole lot, but it’s a marked improvement from that post 9-11 era when we were faced with 36 percent occupancy,” he said.

At the Econo Lodge at the Falls, 5919 Niagara Falls Boulevard, General Manager Galeb Rizek was optimistic that the 72-room hotel would be filled, but he was concerned about the weather.

Earlier in the weekend, the boulevard traffic appeared down, he said. “Actually we’ve still had a phenomenal season,” he added, noting his figures would undoubtedly match last year’s performance that was considered very good.

Some Route 62 motel operators said they had expected to get less for rooms over this weekend because of the dismal weather outlook.

On the Ontario side of the river, Niagara Parks Commission General Manager John Kernahan conceded that the current tourist season was adversely affected by unwarranted concerns over new passport rules. Widespread confusion has surfaced because people think the new rules — which take effect in 2008 — are already in place. Kernahan also thinks that threats of terrorism dissuaded many consumers from traveling any distance.

Traditionally, the Ontario parks system has depended heavily on American visitors but in recent years, Kernahan noted, the breakdown has been closer to a 50-50 split.

Before this weekend, sales of the popular “Passport to the Falls,” a single admission to seven park attractions, was up 24 percent from a year ago, according to Allen James, marketing and events coordinator for the regional state parks commission.

“We’re up substantially at our attractions within the park,” he said.

The Albany-based state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is expected to announce later in the week attendance reports from each of its 11 regions in the statewide system that includes 170 parks.

For decades, the impression has prevailed that the tourist season starts on Memorial Day weekend and ends on Labor Day.

That timeframe is no longer valid, according to many people who work in the hospitality industry.

They are quick to point out that September and October also are strong months for tourism, from the leaf-peeping weekend trips across the Northeast to the motorcoach tours and numerous fall festivals.

ARTICLE @ NIAGARA GAZETTE (http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/local_story_246221355.html)

The American side is simply nicer IMO...while we lack the tall hotels and crazy clifton hill...we have the best state park I have ever seen in WNY.

What I dont get is why someone doesnt build a hotel in that aqua hole in Niagara Falls, NY. Its already cleard and dug out.

What I dont get is why someone doesnt build a hotel in that aqua hole in Niagara Falls, NY. Its already cleard and dug out.

The hole has been filled in and is now a surface parking lot. There's also some kind of first floor retail in the "flash cube" building.

Live web cam showing the historic renovation of the Richmond block of buildings into a retail/office/residential complex and also the creation of an Erie Canal Park in Lockport, Niagara County.

http://elockport.com/eriecanal.html

HSBC to build huge data center


Sites in Niagara County being scouted for 275,000-square-foot facility

By JONATHAN D. EPSTEIN
News Business Reporter
9/14/2006


"We have always said that HSBC remains consistent in its commitment to Western New York and successful conclusion of this project will be one more testament to that."
HSBC Bank USA Chief Operating Officer Brendan McDonagh


HSBC North America Holdings is planning a $200 million-plus global data center in Western New York, its second locally, to handle the growing number of transactions for its U.S. and Canadian banks.
The subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc wants to build a facility in Niagara County to complement the much smaller site it built in September 2001 on Park Club Lane in Amherst. At least four rural sites are being considered, including in Pendleton, but a final decision has not been made, bank and other officials say.

The proposed new center would be about 275,000 square feet, including electrical and mechanical space, and would largely be for computers and other technology. That's nearly five football fields worth of space, larger than National Fuel Gas Co.'s former headquarters downtown.

The older facility, with about 50,000 square feet, will also be upgraded and expanded, said HSBC spokeswoman Kathleen Rizzo Young.

Altogether, the technology project will add about 78 jobs for HSBC, which employs 5,830 in Western New York - 2,600 in Buffalo. The bank's annual payroll locally is $292 million.

Because the operation is largely technology-based, such data centers don't involve many workers, but are still major investments. The current facility, which has just a few dozen employees, cost $21 million to build and $47 million to equip. And it's only about one-sixth the size of the new one.

HSBC and economic development officials would not put a definite figure on the project's cost because plans are not complete, but "the project will represent another very significant long-term local investment for HSBC," Young said by e-mail.

HSBC is working with state and local economic development agencies - including Empire State Development, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency - but the agencies have not finalized financial incentives. The bank is also seeking low-cost power from the New York Power Authority, since electricity and telecommunications are a major factor in the project.

Young said both benefits are "a key factor" in the project, but said the bank has received "tremendous assistance" from local agencies. Plans call for starting construction in the first half of next year, depending on when all approvals are given.

"This project is close to being finalized and we have been working very diligently to bring it to Western New York," said HSBC Bank USA Chief Operating Officer Brendan McDonagh. "We have always said that HSBC remains consistent in its commitment to Western New York and successful conclusion of this project will be one more testament to that."

Economic development officials declined to comment, saying the deal isn't done yet.

HSBC's data centers, operated by HSBC Technology & Services USA, are the computer hubs of the bank, processing customer transactions for HSBC Bank USA and HSBC Canada. Besides Amherst, the bank also has one in Illinois, where its North American and HSBC Finance operations are based.

However, the bank has grown tremendously in the United States and Canada since the Amherst center opened, including HSBC's 2003 acquisition of Household International, now HSBC Finance, and its branch expansion in California, Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

As a result, additional facilities are needed, although HSBC is still trying to determine how many and where. Besides Western New York, the Chicago area is also getting "priority consideration" because of the existing facility there and HSBC's sizable corporate presence and employee base in both locations, Young said.

"We had a very good experience in establishing our global data center in Amherst which bodes well for the success of a similar project," Young said.

HSBC, formerly Marine Midland Bank, was founded in Buffalo in 1850 and is the No. 2 bank locally by deposits, after M&T Bank. Besides the proposed facility, HSBC owns or leases nearly 1.5 million square feet of space in Western New York. It also owns naming rights on the HSBC Arena through 2027.

"We've got a huge investment in Buffalo. We've got a huge investment in Erie County," Young said in an interview. "Niagara County could use it, and from that standpoint, we think it's great news."

Candlelight Cabinetry in Lockport, Niagara County is adding 40,000 square feet to it's existing 160,000 sq foot manufacturing facility. The facility which currently employs 200 has seen it's revenue jump by 22% in the past year. The expansion is expected to result in the creation of 100 new jobs.

Praxair to expand Royal Avenue site

Board also approves plans for Olin upgrade and Packard Road metal recycling plant

By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

The Niagara Falls Planning Board unanimously approved projects to expand existing chemical plants owned by Praxair Inc. and Olin Corp. Wednesday night and signed off on a third project to build a metal recycling plant on Packard Road.

Praxair plans to expand its capacity to process, store and distribute gases at its Royal Avenue plant after the company identified the Niagara Falls site as a “strategic location,” said Project Manager Michael Breier.

Praxair, based in Danbury, Conn., currently employs about two dozen people at its Falls site, Breier said. Because the expanded plant would use unmanned equipment, he expects the expansion would add only a few jobs.

“It builds up an infrastructure in Western New York, which we want to do,” Breier said.

The company distributes oxygen, nitrogen and argon from the Falls site.

Breier said the company is also demolishing several structures on its property and plans to sell that land.

Breier did not provide the cost of the project.

The board also approved a $6.5 million project to expand and modernize Olin Corp.’s existing chlorine and caustic soda plant on Buffalo Avenue to allow for continuous production of bleach.

The project will also add a maintenance warehouse to the site.

Another industrial proposal to build a metal recycling plant at 4861 Packard Road received unanimous approval from the board. Niagara Metals plans to redevelop about 53 acres of the former Airco site and bring more than 20 jobs to the city, said Robert Napieralski, a principal for TVGA Consultants.

Good News for NF and WNY!

According to data released this morning by the NY State DOL the total number of persons employed in Niagara County during August 2006 was 107,700 up from 107,500 in August of 2005. And up a healthy 3,400 from pre 9-11 August 2001. In fact it is the highest August employement figure since at least 1990, which is as far back as the current data set goes.

In other regions the metro Rochester area has lost a net of 2,700 (.5%) of it's total jobs from August 2005 to August 2006 and 2,500 or .6% of it's Private Sector jobs continuing a years long trend.

The Buffalo metro has gained 700 or .1% total jobs and 900 or .2% Private Sector jobs from August 2005 compared to August 2006.

The HSBC data center is great news for Niagara County. Too bad it couldn't be located in NF city limits.

Delphi workforce spikes by another 200 temps

About 200 temporary factory workers will start orientation on Sept. 18 at Delphi Thermal Systems in Lockport.

The group is the largest since the temporary worker program began in July.

Paul Siejak, president of Unit No. 1, United Auto Workers Local 626, which represents hourly workers at the area's largest manufacturer, said additional hirings this month are unlikely.

"There is a lot of logistics involved in bringing in temporary workers. With this many starting in orientation on Monday I doubt that there will be more hired in September," Siejak said.

But as additional hourly workers retire or leave under Delphi's special attrition program, he said, "the indications are that down the road there will be opportunities for more employment. But it won't be in September."

The new group raises to 700 the number of temporary workers brought in since July 10. But because as many as 74 have left for various reasons or were let go, Siejak said his understanding is that the actual number of temporary employees on the Lockport work force after Sept. 18 will be about 625.

Temps are paid only wages with no benefits. Their rate of pay is $14 an hour -- about half what is paid to existing production workers, who also receive health insurance and pension benefits.

The Sept. 18 group will be the fifth since July 10. On that date, 179 were hired. Other dates and the number of workers involved were: July 17, 103; Aug. 14, 179; and Aug. 28, 38.

Delphi Corp. spokesman Lindsey Williams was unavailable for immediate comment.

HSBC owns Western New York. Bow down to the hexagon.

HSBC owns Western New York. Bow down to the hexagon.

Yeah, or bend over in front of it. :)

COUNTY IDA: Pendleton among sites being considered for HSBC data center

BY DENISE JEWELL / jewelld@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

A rural area in Niagara County could soon be home to a large data processing center for HSBC North America Holdings.

HSBC spokeswoman Kathleen Rizzo Young confirmed Thursday that the company is considering “several sites” in Niagara County for a 275,000-square-foot data center that could employ about 80 people.

Niagara County Industrial Development Agency attorney Mark Gabriele said HSBC has requested some of the agency’s general policies and is interested in rural areas of the county.

“They’re going to come to us,” Gabriele said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

The bank has not yet submitted a formal application to the IDA for tax breaks.

“We just think it’s extremely positive that HSBC — a worldwide company — is looking at expanding in Western New York,” Thomas Kraus, president and CEO of Niagara USA Chamber, said. “It appears that they’re going to choose Niagara County for that site.”

Young declined to release additional details of the project until the company has a confirmed site.

James Riester, supervisor of Pendleton, one of the municipalities officials said HSBC is considering, said he didn’t recall HSBC submitting any formal site plans for a data center in the town. Several light industrial sites in Pendleton could support a large facility, he said.

“There are places in Pendleton that would be a fit for this,” Riester said.

News that HSBC is looking at sites in Niagara County came as two other global companies — Olin Corp. and Praxair Inc. — take steps to make large investments in expanding their Niagara County locations.

Praxair received approval from the Niagara Falls Planning Board Wednesday night to expand its Royal Avenue plant in the city to increase its capacity to distribute oxygen, nitrogen and argon from the site.

Olin Corp. is also planning a $6.5 million modernization project that would increase its ability to process bleach at its Buffalo Avenue facility in Niagara Falls.

“It’s all positive,” Kraus said. “With companies planning expansion, it means that they are committed to this area, and hopefully we, as a region, can continue to make Western New York a better business climate. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in Albany.”

HSBC, one of the top 10 financial services organizations in the United States, has more than 400 branches in New York state, as well as locations in Florida, California and other states, according to the company.

Contact Denise Jewell at 282-2311, Ext. 2245. Jill Terreri contributed to this report.

NIAGARA FALLS: Slots could fund downtown rental rehab

Anello is proposing to put $270,000 toward grant program for market-rate apartments

By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

Mayor Vince Anello plans to put $270,000 of the city’s slots revenue into creating a grant program that would pay for rehabilitating private downtown apartments.

The rental rehabilitation program would be modeled after similar incentive programs to modernize low-income rental units, but would be geared toward market-rate apartments in the city’s downtown area near Third and Niagara streets.

The proposal will go before the boards of the city’s Urban Renewal Agency and the NFC Development Corp. on Tuesday.

“We need to provide downtown with market-rate housing, whether we’re talking about apartments or whether we’re talking about owner-occupied homes,” Anello said. “We’re instituting programs that will take us to that end.”

The grant program would provide up to $15,000 for energy conservation work, potential code violation corrections and general property improvements. The money could also help pay for kitchen appliances or commercial washers and dryers.

Landlords would be required to match 10 percent of the rehabilitation cost, and could only receive up to $90,000 for each building. Property owners would not have to pay back the grant unless they sold the building within five years.

About 18 apartments could be rehabilitated under the initial $270,000 funding package. Anello said he expects additional money could be put into the program in the future.

Money for the program would come from the city’s share of slot machine revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino that is earmarked for the Urban Renewal Agency for economic development.

“Certainly, this will be almost like a pilot project,” Anello said. “We’ll see how it works. ... We know there is probably close to 80 units just in the Third Street area and some spots on Niagara Street.”

The URA is slated to receive about $3.9 million from the casino’s 2004 and 2005 operations. The Seneca Nation of Indians has not yet paid the 2005 revenue to the state.

Ralph Aversa, who would administer the grants as executive director of the NFC Development Corp., said the boundaries of the rental rehabilitation program could change.

“We can’t obviously include the whole city,” Aversa said. “The emphasis is on the establishment of market-rate housing.”

The non-profit organizations Center City Neighborhood Development Corp., Niagara Falls Neighborhood Housing Services and Highland Community Revitalization Committee currently receive federal funding through the city for housing and rental rehabilitation programs for low- and moderate-income areas of the city.

Aversa said that rental upgrades done under the federally funded programs have excluded renters whose incomes fall above eligibility guidelines.

“The problem with them is that the people who want to rent them make too much money,” Aversa said.





Eligible apartments

Here are the target areas of a proposed rental rehabilitation program that would provide grants up to $15,000 to upgrade apartments.

n Third Street between Niagara and Main streets

n The area between Niagara Street and Ferry Avenue from Third Street to Portage Road

n The north side of Niagara Street between Third Street and Portage Road.

Source: City of Niagara Falls



If you go

n WHAT: The city’s Urban Renewal Agency and the NFC Development Corp. will consider a proposal to use $270,000 to create a rental rehabilitation program.

n WHERE: Room 17 in City Hall, 745 Main St.

n WHEN: 4:30 p.m. Tuesday

NF hospital to invest casino cash
Business First of Buffalo - 3:15 PM EDT Monday
Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center announced plans to use its portion of the Seneca Niagara Casino revenue to upgrade inpatient behavioral health services.

The medical center's $468,060 share will jump start the project to reconfigure, relocate and reconstruct its child/adolescent and adult inpatient and behavioral health units in order to maintain ongoing state certification.

The $6.5 million project will be conducted in two phases beginning with the reconstruction of the child and adolescent unit followed by the adult unit. Phase one of the project is ready for bid. Completion of the total project is expected by mid-to-late 2008.

The project will create a behavioral health corridor of contiguous units including a 54 bed adult unit and a 17-bed child and adolescent unit. Objectives include expanding Memorial's 12-bed child/adolescent unit to a 17-bed unit to meet the local needs and demands, promotes the use of centralized functions, and improve the therapeutic intervention model for the adult and child/adolescent units.

The medical center's unit is the only inpatient behavioral health service in Niagara County.

The state officials announced in August that $24 million in casion revenue would be returned to the Niagara Falls region for economic development, infrastructure, and tourism projects.

NF hospital to invest casino cash

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center announced plans to use its portion of the Seneca Niagara Casino revenue to upgrade inpatient behavioral health services.

The medical center's $468,060 share will jump start the project to reconfigure, relocate and reconstruct its child/adolescent and adult inpatient and behavioral health units in order to maintain ongoing state certification.

The $6.5 million project will be conducted in two phases beginning with the reconstruction of the child and adolescent unit followed by the adult unit. Phase one of the project is ready for bid. Completion of the total project is expected by mid-to-late 2008.

The project will create a behavioral health corridor of contiguous units including a 54 bed adult unit and a 17-bed child and adolescent unit. Objectives include expanding Memorial's 12-bed child/adolescent unit to a 17-bed unit to meet the local needs and demands, promotes the use of centralized functions, and improve the therapeutic intervention model for the adult and child/adolescent units.

The medical center's unit is the only inpatient behavioral health service in Niagara County.

The state officials announced in August that $24 million in casino revenue would be returned to the Niagara Falls region for economic development, infrastructure, and tourism projects.

Senecas seeking control of area

Willing to pay Falls for streets, alleys

By GAIL FRANKLIN
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
9/26/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - The Seneca Nation of Indians is willing to pay the city to control five public streets and two alleys near its downtown casino and hotel.
Corporation Counsel Damon DeCastro said he presented a proposed financial settlement to the City Council on Monday during a closed session, but no action was taken.

"Various amounts were offered which we did not deem acceptable at this time," DeCastro said. "They gave us a total for each street. Now we'll be evaluating our own numbers to determine whether to do our own appraisals."

The Seneca Gaming Corporation, which is the corporate arm of the nation, offered the City of Buffalo $631,000 for two blocks of Fulton Street this summer where a casino was planned.

The streets and alleys in Niagara Falls all fall within the 50-acre area promised to the Senecas under a 2002 compact with the state, a footprint bounded by Rainbow and John B. Daly boulevards and Niagara and Third streets. The Senecas want to purchase Fourth, Fifth and Sixth streets, Duggan Drive, the alley between Fifth and Sixth streets, and the alley between Fifth and Rainbow Boulevard. DeCastro said the remaining street, Wendel Way, is not on the list but will likely be added at some point.

The offer is being made by the Empire State Development Corp., which is obligated to help the Senecas acquire all the land promised under the compact, DeCastro said.

"They desire to purchase the streets and have exercised the right," he said. "As long as we own [the streets] we control the width, the traffic and everything else."

DeCastro wouldn't release any amounts offered for the Falls streets or what the Senecas want to do with them. However, he did say the Seneca Gaming Corporation is working on a new master plan for the downtown Falls area and the city is working with them.

"The Senecas have expressed their desire to work with the city and willingness to contribute monetarily to areas outside the footprint," DeCastro said. "They've engaged some of the finest consultants in the world to do a master plan, and we're eager to share with the Seneca Nation in their vision for downtown."

its small news but i see it as a positive sign. could other retail/service businesses follow starbucks into niagara falls ny?

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060928/1025105.asp


First Niagara Falls Starbucks going in on Third Street


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cafe is scheduled to open in December

By GAIL FRANKLIN
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
9/28/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - The first Starbucks in Niagara Falls is being built in a large storefront on Third Street and is scheduled to start serving espressos in December.
"Starbucks is a first-class organization and they're careful not to place a unit anywhere it would falter," said Doug Williams, a project manager with Phoenix-based real estate developer Namwest LLC. "They're very particular about where they put their stores and they obviously have faith in Niagara Falls."

The international coffee chain is set to go into the 2,125-square-foot spot at Third and Old Falls streets in the Holiday Inn Select, a space being touted as twice as large as most Starbucks cafes.

The deal has been referred to by city officials for several months, but Williams said he couldn't verify the rumor until Starbucks granted a license.

"We have our license," he said this week. "But just like any franchise, we have to build the store and staff it as they say."

Namwest and Manhattan-based Sentry Hospitality, which runs the Conference Center Niagara Falls, bought the Holiday Inn Select for $14.5 million last year under the company name NS Partner LLC.

The firm is in the midst of an $8 million renovation to turn the 33-year-old building on Third Street into a Crowne Plaza hotel. NS Partners will be reimbursed for up to $6 million of the capital improvements by the Empire State Development Corp.

"You know a community is really expanding and growing when a Starbucks moves into the area," said Namwest principal Mike McBride in a statement. "We have a vested interest in the Niagara Falls redevelopment efforts and what better way to boost those efforts than with a taste of world famous coffee."

Williams said he has been working to gain the license to operate a Starbucks in the hotel since December. He said while it will be an amenity for hotel customers, it also will be marketed to patrons of the casino across the street.

"There's about 12,000-a-day foot traffic there and we want to capitalize on that," Williams said. "We made sure our sign's as big as we could because we want to make sure everybody sees we believe in Niagara Falls."

Williams said the store will hire about 20 employees, and will have outdoor seating on Old Falls Street.

It will be the second Starbucks in Niagara County. The first was opened on South Transit Road in Lockport. Niagara Falls, Ont. boasts nine of the coffeehouses.

"The decision by a global brand like Starbucks to come to a global destination like Niagara Falls is an indication of the positive direction of this marketplace," said USA Niagara President Christopher Schoepflin. "I'm certain Starbucks will garner a lot of attention to Niagara Falls and leverage additional retail and investment in a relatively short period of time."

"We've had the falls for 12,000 years," Mayor Vince Anello said. "We've had a Hard Rock Cafe for quite a few years, and now we have a Starbucks and a Crowne Plaza, so we're definitely on the map."

Live web cam showing the historic renovation of the Richmond block of buildings into a retail/office/residential complex and also the creation of an Erie Canal Park in Lockport, Niagara County.

http://elockport.com/eriecanal.html

downtown lockport has a great deal of potential. good to see some efforts toward revitalizing it. i sincerely hope they don't demo the old harrison building.

its small news but i see it as a positive sign. could other retail/service businesses follow starbucks into niagara falls ny?

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060928/1025105.asp


First Niagara Falls Starbucks going in on Third Street

"You know a community is really expanding and growing when a Starbucks moves into the area," said Namwest principal Mike McBride in a statement. "We have a vested interest in the Niagara Falls redevelopment efforts and what better way to boost those efforts than with a taste of world famous coffee."

"We've had the falls for 12,000 years," Mayor Vince Anello said. "We've had a Hard Rock Cafe for quite a few years, and now we have a Starbucks and a Crowne Plaza, so we're definitely on the map."


That is awesome news for the city, it might seem like peanuts too most but it is a sure sign that people are taking notice, that this city is atleast trying to move in the right direction. Every step counts!

downtown lockport has a great deal of potential. good to see some efforts toward revitalizing it. i sincerely hope they don't demo the old harrison building.
If you are referring to the original first plant on Richmond, that is the one being rehabbed as a part of the canal project. As for the one on Washburn, the City is in discussions to sell it to one of it's tenants. I think they are planning to demolish a portion of it to make the whole property more manageable and less unsightly.

no im definately refering to the one between washburn and locust on the south side of downtown. is there still a daycare center in that building on the washburn street side?

when i was growing up that building was far from vacant. it still held some harrison offices as well as that daycare and a few nonprofit orginizations. what happened?

i honestly haven't been to lockport in almost ten years, but from what i remember the biggest problem with that area of lockport was crime on the block of genesee st directly to the south of this building.

Public safety building look unveiled

Columns on new courthouse and police station would evoke power dam.

By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

Architects unveiled schematic designs for a new courthouse and police station Monday that show a glass and stone expanse with a Main Street entrance marked by 62-foot concrete columns designed to evoke the penstocks of the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant dam.

The four illuminated columns would be separated by glass and would support a wide canopy above an entrance with several steps. To the left, the second and third floors of the courthouse would be wrapped in glass with grooves meant to emulate cascades of water.

The front of the two-story police wing would be covered with stone or a fabricated material that reflects the look of the layers of rock in the Niagara Gorge.

The 126,000-square-foot building would be located between South and Cleveland avenues and would be set back from the street by a green space with grass, trees and blocks of concrete. A public parking lot would be located behind existing buildings between South and Michigan avenues.

“We want to strengthen Main Street,” said Gerry Lang, a design principal for the architectural firm Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum. “We don’t want to drop a building in the middle of the block that would obliterate it.”

David Chiazza, vice president of Ciminelli Development Co., told a volunteer advisory board overseeing the project that the updated construction costs for the building based on the schematic designs was within the $27 million construction budget laid out in an agreement between the design team and the city.

The team has estimated the total cost of the project including property acquisition and demolition will be $42 million.

The state’s Office of Court Administration has mandated that the city address facility problems in its public safety building on Hyde Park Boulevard. The proposed building would replace that facility. It would house city courts, the jail and police headquarters.

Designs show a two-story public atrium. Elevators in the center of the court facility would bring prisoners up from the jail or an enclosed garage to the courtrooms so that they would not interact with the public.

Several members of the advisory board said they were pleased with the proposed design. The city will have 15 days to comment on the plans.

The city will also hold public hearings on the proposal during a review of the building’s environmental impact required by the state.

“It’s a lot better than what we have now,” Chief City Court Clerk Martha Farbo-Lincoln said. “We’re actually very pleased

Link to rendering: http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/images_sizedimage_275233116/resources_photoview

'Oz' plan awaits impact statement
By THAD KOMOROWSKI
NIAGARA CORRESPONDENT
10/2/2006

WHEATFIELD - The environmental-impact statement on the controversial "Wizard of Oz" theme park project is expected to be made public this month. Town Supervisor Timothy E. Demler and John Simon, chief operating officer for Oz Central, confirmed that the first draft of the statement would be available for viewing soon.
"It should be completed in the next three weeks and be released in the month of October," Simon said last week. The statement "is moving along nicely and systematically."

He said the statement would encompass "a tremendous number of findings."

Demler, who said he expected the statement in early October, also stressed that he is eager to commit all parties to use the related sales tax revenue for property tax relief.

The statement, in the works for nearly seven months, would list all the concerns about the impact the project would have on the surrounding area and how developers plan to address those concerns.

The draft document would then go back to the town Planning Board.

The great majority of the concerns came out of a public scoping session held May 1, when several hundred residents met with developers and town officials to discuss how the proposed theme park would affect Wheatfield.

Residents at the meeting seemed as concerned about the positive impact as about the negative. Although many residents asked for safeguards against noise, pollution, traffic and possible decrease in some property values, there also was a call for property tax relief and revenue retention at the local level.

Oz Central wants to turn 800 acres behind the Summit mall into a theme park with hotels, restaurants and other commercial ventures based on the books of L. Frank Baum.

The location of the park at the end of the LaSalle Expressway would put it within range of some of the millions of tourists who visit Niagara Falls every year. Many of the attractions in the park would be used year-round.

Promoted as one of the most technically advanced theme parks in the world by the developers, it would cost nearly $750 million to build and would generate $50 million to $60 million a year in sales tax revenue, its backers contend.

Demler said he would fight to apply the Niagara County share of the sales tax revenue directly to county property taxes rather than for "more grants" or "job creations."

"I will ask the county to dedicate all of the money for tax relief," Demler said. "In fact, I will demand it, or else I will go to the state to pre-empt the revenue."

If the county did not agree, Demler said, he would fight to keep all the money in Wheatfield and fund the town's entire budget for a few years.

"We will do what the [Seneca Niagara] casino [compact] never did - keep the money in the home community," Demler said. "Wheatfield will be in the driver's seat with this project."

Hey guys... i want your advice. I'm planning to relocate in Niagara Falls, New York & I just wanna know if there are U/P or high rise condo for sale in Niagara Falls? Which is safer to live... Niagara Falls or Buffalo in terms of driving in snow? I've heard that Buffalo is always hit by heavy snow.

Much, much less snow in Niagara Falls/Lewiston area than in Buffalo Erie County area.

Average snowfall in Niagara Falls NY is 53 inches, Lewiston average is 48 inches.

Buffalo (airport) average snowfall is 93 inches, Lancaster/Elma area 110 inches. Southtown's 150 -210 inches.

The city of Buffalo and downtown don't get nearly the amount of snow that the Southtowns (OP, Hamburg) do. If you lived and worked in downtown Buffalo, you'll be in better shape. I don't know much about Niagara Falls and snow. You'll face slippery roads everywhere, but the road services in the area are great at clearing roads.

New Niagara Falls, NY courthouse and police HQs- to be located on Main Street in the North End:

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/3446/niagarafallsmc2.jpg

Hey guys... i want your advice. I'm planning to relocate in Niagara Falls, New York & I just wanna know if there are U/P or high rise condo for sale in Niagara Falls? Which is safer to live... Niagara Falls or Buffalo in terms of driving in snow? I've heard that Buffalo is always hit by heavy snow.

There arent any high rise condos yet in NF, but there are numerous lofts and condos in downtown Buffalo. NF is about 20 miles away if u have to commute. NF has a very Ghetto area and is very sketchy. Buffalo there are some real nice areas and neighborhoods. There hundreds of shops and restaurants. Buffalo gets a bad rap on the snow thing.Its not as bad as everyone says. IMO, buffalo would be your best bet.

Thanks Spaulding97... i really appreciate it !!! How bad is the snow in Buffalo? Do you really wait for days just for the road to be cleared up? I'm afraid i can't go to work (hehehe).

Jerome & ExWNY'er... thanks also

Where are you from, gmb?

[QUOTE=gmb;10056135]Thanks Spaulding97... i really appreciate it !!! How bad is the snow in Buffalo? Do you really wait for days just for the road to be cleared up? I'm afraid i can't go to work (hehehe).[/QUOTE

No if it does snow, then its usually plowed that day or over night. Keep in mind that Buffalo has the best plowers in the nation and work round clock to get the roads and highways clear. I can only remember a couple times when it gets that bad that you have to stay at home for days. and if that is the case theneverything is closed, including work! Plus it doesnt snow here all year round. snow comes from mid-late November to early march. I wouldnt worry about the snow, especially if you ski or enjoy winter becuase its beautiful at times here.

Huh, my earlier post seems to have disappeared... :dunno:

Anyways, as I had said earlier, a couple more misconceptions of Buffalo/WNY winters are temperature and how much snow is on the ground at any given moment. Temperature-wise, I think the city averages 3 days a year with a low under 0°, which is pretty decent for the interior northeast. Hence why we get all the snow. As for the snow, it's not like there are 100 inches on the ground at once, it snows 1-3 inches, melts, 1-3 more, melts, etc. Except for snowbanks in the mall parking lot or something, the snow is usually completely recycled 3-4 times a winter, at least.

I think some of you are confusing 'Southtowns' with 'Ski Country' as well. They are not one and the same...
http://www.cas.buffalo.edu/commentary/images/SNOWMAP_region.jpg

It's like calling Springville a suburb.

Lies, winter is scary! SCARY!!!

^^ If you think last winter was scary...

...you got another thing commin'.

Might very well be a 'real' winter, as it were. Face it, last winter was a dud.

^^^^^

i think your right. Think about this, this september was the 2nd most rain amount for the month just behind sep of 77. now we all know what happened that year. just behind this sep of 06 is sep of 95, remember how bad that winter was!!?:grouphug: get ready for some closings!

:cry:

My car got snow on it last year. SALT TOO!!!

And how could have last winter been a dud?! We had snow on the ground for like, months! :faint:

Where the hell were you?

I remember no snow on the ground for most of February. FEBRUARY!!!!!

Oublepe Ostde!

Triple Post!!!

Touch 'em all!! Home run!!! Quadruple post!!!!

Thank you so much guys !!! BTW... i live & work in Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a nearer place. I think Niagara Falls is much much nearer to Toronto compared to Buffalo. Right now i'm still confuse where... if i'm going to settle in Niagara Falls, i don't think so there's a lot of restaurants, bars & entertainments there. But if i'm going to settle in Buffalo, i'm scared of the heavy snow. I really don't know guys...

Thank you so much guys !!! BTW... i live & work in Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a nearer place. I think Niagara Falls is much much nearer to Toronto compared to Buffalo. Right now i'm still confuse where... if i'm going to settle in Niagara Falls, i don't think so there's a lot of restaurants, bars & entertainments there. But if i'm going to settle in Buffalo, i'm scared of the heavy snow. I really don't know guys...

Thank you so much guys !!! BTW... i live & work in Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a nearer place. I think Niagara Falls is much much nearer to Toronto compared to Buffalo. Right now i'm still confuse where... if i'm going to settle in Niagara Falls, i don't think so there's a lot of restaurants, bars & entertainments there. But if i'm going to settle in Buffalo, i'm scared of the heavy snow. I really don't know guys...

Thank you so much guys !!! BTW... i live & work in Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a nearer place. I think Niagara Falls is much much nearer to Toronto compared to Buffalo. Right now i'm still confuse where... if i'm going to settle in Niagara Falls, i don't think so there's a lot of restaurants, bars & entertainments there. But if i'm going to settle in Buffalo, i'm scared of the heavy snow. I really don't know guys...

your best bet if you are afraid of Buffalo for silly reasons such as too much snow, would be Lewiston.
It is a pretty town with an intact "village" or town atmosphere with shops and great restaurants along a main street type strip. It is very picturesque and the Lewiston-Queenston bridge crossing into Canada is right there.
closest to Toronto and not too far to venture to Buffalo and Niagara Falls is directly south.
and Buffalo is only further from Toronto (than Niagara Falls/Lewiston) by like 25-30 minutes.
and this will be the nicest highrise development in the Buffalo-Niagara Metro whenever it gets started: http://www.gatescircle.com/home.html

double post

Guys... thank you so much. BTW... i'm from Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a place nearer to Toronto & i think Niagara Falls, NY is much much nearer compared to Buffalo. Are there any restaurants & bars in Niagara Falls, New York?

Impossible! I remember the first time I looked at this house there was snow on the ground.

Is this thread corrupted or something?

- From the forum listing, it says DallasTexan posted at 10:47, yet I don't see it. (Edit: I post this, go out to the forum, reload, and suddenly Page 5 appears).
- I posted earlier this morning and it disappeared.
- I tried posting this afternoon and it kept giving me errors, and didn't appear to work. Now it shows as a double post? (Edit: Quadruple post!!! Ditto gmb.)

To quote the old Bruce Smith commercials, "Bad things, man. Bad things."

Whoa, wtf is going on!

Thank you so much guys !!! BTW... i live & work in Michigan & my main reason of relocating is to be near Toronto. It takes 4 hr. drive from Michigan to Toronto that's why i'm planning to move to a nearer place. I think Niagara Falls is much much nearer to Toronto compared to Buffalo. Right now i'm still confuse where... if i'm going to settle in Niagara Falls, i don't think so there's a lot of restaurants, bars & entertainments there. But if i'm going to settle in Buffalo, i'm scared of the heavy snow. I really don't know guys...
Where in Michigan, eastern I assume? I wouldn't think the snowfall totals from Buffalo proper and northward would be too much different from what you're already familiar with. Our winters just happen to be shrouded in mystery and misconception.

Niagara Falls isn't really significantly closer to Toronto, time-wise. It is, but consider that the QEW between Ft. Erie and the 420 is literally a straight-line drag strip, I would base the decision moreso on what you're looking for in a sense of lifestyle; i.e. what you're looking for in a place to live, whether it be Buffalo, NF, or elsewhere and what those places have/don't have to offer. The time savings is negligible, and all your delays are more than likely to be in the Hamilton-Toronto stretch. Certainly a drop in the bucket compared to your current situation. The periodic 15-20 extra minutes on a highway may not be worth a cut in your personal quality of life where you spend 15 hours a day, if you know what I mean.

There are many, many people in central/southern NH who commute 60 miles/3 hours one-way to work in Boston, just to avoid property taxes! I don't see the sense, but it's all in what you're looking for, you have to make the decision based on what you want and expect.

As for bars in Buffalo, I'm not the one to ask, not my cup of tea. You have the 'Chip Strip' which seems to be growing if not thriving, but not much more in terms of centers (but probably better than anything NFNY has to offer). Put bluntly, you'd be helping to add to critical mass were you to move downtown. I'm sure DT could guide you to a few Polish 60+ fish fry/bingo hall/pubs in Chicktawasa if you asked! :)

Bars and Restaurants in Buffalo are concentrated on Chippewa St, Allen St, Elmwood Ave, and Hertel Ave. that is not to say there aren't other areas with bars and restaurants, but these are the most heavily concentrated areas.

As for Niagara Falls, Pine Ave. is "Little Italy" and Third St. is a burgeoning night life strip of activity.

OMG... what happenend to the thread? I'm sorry guys for the double or triple postings. Anyway... i would like to thank each one of you for your advices & i really appreciate it !!! I'm looking forward in the future for a high rise condo in Niagara Falls, New York overlooking the falls. For sure it would be a nice unit to live in coz i'm a nature lover !!! Ciao...

^^^^^

i think your right. Think about this, this september was the 2nd most rain amount for the month just behind sep of 77. now we all know what happened that year. just behind this sep of 06 !

No logic to this comment as Sep 1977 was 9 months after the Blizzard of 77 which was in January. For your theory on the correaltion to be correct then last January would have had to have been bad.

Either way move to Niagara County and leave the snow behind.

Also Downtown Toronto to Lewiston takes about one hour. (Eaton Ctr. Parking to bridge.)

^^^^
Well it was just a theory, guess it doesn't hold up. I was never good at that stuff, i loose every week on my football pics! oh well, i hope i am wrong.:dunno: but thanks for making sure i was wrong though:nono:

I don't know how you missed this guys but http://www.usaniagara.com/projects_display.asp?id=1
is as good as your going to do in NF USA right now and in the forseeable future. It's in the heart of downtown and apparently offers views of the falls. Not sure what your willing to pay though gmb, as these apartments are described as "luxuary". In this region though that only means ~ $1000/month. Hope this helps.

http://www.usaniagara.com/UploadedFiles/projectimages/P1010004.JPG

Damn that pic is huge, sorry.

Kirkunit... thanks for the info. Do you know guys how far is Buffalo VA Hospital from NF/Lewiston & i just wanna know if the way going to the hospital is not affected by heavy snow? Are there any hospitals in NF/Lewiston or any nearer hospitals?

Man, you're worrying too much about the snow! :)

No he's not! Snow is EVIL! EEEEEEEEEVIL!

Well then I suggest you head south sometime within the next 3-4 weeks. Halloween seems to be the trigger, I can remember several years where we got our first dose of that heavy wet crap on that night.

Oh wait, it snows down south occasionally too, doesn't it. You just might be shit out of luck! Who's up for a national pattern of unseasonably cold weather, to complement last winter's nationwide unseasonable warmth?

They are saying El Nino is back...though I think they use that as more of an excuse for their inability to provide an accurate forecast than anything.

Actually guys... i'm not worrying too much about the snow. I just want to know the advantages & disadvantages of living in Niagara Falls or Buffalo. Which is more expensive in terms of apartment rates & how's the crime rate of Buffalo compared to Niagara Falls? Hope you can help me regarding these.

If you visit Buffalo and talk to the natives, don't let any suburbanite pessimist tell you that downtown is not safe. In fact, downtown is consistently one of the safest if not the safest districts in the city (and the numbers back this). Downtown Buffalo's only real problem is soliciting. You'll get asked for change a lot on certain streets. A simple "can't help you" and they move on so it's not really a concern; I've never had a bum be forceful or anything. I don't know about NF though. Walking around at night downtown there gives me this "look over your shoulder" feeling, probably because it seems so dead, but I haven't been there in a while and I hear the downtown area has improved significantly. I really don't know how safe it is though, then or now.

And either city is a bargain for housing costs. You won't do better anywhere else in the country.

If you want very low crime, move to Amherst. 3rd safest city in the US.

If you want to live in the city move downtown. You can catch a show at Shea's, eat and watch hockey at the Pearl Street Bar & Grill, great and affordabl housing. Apartments, Lofts, and Condos are poping up everyday. Great food shoping at the Washington Market. Whats not to like?

Panhandlers in downtown can be quite the nuisance. I've seen them flip cigarette butts and such as well. But as for "true" crime, you're probably as safe there as you are anywhere else in the metro for all practical purposes.

Lockport's Ulrich City Centre gaining tenants

Additional tenants are moving into Lockport's new two-building Ulrich City Centre.

In the commercial office complex on Walnut Street between Locust and Pine streets, which was unoccupied until recently, 75 percent of available space is now leased, developer David Ulrich said.

Tenants are:

Eastern Niagara Obstetrics and Gynecology P.C., with doctors Roger Schneider, Roger Jammal and Angelo Campagna, which plans a mid-October opening.

Wittlin Cain & Dry, a certified public accounting firm, which plans to open around Nov. 1. Managed by Scott Cain, the business also has an office in Amherst.

The first tenant in the building, Hunt Real Estate Corp., opened an office Sept. 20.

Ulrich said two more tenants, who were not identified, are expected to sign leases later this year.

The retail complex on Main Street is 40 percent leased and houses various small businesses, including a florist shop and a hair and nails salon. Ulrich said talks are under way with what he described as an upscale, independently owned restaurant. He said he hopes to have a signed lease within 45 days.

If negotiations succeed, 75 percent of the structure on Main Street between Locust and Pine streets would be under lease, Ulrich said.

Construction of the multimillion-dollar Ulrich City Centre, downtown Lockport's largest retail/commercial project in more than 50 years, was completed last summer.

The buildings occupy much of what is called the South Block in the heart of downtown Lockport.

Most of the 19th-century and early-20th century buildings previously occupying the site were demolished in the 1960s (actually 1971). The land was vacant prior to Ulrich's project.

Buffalo (pop 275,000) has had approximately 65 murders so far this year, including 3 in the downtown area. Niagara County, including the city of Niagara Falls (total population 221,000) has had 4 murders so far this year.

BTW: Niagara Fall's downtown area, from the Casino to the waters edge is far less dead than downtown Buffalo's Main Street. Besides the many tourist and Casino related amenities, this are also has such night spots as the Hard Rock Cafe and the Niagara Club. The pedestrian mall is being removed and new shops such as Starbucks are opening up. While NFNY does appear dead in contrast to NF Ontario it does not appear so when compared to Main Street in downtown Buffalo. NF Ontario of course has it all, another Hard Rock, a Planet Hollywood, yuk yuk's etc, etc. Remember too that NFNY is only a five minute walk from NF Ontario and it is only an hours drive from Toronto.

Plus half the snow of Buffalo!

Bringing bustle to the block

Developer plans to retrofit Canal Street into viable commercial sector with plaza

By THOMAS J. PROHASKA
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/8/2006

LOCKPORT - City officials hope that Canal Street will become a commercial area second only to Main Street, and they've put their trust in Ben Kendig to deliver the goods.
Kendig, a veteran Rochester developer who specializes in reusing old buildings, has gutted three late-19th century stone structures on Canal Street, which used to be known as Richmond Avenue.

The one-block street on the north bank of the Erie Canal is expected to blossom next year or in 2008 into a retro-themed commercial zone with a pedestrian plaza. Traffic will be barred (Incorrect as this web cam of the Plaza with flagpole shows, it will be a one way street http://elockport.com/eriecanal.html)

"We have 18 months, but in my opinion, with a little luck, we'll get it done sooner," Kendig said.

The clock for completion of renovations on the structures started ticking June 29, when he signed his contract with the city.

"I can't really get into specifics because it's all confidential," Kendig said, "but a number of people have expressed interest, and they seem serious. . . . I feel we are not going to have any problems filling that place up."

Restoration projects

The city and its economic development agency, the Greater Lockport Development Corp., have spent more than $2.4 million on the project, mostly in state and federal aid, dating back to 1998.

Although it doesn't look like it to casual passers-by, Canal Street is about to become a focal point of Lockport's attempts at economic revival, Kendig and city leaders said in recent interviews.

As the city moves toward establishing itself as a canal tourism hub, the project is among a triad of projects that includes restoration of the historic Flight of Five canal locks and continuing development of Ulrich City Centre across the downtown waterfront.

Kendig signed a 42-year master lease with the city in June, giving him a $600,000 interest-free loan in exchange for his own investment of $239,000. He became the landlord of the buildings on the street and will collect the rents.

Kendig, in turn, hired a construction firm, R.S. Lindsay of Webster, to gut the buildings and make them over into commercial spaces with exterior designs in 19th century "canal town" style.

Contractor Robert Lindsay also was in charge of the $1 million renovation of the former Hamilton House at Church and Ontario streets into the Erie Canal Discovery Center. Kendig was a consultant on that project, which opened in 2005.

The Niagara County Historical Society is the operator, subletting the property from the city, which in turn sublets it from the owner, First Presbyterian Church.

The Lindsay firm was hired by the GLDC in 2005 to carry out exterior repairs to the Canal Street buildings for $486,550.

The city acquired almost the entire Richmond block using aid from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Eminent domain did not have to be invoked.

Four buildings remain

Four buildings remain standing. From west to east, their numbers are 51, 57, 79 and 81.

With state grants from the Department of Environmental Conservation paying most of the expense, the city demolished other buildings and removed asbestos, underground fuel tanks and some contaminated soil from the site.

Oakgrove Construction of Elma was hired for $941,000 to repave the street and install a parking lot and green space behind the buildings. It also erected a plaza with a flagpole at the west end of the block, overlooking the locks.

Oakgrove also was hired by the state Canal Corp. to build a new $580,000 retaining wall along Canal Street, bordering the canal itself. That wall was completed last month. William J. Evert, city community development director, said the paving work on the street and the parking lot behind the four buildings is just about done.

Evert said there was a cost overrun of about $45,000, primarily because the GLDC opted for stamped, colored concrete on the street.

Evert said Lindsay will continue interior work during the winter, even though the buildings are only shells at this point.

The westernmost building, 51 Canal, is a three-story building, 1,155 square feet per floor, which was a hotel in the remote past. Its ground floor is to be offered as a storefront and the second floor is envisioned as apartment space. In the center of the block is the anchor building, 57 Canal. The three-story edifice was the original home of Herbert Harrison's new car radiator company in 1910. The company later became Harrison Radiator Division of General Motors and now limps along in bankruptcy as Delphi Thermal and Interior, still Lockport's largest employer despite massive job cuts.

Harrison was only in the building for about four years. After it moved out, 57 Canal was used by other companies and was last known as the headquarters of Licata Brothers, a vending machine company.

It is hoped the 7,100-square-foot ground floor of 57 Canal will become the main attraction of the whole block. Kendig hopes for a bar-restaurant that would attract not only locals but boaters on the canal who arrive at the locks, which the building overlooks, and want to take a break.

"We want to create a certain feeling there. We have an idea of what Ben wants it to be," Mayor Michael W. Tucker said. "We're going for a good look, a good-quality product."

The mayor said he envisions "a restaurant, a nice little bar where businesspeople can go at the end of the day for a drink or two and some conversation after work. We've got a nice business district, but at 5 o'clock it closes up tighter than a drum. We've got to look at having some kind of entertainment district."

Space-flight simulator

The second floor of 57 Canal was eyed as the possible home for a Challenger Center, one of a national chain of space-flight simulators set up in memory of the seven astronauts killed in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

However, fundraising hasn't gotten off the ground, and Kendig's Dec. 31 deadline for a commitment to the space may well pass without action, leaving the second floor available to a business tenant.

"Due to funding constraints, it's unlikely we're going to be in Canal Street and we're considering alternate sites," said Kathy Michaels, a retired schoolteacher who is spearheading the project.

Kendig said, "To me, the right restaurant is really going to make the place."

He said he's considering some chain restaurants because of the "economic security" a national franchise would imply.

"My preference would be a very strong operator that wasn't a chain, to bring some originality to it. . .," he said. "What I need there is an anchor restaurant. I'm floating down the Erie [Canal] and I say, "Let's stop here and have lunch.' I know there are places like that, because I've gone to them."

He said he wants a restaurant "you'd be proud to take a guest to."

The easternmost and oldest building on the site is 79-81 Canal, two buildings that are joined. It was most recently home to the Model T Bar. Number 79 is two stories and 81 is one story. Both are eyed for commercial use.

Each floor of 79 Canal is 1,830 square feet; 81 Canal is 816 square feet.

The third stories of 51 and 57 Canal and the basements of all the buildings are expected to be used for storage and utilities.

Besides the restaurant, Kendig said he'd like "an anchor tenant. And I'd like things that would be interesting, either interactive things or shops. We have lots of space in there and we can cut it up and put things wherever we need to."

Buyout talks begun

Evert said the city would like to buy out the only spot on the block it doesn't own: Zimmie's Tire at the southwest corner of the block. He said talks began last week.

Kendig, 62, said he doesn't think he'll live long enough to recoup all the money he's invested.

But, he said, "I've become fond of the community."

Kendig became involved when John Page, a Rochester architect who was hired by the city to report on the feasibility of saving the buildings on the block, brought him in as a consultant. Kendig ended up being the only person to submit a proposal for developing them.

When Tucker ran for mayor in 2003, he criticized the arrangements then-Mayor Thomas C. Sullivan had made with Kendig, especially a side consulting agreement. When Tucker entered office, his relationship with Kendig was touchy for quite a while.

"I don't see him much," Tucker said. "My concern was the project more than the developer. We got the deal that's best for the city. Ben's doing a great job with Bob Lindsay. I have no doubt [the project] will be a great addition to the city."

"We do [get along well] now," Kendig said, "and I get along well with Bill Evert. They were [at first] just so mistrustful of me."

Another major Lockport developer, David L. Ulrich, is looking across the canal with interest. He's filling up Ulrich City Centre on Main and Walnut streets, which he constructed last year.

"We hope it has a positive impact," he said of the Canal Street project. "Anything that's good for Lockport is good for us."

Canadian Casinos Chop 100+ Jobs


Posted by: Julie Wolfe, Reporter
Created: 10/12/2006 5:51:44 PM
Updated: 10/12/2006 5:59:17 PM


A Fallsview Casino representative tells 2 On Your Side a restructuring plan announced Wednesday cut 104 salaried positions.

The Canadian casino representative said the plan is due, in part, to some new technology that will help make them more competitive. It's an edge they may need. The strong Canadian dollar, a new smoking ban in Ontario, and hassles of crossing the border have encouraged more gamblers to stay in the U.S. and spend their money at the Seneca-Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, NY.

The Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation says the hotel occupancy rate in Niagara Falls, NY is up 4.6% over last year.

Guys... last question: what's the percentage population of white, black, asian or hispanic in Niagara Falls & Buffalo?

gmb: Only 2-3 inches of snow (melted after 12 hours) with full power here in Niagara County. Erie County 25-30 inches of snow with 300,000 homes without power. 'nuff said about the weather.
Niagara County 90% white, 8% black 2% mixed/other
Erie County 84% white 12% black, 4% mixed/other.

Jerome... thank you so much, you're very informative !!! Hope this will help me decide where to stay. BTW... are you from Niagara Falls?

Buffalo (pop 275,000) has had approximately 65 murders so far this year, including 3 in the downtown area. Niagara County, including the city of Niagara Falls (total population 221,000) has had 4 murders so far this year.

BTW: Niagara Fall's downtown area, from the Casino to the waters edge is far less dead than downtown Buffalo's Main Street.

Jerome, Come on now. While I support Niagara Falls, and actually love it (My bf is from Devaux, an upscale section of the Falls) I think your comparison of Buffalo and NF is unfair. You can't compare NF downtown area to Buffalo's Main Street, as if that's the only part of Buffalo with activity. The Chippewa District alone is way more happening than anything in NF, plus Buffalo has Allentown, the Elmwood Village, Hertel Avenue, and a museum district. You also can't compare the murder rate in a city to the murder rate in a county. Just because there are more people in the City of Buffalo than in all of Niagara County (where NF is) does not make it a fair comparison. You are comparing many rural populations in Niagara County like towns of Lewiston and Youngstown (which I adore) that collectively have as much population as our densely populated urban core. When you think about it, doesn't that seem like a weird way to manipulate your statistics?

I think it is worth mentioning here that if I was going to move to NF, I would either buy a single family home in Deveau (Sorry, I never know exactly how to spell that neighborhood) or I would get one of those apartments/condos that are going to open up in the newly renovated United Office Building. That's NF's second tallest building, which is an art deco masterpiece where much of Marilyn Monroe's movie "Niagara" was filmed in the '50s. That building is going to be so hot! I've already told my bf that if they sell those apartments (as opposed to leasing them) we have to sell our house in Buffalo (1860s brick Victorian) and move up to the Falls.

Why is my comparison of Niagara unfair? The numbers speak for themselves. I did not mention that last week thee was a multiple gunshot shooting at 4 in the afternoon right outside of the Central Library in downtown Buffalo. This is something someone come in from outside the area should be aware of. This is also the type of thing that just does NOT happen anywhere in Niagara County including the Falls.

While I would do not live in NFNY myself, I do happen to think that Lewiston (where I do not live) is the single most impressive community in WNY. It is upscale, it is historic, it has plenty of unique retaurants and shops, it has the least amount of rain/snow in WNY (on average 10 inches less precipitation than at the Buffalo Airport and 45 fewer days per year that it actuallly rains or snows based upon the last 35 years of records) It is only an hour from downtown Toronto and only a hafl hour to 45 minutes from from Buffalo.

Since the stated reason for GMB's move to the area was to be close to Toronto moving to Erie County would seem to be foolish, There are closer, safer options to Toronto than Buffalo.

If as gmb states he disires easy accessibility to Toronto there is no better choice in WNY than NF or Lewiston.

Jerome... thank you so much, you're very informative !!! Hope this will help me decide where to stay. BTW... are you from Niagara Falls?

You are welcome. No, I do not live in NF I live more towards the other end of the county.

Niagara County is just an all around better place to live in than Erie County. Our sales tax is lower which is not a big deal on everyday purchases but is noticable when you buy major appliances or a Car.

Our local and County governments while not perfect do not suffer from the chaos that Erie County does. I live in an easter Niagara County town that does not even levy a general fund property tax at all. It is one of only a handful of Towns in that State that does not, it is funded entirely from the sales tax (which is still lower that Erie County's) We do not have a County Executive form of government so that whole layer of government and it's associated corruption and patronage is not present. My total property taxes are within fifty dollars of what they were five years ago. The same cannot be said for Erie County where both the sales tax and the property taxes are raised annually. Last year alone the Erie County Property Tax Rate went up by about 22%.

And as a bonus - unlike Erie County we do not have to boil our water before drinking it! Looking out my window right now, not a flake of snow can be seen and the neighbors kids are out playing in their driveway. Erie county on the other hand is still buried under snow with hundreds of thousands of homes still without power. And do not let anyone fool you this is NOT an isolated incident. In 2001 when Buffalo was buried by an eighty inch snowfall on Christmas we received only 5 inches. This type of weather disparity happens EVERY Winter.

Are there any hospitals in NF/Lewiston or any nearer hospitals?

NF Memorial Hospital has just opened one of the most advanced heart diagnostic labs in the entire northeast. It is so advanced that it was featured on NBC's Today Show last month. Nothing in Buffalo compares to it. Lewiston also has a hospital of it's own. It is a well fuded comminuty hospital.

And as a bonus - unlike Erie County we do not have to boil our water before drinking it!

Jerome, if I were you, I would always boil my water up there, or at least if your water in any way comes from the western part of the county. I have seen core samples taken from several creeks and the Power Authority reservoir and the amounts of heavy metals in the samples was far beyond safe levels. A few too many years of chemical plants dumping heavy chemical waste into the water table on the western side of the county has really damaged that water supply. So take that to heart. Now, if where you are the water doesn't come from the western part of the county, then ignore that. And, seriously, you may feel that suburban Lockport is the cats bag, but if you are not interested in settling down and raising a family, then it may not be the best, most enjoyable place to live. Also, the Lewiston/Queenston Bridge has the worst traffic of all the bridges, and this is from someone who crosses at least every other week. I avoid it like the plague due to the few customs booths at that bridge. It is much faster for me to cross at the Peace Bridge where there is usually no wait than to drive to Lewiston and cross, I usually save about 10 minutes on the trip to Toronto! Just my two cents...

Jerome, The onlt reason we had to and still have to boil OUR water is because of the power outage.

Jerome... talking about hospital particularly NF Medical Center, how much do you think is the starting salaray rate of a registered nurse? I called the hospital but they don't give rates on the phone. Do you know any RN that works there? Is it true that the economic situation in NF is down? I've heard that there's no money in NF... how true is that?

gmb, all of these guys have various opinions as to why one area of western new york is better than others. all of them have valid points which you may want to consider.
all of the buffalo-niagara area offers high points and low points, no matter where you choose to live you will be sacrificing something to gain something else. my suggestion is that you consider what is important to you and then thouroughly research the communities of both niagara and erie county(perhaps even visit the area, so you can gain personal perspective).

It is much faster for me to cross at the Peace Bridge where there is usually no wait than to drive to Lewiston and cross, I usually save about 10 minutes on the trip to Toronto! .
If he is going to be crossing frequently he can get a pass and use the whirlpool bridge in NF where there is never a wait. You must have the pass to use that bridge.

And, seriously, you may feel that suburban Lockport is the cats bag, but if you are not interested in settling down and raising a family, then it may not be the best, most enjoyable place to live. ..

Actually it was Lewiston not Lockport that I was praising. Lewiston far outshines any living experience that can be found in Erie County as far as a total package is concerned.

Is it true that the economic situation in NF is down? I've heard that there's no money in NF... how true is that?

The casino industry is helping the economy in NF NY recover. In August (most recent month available)there were more jobs in Niagara County than at any time since the State started keeping records. Erie County still has fewer jobs now than in 2001. NF itself is very poor but not nearly to the same degree as the city of Buffalo. According to the US Census Bureau the City of Buffalo is one of the five poorest cities in the United States.

Jerome, The onlt reason we had to and still have to boil OUR water is because of the power outage.

Electricity which was lost because of your geography, which causes your area to have poorer weather. NF, Lewiston and almost all of Niagara County that is more more that 4-5 miles from the Erie County line did not suffer from this storm. We have Erie County refugees staying with us right now as a matter of fact.

This weather scenario occurs storm after storm year after year. Why? Because west of Erie County is Lake Erie, west of Niagara County is Canada. Thus the prevailing westerlies cannot pick up moisture to dump on Niagara County. That is why on average Buffalo gets almost twice the snowfall of Lewiston and 10-12 more inches per year of total precipitation.

Here is an interesting tidbit - western Niagara County averages less snowfall per year than the suburbs of Boston, Mass. This is obviously not true of anywhere in Erie County.

Another weather tidbit- western Niagara County's average high temperature is on average 3-5 degrees higher that Buffalo's from May 1 through September 30th.

see below

Jerome, if I were you, I would always boil my water up there, or at least if your water in any way comes from the western part of the county. I have seen core samples taken from several creeks and the Power Authority reservoir and the amounts of heavy metals in the samples was far beyond safe levels. ..

Silly argument, all public drinking water has to pass the same US and NY State healt department tests for safety and must meet the same safety standards. Your comment simply does not hold water. BTW all of the drinking water in the Falls is taken upstream of the chemical plants.

Why is my comparison of Niagara unfair? The numbers speak for themselves. I did not mention that last week thee was a multiple gunshot shooting at 4 in the afternoon right outside of the Central Library in downtown Buffalo. This is something someone come in from outside the area should be aware of. This is also the type of thing that just does NOT happen anywhere in Niagara County including the Falls.
Wow, that's about the most naive thing I've ever heard.

I guess the Amish shootings mean nothing to you.

Go back to your little shell where nothing bad will ever happen.

Society in America is falling apart, it's been coming apart at the edges for decades now. All these recent crime waves are proof of that. Enjoy the ride.

And complaining about weather? Gimme a break.

Silly argument, all public drinking water has to pass the same US and NY State healt department tests for safety and must meet the same safety standards. Your comment simply does not hold water. BTW all of the drinking water in the Falls is taken upstream of the chemical plants.

Whatever you want to believe, I saw the core sample data that Buff State took out man, you think its fine, then whatever. It's bad stuff, and I'd say you are putting a little too much faith in governmental regulatory agencies.

Anyone here ever goto school in NF? I was in Westlane for 2 years, before I moved to sauga.

Guys, tell me abt this Chippewa street in NY. I used to hear about it alot on that one Buffalo radiostation, when I lived in NF (Can). I used to live on the outskirts of NF, and that area was also called Chippewa.

Whatever you want to believe, I saw the core sample data that Buff State took out man, you think its fine, then whatever. It's bad stuff, and I'd say you are putting a little too much faith in governmental regulatory agencies.

The point is, the water for drinking is taken upstream from the chemical plants not near the power authority where your samle came from, which is downstream from the chemical plants. There is no discernable difference in the water the Niagara County water authority pulls out of the river near Grand Island than where Buffalo pulls it's water out of the river. The chemical plants pollute the area north of the water intakes by about five miles, so unless the heavy metals can swim upstream against the Niagara's currents like salmon in mating season they are not an issue. You are grasping at straws my friend.:banned:

Wow, that's about the most naive thing I've ever heard.

I guess the Amish shootings mean nothing to you.

Go back to your little shell where nothing bad will ever happen.

Society in America is falling apart, it's been coming apart at the edges for decades now. All these recent crime waves are proof of that. Enjoy the ride.

And complaining about weather? Gimme a break.

Please post Erie County's and Niagara County's total crime rates by category for comparison.

You would think that this is one of those stupid vs threads rather than a development thread.

By the way NF water is pulled out of the river down stream of Buffalo...If that does not mean anything to you check out the recent stories about sewerage overflows a few weeks back in the Buff Snews,

Please post Erie County's and Niagara County's total crime rates by category for comparison.
Totally beside the point. Even if it weren't, let's compare relative population densities, assuming the assumption that crime increases with increasing density is a valid one.

What I was criticizing is the "it can't/won't happen here" attitude that you conveyed, whether or not that's what you intended to imply. If it happens in Amish country/Lancaster County, it damn well can happen in Niagara County, Orange County, Bronx County, Aroostook County, you name it. A very faulty attitude in today's day and age.

Where was Tim McVeigh from? Niagara County. Buffalo metro. Yes it can happen here and it will.

There is really no correlation between higher density and crime (except that you might be able to argue that if people are in a position to be in contact with each other more often things are more likely to happen...That would go for the good things as well as bad). There is a correlation between poverty and crime however (especially concentrated poverty). Our society has decided to concentrate most of the poverty in the inner city so that we can pretend it does not exist or that it is a problem for others (read those who live in the city) to solve.

What I was criticizing is the "it can't/won't happen here" attitude that you conveyed, whether or not that's what you intended to imply.

The fact is crime is far more prevelent in an ongoing basis in Erie County than in Niagara County. Can it happen here, sure it can. Population density means nothing when you are comparing crime rates as they are usually stated in per thousands of population. The fact is Niagara County has less crime than Erie County. If that is a concern for GMB then he should consider it. It is also true that crime in Erie County is far lower than in comparably sized areas of the US such as the following metros; Memphis, Richmond or New Orleans.

You know what guys? I learned a lot from your discussions. Where you guys graduated from? (hehehe). You're very, very knowledgeable when it comes to your own respective places. I noticed that "people of New York versus Jerome" (hehehe). Come on Jerome... fight... fight... fight (hehehe joke). The reason why i'm asking questions is to gather informations to know the advantages & disadvantages of living NF & Buffalo. After gathering info. then that's the time that i have to visit the place to see it for myself. Speaking of bridges crossing to canada, how many bridges are there & where is Peace bridge located? How can we get a pass to cross canada? As much as possible... i want the fastest way in crossing canada. Do you have tunnels there?

Erie County - Peace Bridge
Niagara - Rainbow Bridge, Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, Whirlpool Bridge (no waiting, pass only)

Whirlpool Info - http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/newsroom/release-communique/2004/0301ottawa-e.html

Do you have tunnels there?
Wow, you are an uneducated outsider! :)

Don't read into the whole Peace Bridge debacle, we can't even get an 80 year old, sorely over-capacity 3 lane dinosaur of a bridge replaced, and nobody else can build a bridge 'themselves' because of State Authority power plays. Welcome to NYS politics. We might have a tunnel by the time the human race has colonized deep space (or has obliterated itself, whichever comes first).

And to all of us, and this goes to myself as I am doubtlessly somewhat to blame, let's please can the turf wars.

Buffalonians seek refuge in Niagara Falls


Area untouched by storm is safe haven for those needing temporary homes

By BILL MICHELMORE
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/17/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - Nearly all of the 4,000 motel rooms in Niagara Falls were sold out over the weekend as Buffalo-area residents sought refuge in one of the closest places not hit by the storm.
"We sold 40 rooms in two hours on Friday," said Faye Lanaway, front desk manager at the 80-room Howard Johnson Closest to the Falls on Main Street.

Lanaway said 75 percent of the guests were from Buffalo and the suburbs, and many of those were utility repair workers and generator salesmen. An additional 29 cleanup workers checked in Monday for a two-week stay, she said.

The 88 rooms in the Howard Johnson Inn on Niagara Falls Boulevard at the I-190 were booked all weekend, said Philip Villella, the owner and vice president of the Niagara Falls Hotel and Motel Association.

The Bob Evans restaurant, next to the Howard Johnson, was packed for breakfast, lunch and dinner on both days. People waited 30 minutes for a meal they would normally get at family restaurants in their own neighborhoods. The Bob Evans in Amherst was without power for two days.

The storm left a 30-mile band of destruction, said Dave Sage of the National Weather Service, but spared the City of Niagara Falls.

Repair crews and tree removal workers who came from as far away as Rochester couldn't find rooms in Buffalo, Amherst and North Tonawanda - the three communities hardest hit and where most of them were needed.

Hundreds of bucket trucks and other utility repair vehicles were lined up Saturday in the Tops Market parking lot and other lots along in Niagara Falls, waiting to roll into action across the Erie County line.

Smaller motels farther away from the falls also found themselves putting "No Vacancy" signs in their windows - an unusual occurrence for October.

The influx of guests reportedly caused some jacked-up prices at some of the motels.

"Many places in Niagara Falls are gouging their guests," said Bernard Kabalan, owner of the B Cozy Motel at 1200 Niagara Falls Blvd. in North Tonawanda, where a room goes for $40. "When they saw prices of more than $100 for a motel room, they came to us."

Gas stations, supermarkets, pharmacies and liquor stores also benefited from shoppers fleeing their own Erie County neighborhoods. People were desperate for flashlights, batteries, candles and other emergency items, along with everyday goods such as milk, orange juice and bread.

The Rite Aid Pharmacy on Niagara Boulevard at 80th Street ran out of its weekend supply of milk early Saturday, a store spokesman said. The batteries and candles were selling like hotcakes, and the beer case was running low.

Vehicles were lined up for gas at the Sunoco station on the corner of Niagara Falls Boulevard and Military Road on Saturday and Sunday.

"We were slammed all weekend," said a manager whose name couldn't be used because of company policy. "We ran out of gas Sunday afternoon and had to call up the dealer."

Fuel for the body also became a necessity for storm-ravaged residents from Buffalo, Amherst and the Tonawandas.

Supermarket Liquors in the Mil-Pine Plaza at Military Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard did a roaring trade.

"Let me put it this way," said Linda Hardy, the manager: "We saw a lot of new faces."


e-mail:
bmichelmore@buffnews.com

Sargeantcm... thanks for calling me "uneducated outsider". Yeah I admit that i'm uneducated when it comes to your location, it's okey as long as i'm not uneducated when it comes to my profession. I'm just asking about the tunnel coz we do have one here in Michigan. I'm here in this thread coz I don't know nothing about your place & hoping that you guys could help me in deciding where to stay. I'm glad that there's a person like Jerome who was kind enough to give me some info. regarding NF & Buffalo. Anyway... thanks again guys & sorry for the hassle.

its all good gmb, everyones a little testy 'cuz they're buried in tree limbs.

^^ I meant "uneducated outsider" in jest, in light of his previous comment about our collective "local knowledge"; not to be demeaning.

Hence the smiley face!

Niagara helping out weather beaten Buffalonians - again!

Buffalonians seek refuge in Niagara Falls


Area untouched by storm is safe haven for those needing temporary homes

By BILL MICHELMORE
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/17/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - Nearly all of the 4,000 motel rooms in Niagara Falls were sold out over the weekend as Buffalo-area residents sought refuge in one of the closest places not hit by the storm.
"We sold 40 rooms in two hours on Friday," said Faye Lanaway, front desk manager at the 80-room Howard Johnson Closest to the Falls on Main Street.

Jerome, that's a real interesting take you had on this article. When I read it, I was thinking that Niagara Falls was the one who got the benefit from Buffalonians going to Niagara County and spending tens of thousand of dollars (or more) in their economy. But somehow you understood that Niagara Falls was helping out Buffalo and doing Buffalonians a favor by allowing them to rent rooms and spend money all over Niagara County.

Jerome, that's a real interesting take you had on this article. When I read it, I was thinking that Niagara Falls was the one who got the benefit from Buffalonians going to Niagara County and spending tens of thousand of dollars (or more) in their economy. But somehow you understood that Niagara Falls was helping out Buffalo and doing Buffalonians a favor by allowing them to rent rooms and spend money all over Niagara County.

I think that when Niagara is listed in the Buffalo News as a safe haven, by the author of the article, it implies that the Falls was enabling Erie County residents to do what they could not do at home, such as bathe or sleep in warmth. Niagara County residents benefit in many, many ways from the circumstances our chaotic neighbor, so terribly often, finds itself in, be they natural disasters like last week, or man made, like every other week.

Kudo's to those that made money off of our neighbors to the south - do you expect hotels and restaurants to give you free service because you live in a disaster area? :nono:

Plus do not forget all of those, like myself, that have taken in family members from the Erie County turmoil, for free.

As much as I hate the word, if this ain't "being provincial", I don't know what is.

Lest I ask - if Niagara County is so perfect, why is it too losing people? I wonder if the relationship between Niagara Cty and Mecklenburg Cty is as symbiotic.

If I'm living in Erie County and I'm going to leave on account of natural disasters and cold weather, I'll move to Florida. Well, on account of the latter anyways.

Please give up the turf war.

Kudo's to those that made money off of our neighbors to the south - do you expect hotels and restaurants to give you free service because you live in a disaster area? :nono:

No, I don't expect hotel/motel/inn keepers to give away rooms for free. But I also don't expect them to win any medals for making a buck off of desperate people and finally being able to fill up their substandard establishments.

You make it out like Howard Johnsons, Bob Evans Restaurant, Supermarket Liquors, and Rite Aide did some great humanitarian deed for the city of Buffalo. When, in fact, they were just open for business...and lucky to get it. The use of the phrase "safe haven" implies nothing except that people from Buffalo went up the Thruway to get out of the storm. Big deal.

Yeah, we've seen nothing "provincial" in any of these WNY forums before, have we? ;)

As much as I hate the word, if this ain't "being provincial", I don't know what is.

Lest I ask - if Niagara County is so perfect, why is it too losing people?

During the 90's Erie county lost nearly twenty thousand people or approximately 2 % of it's population while Niagara County loss less than one thousand whis is less than one half of one percent of it's population. Had the government adjusted the census as the democrats in Congress wanted the County would have actually seen a gain of 91 people during the decade. This was reported in the Buffalo News a few years back and I clipped out the article.

So you have Erie County with 4 times the population losing 20 times as many residents. Just keeping up with Niagara would have meant an additional 14,000 resident's in the 90;s alone. In fact if Erie County had followed the same population trends as Niagara County since 1970 it would still have well over one million people, instead of 925,000.

Guys, tell me abt this Chippewa street in NY. I used to hear about it alot on that one Buffalo radiostation, when I lived in NF (Can). I used to live on the outskirts of NF, and that area was also called Chippewa.

Chippewa Street in Buffalo, NY is the center of Buffalo's so-called "Entertainment District." It is loaded with bars and restaurants. It used to be primarily college bars that catered to SUNY Buffalo and Buff State students, as well as Buffalo's many other private colleges. That has caused some people, like myself, to refer to them as the show-me-your-tits bars. There were mainly frat guys and ginas hanging out there. Over the last few years, however, some more upscale, more mature, establishments have moved in. Papaya, The Chocolate Bar, Bacchus are all places that cater to an older, more sophisticated crowd. Regardless of your tastes, there are plenty of things to do and see on Chippewa. I think there were some photos posted in the Buffalo Development News thread. The streets are usually jammed late at night, especially on weekends.

During the 90's Erie county lost nearly twenty thousand people or approximately 2 % of it's population while Niagara County loss less than one thousand. Erie with 4 times the population lost 20 times as many residents. Just keeping up with Niagara would have meant an additional 14,000 resident's in the 90;s alone. In fact if Erie County had followed the same population trends as Niagara County since 1970 it would still have well over one million people, instead of 925,000.
We can argue orders of magnitude all day, the fact of the matter is it all boils down to the parentheses, negative sign, red ink, or whatever you feel most comfortable to use to denote a loss

No, I don't expect hotel/motel/inn keepers to give away rooms for free. But I also don't expect them to win any medals for making a buck off of desperate people and finally being able to fill up their substandard establishments.

You make it out like Howard Johnsons, Bob Evans Restaurant, Supermarket Liquors, and Rite Aide did some great humanitarian deed for the city of Buffalo. When, in fact, they were just open for business...and lucky to get it. The use of the phrase "safe haven" implies nothing except that people from Buffalo went up the Thruway to get out of the storm. Big deal.

Yeah, we've seen nothing "provincial" in any of these WNY forums before, have we? ;)

:dunno: No need to get bitter with us just because you happen to choose to live in a snow belt and we don't.

You guys are most certainly in a snow belt!

You guys are most certainly in a snow belt!

Actually no (with the possible exception of the area within 2 mile of the county line) we are not in a snow belt as defined by the weather service. Of course if you are comparing us to Alabama then yes we are.

:deadthrea Holy Bitchfest Batman!! God, ok, like we all live within like 25 miles of each other, so why don't we just drop the petty BS and live with the fact that nothing in Erie AND Niagara counties is perfect! Look, we all live where we want to live and we choose to live there for a reason. We are all entitled to our opinions, so lets drop the provincial crap and realize that we are all in it together to make this region a better place. Otherwise why don't we take this bitching over to the non-development thread and leave this thread to REAL development talk!

Niagara County residents benefit in many, many ways from the circumstances our chaotic neighbor, so terribly often, finds itself in, be they natural disasters like last week, or man made, like every other week.
Yeah, it's sooo bad, I don't know why I don't just move.

And Niagara County has never succumbed to man made disasters. Never the home of legendary corruption or the rape of local resources owned by the NYPA.

Apprently you've never seen the website Niagara Frontier Follies (http://lockport-ny.com/follies.htm). Some really goofy shit in there (directed at both counties fairly evenly). I happened across that site during my "cynical-in-denial" days after moving to NH, and sadly it still makes me laugh even after I've moved back. Though I've never taken the time to read the older editions linked at the bottom, but I'm sure they're just as good.

The slams on the County Sheriff are particularly humorous:

How to do less with more: Niagara County Sheriff's costs and size nearly double Erie County. According to a combination of government statistical reports, Niagara County's Sheriff's Department, with less population and fewer square miles to cover, has almost 50% more staffing and spends about 73% more money. A summary report published by the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin as part of a feature detailing costs of Sheriff's Departments across the State reveals the following comparisons:

Niagara County:
Population 216,194
Square Miles: 523
Budget: $19.8 million
Staff (F/T) 313
Sheriff's Salary $79,866

Eire County:
Population: 925,957
Square Miles: 1,045
Budget: $11.1-million
Staff: (F/T) 228
Sheriff's Salary $79,092

The report cites: NYS Association of Counties Salary Survey, US Census Population Estimates for July 1999, NYS Comptroller's Special Report on Municipal Affairs for New York State. (1/19/01)
Hopefully it's been reformed, but either way, it's high-larious.

Makes all our problems seem quite ridiculously simple, actually.

based on the tone of this thread there is very very little development to report in NF. I vote to close it down.

Of course there is the United Building. Isn't that a Buffalo developer doing that project?

based on the tone of this thread there is very very little development to report in NF. I vote to close it down.

Of course there is the United Building. Isn't that a Buffalo developer doing that project?

Why aren't you saying the same thing about the Buffalo thread? It has precious little development news lately either? Could it be that you don't like it when someone points out facts about your FORMER hometown that you don't like? Yes, we don't like the message so lets attack the messenger... how grammer scholl can you get?

WHEATFIELD: Subdivision plans changed

Wheatfield housing has neighbors worried about traffic, environmental impacts

By Eric DuVall
Niagara Gazette

WHEATFIELD — A handful of Ward Road residents got a chance to air concerns Monday over a proposed housing subdivision in their neighborhood.

The development, dubbed Brookfield because a small creek cuts it in half, would have room for 85 homes spanning two different zoning areas. Neighbors worried that traffic from two entrances to the development would make getting into their driveways difficult. They also expressed concerns over a drainage pond proposed for the northwest corner of the parcel, located about 30 feet from the closest neighbor’s property line.

Concerns over geese that frequently populate such ponds were expressed.

“I feel like we’re inconveniencing the neighbors that are already there,” said Denyse Kaiser, whose property is about 50 feet from the pond.

She also expressed concerns about the traffic.

“We’re never going to get out of our driveways,” she said. “It’s hard as it is.”

Town Supervisor Timothy Demler agreed with the traffic concerns, telling developer Gary DiMatteo of Rosal Development to switch plans to a single entrance off Ward Road. DiMatteo said his company had no problems, but their engineer Tim Arlington said the plans were drawn up using recommendations from the Bergholz fire chief, who preferred two roads to improve access.

DiMatteo expressed frustration over the conflicting messages from the town board and the planning board.

“We’re talking about safety when the fire chief says we want two roads,” he said. “We don’t want to be the bad guys here. You want one road? You got one road.”

Also, developers agreed to a 6-foot-tall fence to help keep the geese on the development’s side of the shared property line near the pond.

The public hearing was kept open to give residents the opportunity to review the altered plans. The matter will again be revisited a 7 p.m. Oct. 30 at a special meeting.

We can argue orders of magnitude all day, the fact of the matter is it all boils down to the parentheses, negative sign, red ink, or whatever you feel most comfortable to use to denote a loss

:doh: Magnitude makes all the difference in the world, If I had to lose a wallet, I would much rather lose one with $900 in it than one with $20,000. If you think it is all the same, just lost money, then fill up your wallet and c'mon over.

But we're not talking money. We're talking population in the fastest growing developed nation, a relatively unlimited resource as compared to money (for 99% of said population, anyways).

If the Bills lose a Super Bowl 20-19 because of a missed kick in a game by all rights they should have won, or get demolished 52-17 in another in which children picked from the parking lot could've played a better game, the fact of the matter is they still lost both.

Oh, come on now, you are really grasping at straws, the total magnitude makes all the difference in the world. A business in Niagara County has seen its market of potential customers go down by 900 during the 90's while his Erie County counterparts saw their customer base go down by almost 20,000. To say they are both in the same shape because both have less customers is just dumb. I would rather try to make a go of my business with 900 less customers than 20,000 less. So would anyone else in business if those are the two choices given. And that was just the 1990's. If you look at the trend since 1970 you will see that Erie County would now have 1,038,602 residents if it just kept pace with Niagara


Erie 1940 - 798,400
Erie 1970 - 1,113,500
Erie 2000 - 950,265

Growth 1940-2000 = 19.021%
Growth 1970-2000 = negative 14.667%

Niagara 1940 - 160,100
Niagara 1970 - 235,700
Niagara 2000 - 219,846

Growth 1940-2000 = 37.318%
Growth 1970-2000 = negative 6.72%

What the heck go bak 30 more years. If you extrapolate trends from the previous 30 years as well and apply Niagara County’s growth to Erie, then today Erie County would have 1,096,347 residents by 2000 some 146,082 more than the real census showed.
Are you really trying to suggest that Erie County would be no better off with that amount in 2000 than the 950,265 that were actually counted. I have read enough of your posts to know that you are not that naive. For more than 60 years now Erie County has been the lagging county in WNY. It’s growth in the growth decades has not only trailed Niagara County but the other six counties of WNY as well. And during the loss decades,Erie's losses have also far outpaced that of all the neighboring counties, on a percentage basis.

Why aren't you saying the same thing about the Buffalo thread? It has precious little development news lately either? Could it be that you don't like it when someone points out facts about your FORMER hometown that you don't like? Yes, we don't like the message so lets attack the messenger... how grammer scholl can you get?

Jerpme...That is your real name isn't it.

You have not told me anything I don't already know and actually there is a large ammount of development talk on the Buffalo thread. ( a big announcement due in this week as a matter of fact) What you don't have over there is someone constantly trying to turn it into a vs thread.

Actually I was not telling YOU anything. I would prefer if you did not even read my comments as you seem to be quite clueless on most things. If it offends you that someone thinks Niagara County is in better shape than Erie County and is a superior place to live then why bother reading this thread at all?

It was after all, Eerie county people that tried to hijack this thread by offering up lies to GMB when he merely asked for information on Niagara Falls. I will defend my county when others such as yourself try to imply that if you drink tap water in NF you are basically putting sewage in a glass. That is not true, you know it yet still you try to say it... why? Are you Erie County people (or EC wannabe's) that insecure about your lot in life? Perhaps you should direct your comments to your fellow Buffalonians and their seemingly endless disbelief that there are people who prefer Niagara over Erie. They are the most provincial people on this whole site.

They are probably one reason why Erie County is one of the fastest shrinking counties in the nation, people are trying to get away from the pompous Buffalo types that are too full of pride .... which is in large part unwarranted instead of trying to create progress.

Let's also not forget to throw into the equation:

Erie has the highest gross population and population density of the counties. While it may not explain the disparity in the 70-00 range, it's gross total was greater in the 40-70 range. A place isn't necessarily going to grow faster just because it's already bigger; the laws of gravity do not apply to population. It may happen that way, but you can't count on it because it's impossible to quantify.

Erie is also probably losing some amount of population to Niagara on the basis of Niagara's relative rurality and the national trend of exurban growth. If we're talking population growth as a region (which is ultimately what matters), this re-distribution of population is meaningless. And of more minimal effect, besides the City of Buffalo itself (whose decline is inexcusable), Erie County's predominant growth pattern always has and still continues to be northerly. Naturally this will (and is) spill(ing) into Niagara County. What are the numbers (at least 70-00) when excluding Pendleton, Wheatfield, and Town of Lockport south of the City proper?

I'm not saying this entirely counters your argument, but it most certainly would dampen it.

Now if NYS could get it's head on straight and foster some creative and competitive tourism in the Falls, I think there would be some more autonomy with a greater economic engine, much like NF ON.

It was after all, Eerie county people that tried to hijack this thread by offering up lies to GMB when he merely asked for information on Niagara Falls.
While I don't remember if he explicitly asked for info outside of NF, I believe that for a full analysis of anything you need to look at all the options, and with a huge chunk of Erie County within a mere 20 minutes range, I would say that's an option. Don't be the pot calling the kettle black.

As for lies, I didn't post any. I can gather from your time estimates, however, that when travelling from Lewiston to Toronto you drive 80 mph with no traffic, that I would say is more of a lie than anything on this thread (or at least incredibly ideal conditions).

Erie County's predominant growth pattern always has and still continues to be northerly. Naturally this will (and is) spill(ing) into Niagara County. What are the numbers (at least 70-00) when excluding Pendleton, Wheatfield, and Town of Lockport south of the City proper?.

Wheatfield is one of the fastest growing towns in New York State. Lewiston is also experiencing a rapid growth. Outside of the 3 cities I believe all of the towns in the county have grown.

I know that eastern Niagara County, including the following: Lockport, Town, Lockport, City, Somerset, Cambria, Pendleton, Royalton, Hartland, Middleport, Barker, Newfane; has grown in every decade since 1940 and has grown from 46,389 in 1940 to 68,935 in 1970 and 80,266 in 2000.

Now if NYS could get it's head on straight and foster some creative and competitive tourism in the Falls, I think there would be some more autonomy with a greater economic engine, much like NF ON.
If only.


As for lies, I didn't post any. I can gather from your time estimates, however, that when travelling from Lewiston to Toronto you drive 80 mph with no traffic, that I would say is more of a lie than anything on this thread (or at least incredibly ideal conditions).

I did not say you in particular lied unless you were one of the ones trying to say that the water here is unsafe for human consumption. That one is just lol absurd. In any event my cousin lives near hgwy 427 in Toronto and it is 68 miles from the bridge to her house. I frequently make that trip in an hour. I tend to go up on a Saturday morning and come back late on Saturday. Unless there is a problem with construction an hour is quite feasible. Traffic generally does run quite fast on the queen E.

Wheatfield is one of the fastest growing towns in New York State. Lewiston is also experiencing a rapid growth. Outside of the 3 cities I believe all of the towns in the county have grown.
Subtracting Buffalo proper, Erie County hasn't fared to badly itself, actually. Damn exurbs. I know Lancaster is quite high on the growth lists as well, and Amherst is still inching forward (despite approaching full build-out)

I know that eastern Niagara County, including the following: Lockport, Town, Lockport, City, Somerset, Cambria, Pendleton, Royalton, Hartland, Middleport, Barker, Newfane; has grown in every decade since 1940 and has grown from 46,389 in 1940 to 68,935 in 1970 and 80,266 in 2000.
Which is impressive considering the plight of small rural towns nationwide and in particular Upstate.

I did not say you in particular lied unless you were one of the ones trying to say that the water here is unsafe for human consumption. That one is just lol absurd. In any event my cousin lives near hgwy 427 in Toronto and it is 68 miles from the bridge to her house. I frequently make that trip in an hour. I tend to go up on a Saturday morning and come back late on Saturday. Unless there is a problem with construction an hour is quite feasible. Traffic generally does run quite fast on the queen E.
I wasn't saying expicitly you did, just need to cover my bases. And yes, QEW traffic can be agitating, Canadian drivers I notice tend to generally leave less space in front when they pass you, and it's particularly annoying on the Garden City Skyway IMO.

But, try driving around Boston. Before I moved away, I had thought Toronto was the world capital of bad drivers. God, now it's like comparing male mosquitos (all buzz but no bite) to killer bees!

Jerome... talking about hospital particularly NF Medical Center, how much do you think is the starting salaray rate of a registered nurse? I called the hospital but they don't give rates on the phone. Do you know any RN that works there? Is it true that the economic situation in NF is down? I've heard that there's no money in NF... how true is that?

Michigan. I'm here in this thread coz I don't know nothing about your place & hoping that you guys could help me in deciding where to stay. I'm glad that there's a person like Jerome who was kind enough to give me some info. regarding NF & Buffalo. Anyway... thanks again guys & sorry for the hassle.

I don't think anybody has awnsered gmb's questions about the starting salary rate of a registered nurse. No offence but you have someone looking at relocating to your area and the only one helping him out is Jerome. Who gives a shit who has the better place to live, give some insight into NF and Buffalo like gmb inquired about and then let him decide for himself.

Gmb where about's in Michigan are you from? It's funny people in the States leave the Niagara area to escape the snow, people in Canada come to the Niagara area to escape the snow...slight exageration!

Subtracting Buffalo proper, Erie County hasn't fared to badly itself, actually.

Seriously? Lackawanna down 5,000, Cheektowaga down 15-20,000, Tonawanda,Town down 35,000 etc.etc. The only significant growth area in Erie County are the towns to the immediate east of the Transit Road corridor.

Falls auto parts maker to expand

NCIDA on track to issue tax breaks

By Jill Terreri
Niagara Gazette

SANBORN — A Niagara Falls auto parts maker is planning a $700,000 expansion and has plans to add 15 jobs to its operation.

A representative from Tecmotiv, a company that leases space from Armand Cerrone, appeared before a committee of the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency on Wednesday and requested tax breaks.

The agency’s Project Review Committee gave approval to a standard 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement and exemptions on mortgage tax and sales taxes on the purchase of supplies for the new building for Armand Cerrone.

Tecmotiv, which makes parts for military vehicles, employs 29 people and leases 21,500 square-feet at 1500 James St. The company plans to add 15 jobs over the next three years and 10,000 square feet of additional warehouse and manufacturing space at its existing location.

The PILOT agreement will yield $152,800 in payments over 15 years and an increased payroll of $750,000 over three years. If the IDA board issues final approval to the request, Tecmotiv is expected to save $13,800 in real property taxes, $20,000 in sales taxes and $4,500 in mortgage taxes. The company leases space but pays property taxes, according to their application to the IDA.

Following a public hearing, the application must be reviewed by the agency’s board of directors before it can be awarded final approval.

The committee also conducted an executive session for one hour and 45 minutes to discuss expansion plans at AES Somerset and negotiations regarding Vantage Center, where the IDA’s offices are located.

Also Wednesday, the agency’s Finance Committee learned that the state is wiring the agency its share of the local share of slots revenue from the Seneca Niagara Casino from 2005. Agency principals weren’t sure on Wednesday how much that payment will be.

WHEATFIELD: Small business has healthy outlook

Started in the president’s basement, small business is story of hometown boys done good
By Eric DuVall
Niagara Gazette

WHEATFIELD — A decade ago, Robert Minicucci founded Health System Services in his basement.

After the local medical supply company he worked for was sold to a national competitor, he left its employ, but recalls not having much confidence in his fledgling solo effort.

“I thought I would get by for a year, pay the bills,” he said.

But the company grew, turning into a small business success story despite a community with serious economic concerns — even though only a handful of residents have even heard of the business. Its low profile is changing, though.

The heretofore unheralded success story had its coming out party Wednesday, celebrating a $350,000 expansion in the Town of Wheatfield. The new center, located on Williams Road next to The Summit in the old Oak Express store, houses a retail store for local customers and a distribution and warehouse for its 110 clients in 12 eastern states.

Health System Services sells health care equipment mainly to nursing homes, though they hope to capitalize on traffic from the town’s emerging “health care corridor” and several nearby senior housing complexes, Minicucci said.

A Lewiston native, Minicucci and longtime friend and collaborator Jeffrey Rose, the company’s vice president, said being Western New York natives made keeping their expanding business in the community a priority.

“We’re committed to Niagara Falls and Western New York,” Rose said. “We were going to stay here. It made a lot of sense, with the doctors offices and senior housing here.”

The company moved into its new 15,000-square-foot digs in September, celebrating its official grand opening Wednesday.

The deal came with the help of several people, the owners said. A deal with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency provided a measure of property tax relief through a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement. The company also took advantage of sales and mortgage tax exemptions, according to IDA Vice President Larry Witul. For the IDA, the deal helped ensure that the business, previously located in Niagara Falls, stayed in the area. That they provide a unique service by specializing in Medicare Part B billing, is also a plus.

The company checks with customers insurance to see first if any of their needed purchases are covered under Medicaid or private health insurance plans before selling the items in a traditional retail exchange.

“If you’ve ever looked at your BlueCross BlueShield bill you can almost see why you need an expert,” Witul joked.

The company, which started with four employees, now has 30 and plans for more in the near future. They have two other locations, one in Albany and one in Florida

Interesting tidbit from the Buffalo thread.




What a week.

Tuesday - Girlfriend misses the drive-by shooting in front of the library by 10 minutes. Later that night, have to take the cat to the emergency vet for a hypoglycemic episode (diabetic, well not any more she's been taken off the insulin - whippee!). Out $400. This carries into Wednesday.

Thursday night - Saturday (and in some respects ongoing) - 'Nuff said.(comment - weather problems I presume- jerome)Today - Grand Jury Summons. ARGHHH!!! And they don't even send it to the right address, it goes to my parents', an address where I have never officially resided!!!!!


It's a minor miracle I can live anywhere and be happy lol.

:gaah:

First phase of condos nearly sold

LOCKPORT - A spokesman for the company constructing a condominium project predicted Wednesday that the first phase of the project will soon be sold out.

Raab said: "We are deeply committed 100 percent to seeing the Victorian Village project to its completion. A number of units in our first phase are spoken for, and we will soon announce Phase One is sold out. We will shortly file with the [state] attorney general's office plans for Phase Two of the project."

The first phase of the planned 80-unit development on Park Lane Circle, called Victorian Village, is under way, with a cellar having been dug for the first four-unit building. The first phase will consist of 12 units to be completed sometime next year.

Raab said contractors were hoping to pour concrete for the cellar floor today.

I thought this was the Niagara Falls development thread.

Well I guess just as Walden Galleria expansion news and other Erie County news is relevant to the Buffalo thread the same should hold true for Niagara County news and the Niagara Falls thread. Each city is the hub for it's county. But then again you are always very provincial - if it ain't on Elmwood Rising it aint relevant...right sparky

BTW Mr in the loop - everyone on the Buffalo thread is still waiting for the really BIG announcement you promised would be released last week. Seems like you are just more hot air blowing in from the windy city. I suppose if you say it often enough then whenever their really is an anouncement you can pretend you knew about it ahead of time. Must make you feel real important.

Well I guess just as Walden Galleria expansion news and other Erie County news is relevant to the Buffalo thread the same should hold true for Niagara County news and the Niagara Falls thread. Each city is the hub for it's county. But then again you are always very provincial - if it ain't on Elmwood Rising it aint relevant...right sparky

BTW Mr in the loop - everyone on the Buffalo thread is still waiting for the really BIG announcement you promised would be released last week. Seems like you are just more hot air blowing in from the windy city. I suppose if you say it often enough then whenever their really is an anouncement you can pretend you knew about it ahead of time. Must make you feel real important.

Jerpme,

You are starting arguments in every thread you enter...What is your problem?...Just because I don't care about every Olive Garden and car dealership that opens in Weatfiled does not mean you have to constantly pick a fight with me...You should get clued into the tone of these pages...no one else here is interested in your stupid battles.

Why are you so arrogant to think that just because you are not interested in growth in Wheatfield that no one else is either? If you are only interested in what is going on in Buffalo then you should stick to that thread.

So where is you r big announcement? We are all waiting for it.

Why are you so arrogant to think that just because you are not interested in growth in Wheatfield that no one else is either? If you are only interested in what is going on in Buffalo then you should stick to that thread.

So where is you r big announcement? We are all waiting for it.

Jerpme,

No one is interested in Weatfield unless it is some really big project. Why don't you start a Weatfield thread and see who shows up



and maybe the big announcment was delayed by the storm. Do you think that is a possibility? Or maybe I was just yanking your chain......
Actually now that I look back I never said there would be a big announcement...I said there would be a big time developer in town...which there is and I said there was a lot of chatter about Bas pro which there was


Anyway like you said just ingnore my posts if you it makes you unhappy that I piss on crappy suburban development news...I am sorry I just don't get excited over the Chevy dealership expansion and the newest Walmart. Deal with it!

No one is interested in Weatfield
It w H e at f i e l d oh so worldly one. Once is a typo multiple times is just ignorance.

No one is interested in Weatfield
How nice it must be to be able to speak for everyone, you are awesome!!

and maybe the big announcment was delayed by the storm. Do you think that is a possibility? Or maybe I was just yanking your chain..

And maybe you are the single biggest blowhad to ever grace this site...what do I mean maybe, there is no doubt that you are.

How nice it must be to be able to speak for everyone, you are awesome!!



And maybe you are the single biggest blowhad to ever grace this site...what do I mean maybe, there is no doubt that you are.


Jerpme

Like I said, ignore my posts if they bother you and if you are going to focus on my typos I suggest you also take a look at your own as well....I will be looking for that Wheatfield thread.

Interesting tidbit from the Buffalo thread.
Actually, I just see the library shooting as another example of the rising of violence in the US, it just happened to happen here (things can happen anywhere, you'll remember, which is how I think this whole argument started). The fact that it was a couple of stupid teenagers merely reinforces my belief that things are only going to get worse, largely due to this latest generation of which the baby boomers (largely) have been too involved in their 'busy lifestyles' to rear properly. Enjoy the ride!

As for the weather, I've had power since 1:32 PM Saturday, and apart from having the day off on Monday (which was somewhat welcome), my life has been perfectly back to normal since. Apart from losing $25 in questionable groceries (we weren't sure they went bad, but erred on the side of caution), in the grand scheme all this storm did was provide me with a 4 day weekend. Oh, I had to listen to a Sabres game on the radio. Woe is me, but I survived. But thanks for asking!

Also, many thanks for troubling yourself by bringing a post out of the Buffalo thread (a non-development one, no less), to continue your foolish turf war of which I think everyone else had left for dead. Please don't tell us your motives were otherwise.

Lem'me guess - my cat wouldn't have needed ICU had I lived in Wheatfield?

You know what? I like grapes.

When do we get our avatars back?

Read the admin sticky at the top of the NE forum. You need to reselect or re-upload.

'Grassroots' effort saves Main Street building

By Joyce M. Miles / milesj@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

MIDDLEPORT — New life is being breathed into an old storefront rescued by its community.

The former Jones Hardware building, 17 Main St., has been sold to Middleport resident April Serianni, who plans to open a coffeehouse there by early 2008.

As she signed on the dotted line, Serianni helped write the final chapter of a little-engine-that-could story in the making for seven years.

In July 1999, fire devastated the roughly 140-year-old structure at 17 Main St. When the village hinted it should be demolished, residents banded together and formed Grassroots Middleport Inc. to oppose the move. The not-for-profit group ended up taking possession of the damaged structure — and taking on a daunting historic restoration.

The amateur preservationists determined they would turn the building over for use again someday, but only to the right person. The purchaser would have to want it for retail or commercial use, so that the work going into the project ultimately served a bigger purpose.

With the sale, “It finally got done,” Grassroots co-founder Anne Holahan says proudly. “Not one village tax dollar — or drop of sweat equity — was put into this. The people of Middleport did this.”

Grassroots is a loose-knit coalition of diverse people who contributed special skills and talents to the common goal of saving the building. Some members pursued grants, others organized private fundraisers and still others brandished the tools of their trades to pull off physical restoration.

Over time, the group raised more than $135,000 for the cause and attracted immeasurable in-kind support by artisans from Medina to Ransomville. Members paid special attention to the building’s facade, aiming to recover as much of its original 19th century state as possible.

Today the old green-painted front associated with Jones Hardware is gone and, in its place, a more historically-appropriate cream tone complements cleaned, repointed brick. Original design accents are back in a brick-red tone and old transom windows have been restored.

“The way it was fixed and finished is first-class,” Mayor Julie Maedl said. “It really sets an example for other building owners.”

Already Serianni has been at work sandblasting interior brick in the hopes she won’t have to cover too much of it with drywall. She’s elated with the potential she sees in the building’s two wide-open floors.

“It’s got a lot of character. It really lends itself to what I want,” she said.

It’s only a shell now, but Serianni can picture a cafe that’s elegant-yet-comfortable and welcoming to all walks. She’s planning coffee and espresso bars, light sandwich, bakery and ice cream service and a wireless Internet area.

“I want to have a good variety of stuff — everything to go along with a nice coffee shop and, hopefully, something nice for the boaters,” she said.

Serianni is considering the upper floor as a place for birthday parties, showers and other catered events. Emphatically, she says, the upper will not be restored as an apartment for rent.

It could be up to 18 months before Serianni posts an “open” sign, she said. A veteran state corrections officer, she’s enrolled in the Niagara County Microenterprise Program now while planning for her retirement in about four years.

“I’m not in any real, real hurry to open because of my job,” she said.

With the close of its first and only real estate deal, Grassroots Middleport Inc. is shutting down. The sale proceeds, about $15,000, will be turned over to the village in the form of a trust fund for Main and State street facade repairs, Holahan said.

At one point Holahan toyed with the idea of getting the group to rescue the old toll house northeast of the canal lift bridge. The private owner wanted too much money, however, and over time core members started moving on to other things.

“We did what we set out to do, so we’re closing the book,” Holahan said. “Everybody lived happily ever after.”



If only other governmental and non-profit groups would do the same when there job was done instead of becoming self-perpetuating system suckers, such as the TVA.

Outlet mall gets major makeover

New ownership group initiates $5 million renovations, predicts five new national tenants

By Eric DuVall
Niagara Gazette

TOWN OF NIAGARA — The newly renamed Fashion Outlet is getting a more fashionable makeover.

A spokesman for the mall’s owners said $5 million is being spent on facade renovations to the mall’s exterior along Military Road. Two large signs will be erected, one that is 60-feet-tall and will be visible to motorists on the 190. A second will increase visibility along Military.

Additionally, several video signs will be installed on the mall’s main entrance on Military Road.

“We are 80 percent completed after this week,” Mark Whelan, spokesman for Fashion Outlets, said. “If anyone hasn’t been out here in a while, they’re going to see a drastic change.”

Several million is also planned on interior renovations next year, she said.

Talisman Companies, LLC purchased the mall out of bankruptcy from its former ownership group last November. Whelan said they plan to follow the blueprint set by the company in Las Vegas, where they purchased a previously downtrodden shopping center and transformed it into one that attracted better tenants and, in turn, commanded higher rent.

The comparisons go beyond the superficial, Whelan said. The Las Vegas and Niagara Falls area sites are both heavily trafficked by tourists. Both were turned around from a previous ownership group. The Las Vegas Fashion Outlets center went from rent charges of $2.60 per square foot of retail space to $5.60.

“Talisman, that is what their niche is as a developer,” Whelan said. “We purchase property that have had challenges and put a very focused, professional, experienced team and combine a leasing and marketing focus, driven to make the center successful.”

While aesthetic renovations are helpful, at least one Canadian shopper said better stores are the key to attracting more shoppers. Avril Lister, a Toronto-area commercial real estate agent, still makes between four and five trips to the mall each year. She said that more high-level tenants are still needed, though.

“Other than the baby things, there’s not much to look at,” she said. “They need to get better brand names, otherwise people aren’t going to come down here.”

Lister’s wishes could be coming true, according to Whelan. She said the mall plans to announce “five new national tenants (who will be) with us before Christmas.”

That would increase the mall’s occupancy rate from its current 86 percent occupancy rate to over 90 percent, which is the ownership group’s goal for 2006.

A corresponding marketing and advertising plan is in the works to promote the mall’s new tenants and appearance.

“You’ll see more of that over the holidays,” she said. “As we focus on our merchandise, we’re looking to bring in Fashion Outlet quality tenants.”

Niagara Falls resident Paul Palumbo said the improvements are likely to help the mall attract more customers, though he added that adding more to the commercial appearance could be a detriment, as well.

“Everybody likes change,” he said of the renovations. “But I don’t know. It’s like the Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come, but too much of one thing can be overkill.”

What can Niagara Falls afford?

By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

Details of the city’s future spending came into focus Thursday as Mayor Vince Anello released a 10-year capital plan that would use slots revenue to pay for a new courthouse and would borrow up to $30 million to buy new equipment and upgrade infrastructure.

Anello said the plan would allow the city to do road and infrastructure repairs as it pays for a $42 million planned courthouse and police station on north Main Street.

Under the proposal, Anello estimates the city would have $9.45 million of the casino money left to spend on economic development projects through 2016.

“The fact is, this is a plan that is affordable,” Anello said.

Several members of the Niagara Falls City Council said they were pleased to see a breakdown of what will be available to the city during the next decade from the Seneca Niagara Casino.

“I doesn’t feel as gloomy as it had sounded two weeks ago,” Councilman Chris Robins said.

Anello has sent the plan to bond rating agencies that are currently reviewing the city’s financial shape. The decisions of those agencies could affect interest rates on bonds the city has already authorized.

“We’re actually in good shape from an investment point of view,” Anello said.

The 10-year projection was based on a conservative estimate that the slots revenue would increase 1 percent a year until 2016, said City Controller Maria Brown. Casino officials have estimated that the growth could be as high as 5 percent.

Under Anello’s capital plan, the city would borrow $3 million a year for 10 years to pay for city infrastructure, including roads. City leaders agreed in August to borrow $3 million to pay for parks, roads and equipment.

Anello said he believes the plan is positive news for the city because it shows it could pay back the city’s new debt and still have casino money left for economic development projects.

“Where does that become a problem when you borrow, borrow, borrow?” Robins asked.

Anello acknowledged that the borrowing would lock in future casino cash payments, but noted that the city is not locked in to borrowing $3 million a year.

He said the money would make up for years of neglect to Niagara Falls roads.

“Every time you borrow and you don’t want to raise taxes and you don’t have another revenue source, you’re scooping it away from casino money,” Brown warned the council.

The city has already committed some of its slots revenue for projects in Niagara Falls, including a local match for grants it has received for a proposed train station on Whirlpool Street and a plan by the Niagara Falls Housing Authority to replace the Center Court housing complex.

Anello’s proposal includes annual payments of up to $2.69 million a year to pay for a $42 million project to build a new courthouse and police station. City officials are still waiting for a private design team working on the building to finalize the cost and payment plan for the project.

“The reality is, we’re going to have to pay for this building,” Brown told the council. “Right now, today, the only revenue we’re aware of are casino funds.”

Anello described the 10-year capital plan as a “worst-case scenario.”

“The courthouse is an investment, but also an obligation that the city has to take on,” Anello said. “My aim is that it doesn’t cost more than it should.”

The state will reimburse the city for about a third of the interest costs on the court portion of the building.

Great news for Niagara County. For the first 9 months of 2006 employment within the county has averaged 106,400 up 800 from 115,600 in 2005. The average is the highest on record since the current system went into effect in the 1980’s and is quite remarkable considering the decline in employment at Delphi. Source: NYS Dept of Labor

Old Post Office has new owner set on its restoration
By THOMAS J. PROHASKA
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/23/2006

LOCKPORT - A Lockport native, now a used-car dealer in Phoenix, has purchased the Old Post Office and two other city buildings.
Steven Talarico also has the best chance to become landlord for the proposed Challenger Learning Center, which had been seeking space on the city's redeveloped Canal Street.

"This would be my dream, to have something to help children," said Talarico, reached last week on a hunting trip in Colorado. "The most important thing is that this Challenger Learning Center is built in Lockport."

Talarico said he bought the Old Post Office about two months ago, and also purchased a vacant stone church at Market and Vine streets and a house at High and Locust streets for his stepfather. Talarico said he will stay there when visiting his hometown.

Public records show he paid $300,000 for the Old Post Office, sold by Patrick and Michael George, and $28,000 for the former House of God Church. The house purchase has yet to close.

"I don't have any intentions other than preservation and restoration," he said. "The post office isn't a
moneymaker, that's for sure." But he said the current small business tenants there will not be evicted.

Talarico, who left Lockport in 1977, said he intends to put a new roof on the old church before deciding how to use it.

Kathy Michaels, a retired teacher who is leading the plan for the space flight simulator targeted at middle school students and tour groups, said the Old Post Office is a less expensive site, which also would be an easier fit for the simulator.

Ben Kendig, the Rochester developer to whom the city gave control of the Canal Street project, had given the Challenger board until Dec. 31 to come up with enough money to reserve a space in 57 Canal St., the largest of four buildings on the block.

The city bought them with state and federal aid, and they are currently being renovated into what the city hopes will be a thriving commercial district on the Erie Canal's banks.

Thomas W. O'Shea, a Challenger Center board member, said the Old Post Office "has some advantages, for sure. It's an existing building that can be occupied without a lot of work."

Michaels said the Old Post Office at East Avenue and Elm Street is "considerably cheaper." Also, it offers 15-foot ceilings, and 57 Canal has only 12-foot ceilings.

That's important because the spaceflight simulator, whose theme has been changed from a mission to Mars to a trip to Jupiter and Saturn, includes a 15-by-40-foot viewing screen. "It's like the bridge of the Enterprise," Michaels said, referring to the "Star Trek" spaceship.

"I'm sure [the Old Post Office] is cheaper. I can't just give this space away because I have a responsibility to the City of Lockport," Kendig said.

Common Council President John Lombardi III said, "It would have been great to have [the Challenger Center] on Canal Street, but as long as we have it in the City of Lockport, it's a real plus."

The Challenger Center would be part of a national chain named in memory of the seven astronauts killed in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

Redesigned subdivision wins approval but will face hearing
By THOMAS J. PROHASKA
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/23/2006

LOCKPORT - A proposed residential subdivision on Raymond Road won preliminary approval from the town Planning Board last week.
However, Chief Building Inspector Eugene Nenni said a public hearing will be held by the board Nov. 21 on the reconfigured plan.

Westcott Estates was redesigned after the board objected to several aspects of the original plan.

Its size was trimmed from 74 lots to 71, and the new map shows that none of the houses will have driveways onto Raymond Road. Instead, they all will exit onto roads within the subdivision. However, the subdivision road will connect to Raymond Road.

Also, the Zoning Board of Appeals has granted variances approving seven lots that have less road frontage than the town normally requires.

Another planned residential subdivision, the 34-lot Countryscape subdivision on Old Beattie Road near Town Hall, will be on hold pending review by the town attorney, Nenni said.

The board gave its approval to a NAPA Auto Parts store at 6015 S. Transit Road, after developer Glen Miller made some cosmetic alterations that the board accepted.

Some windows were added to the front of the store, and some of the gray concrete will be hidden by additional planting of shrubbery, Nenni said.

The board also received a proposal from landowner Thomas Dickey for a 13.6-acre parcel on Cambria-Lockport Townline Road, just north of Upper Mountain Road. It would be rezoned into a planned unit development to be called Lighthouse Corner Plaza, although a house on Upper Mountain Road would remain in place.

The first phase, according to the proposal, would include a new home with an attached garage and office, storage buildings of 6,000 and 10,000 square feet and four parking spaces. Future development would feature 20,000 square feet of office and retail space and 102 parking spaces.

Besides the rezoning, variances would be needed for setbacks, and the town would have to enforce architectural standards, according to a memo from the town's engineering firm, Wendel Duchscherer.

The board decided to waive a public hearing on a proposed 3,000-square-foot dentist's office on Snyder Drive, but Dr. Michael S. Dick would need some variances, Nenni said

Niagara outlets mall gets new name, five new tenants


530,000-square-foot mall was renamed Fashion Outlets Niagara Falls USA

By PAM KOWALIK and BILL MICHELMORE
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
10/23/2006

TOWN OF NIAGARA - The 24-year-old outlets mall on Military Road is undergoing a $12 million renovation that includes a new name, a new look and five new major tenants.
Now called Fashion Outlets Niagara Falls USA, the 530,000-square-foot mall has already brought in one new tenant - Lids, a family hat store owned by national retailer Hat World.

Lindt Chocolates will open in time for Christmas and three other stores are under construction, said Mary Whelan, general manager of the mall. Whelan is keeping their identities under her hat, but said they are national apparel companies with well-known names.

The mall has been repainted and some strip mall-type stores are being moved outside the center, Whelan said.

Casual Male Big & Tall, for example, which has been inside the mall for years, will be moved outside next spring, as the new owners separate value retailers like Big & Tall from high-end designers like Saks, which will stay inside the mall.

The strip tenants generally do better when they're outside the mall, Whelan said. Of the 150 stores in the mall, 27 are on the outside.

Previously known as Prime Outlets, and then Outlets at Niagara Falls, the mall was bought last year by Talisman Cos. of Coral Gables, Fla., for $62 million. The former owner, Prime Retail of Baltimore, had stopped making mortgage payments and the property was placed under the management of a court-appointed receiver.

Town Supervisor Steven C. Richards said the mall is assessed at $20 million.

The mall is already a magnet for many tourists, especially from Ontario, but Talisman is making a major push for more of that market.

"The potential is tremendous," Whelan said. "About 22 million visitors come to Niagara Falls every year and we want to tap into that customer base."

With that objective, Talisman has hired a tourism director, a position that has been vacant at the mall for the past 10 years.

Michael Hardy, originally from Rochester, has joined the mall staff after a stint in New York City, where he was vice president of tourism sales for Group Sales Box Office, the oldest and largest group ticketing outfit for Broadway tickets in the Big Apple.

As part of his job, Hardy, and Ann M. Ackerman, the mall's vice president of marketing, travel the nation and the world with Power Point presentations on Niagara Falls. They already have been to international tour operator trade shows in China and England.

"My goal is to get the message out that Fashion Outlets is a must-do stop, like seeing the falls, visiting the park and going to the casino," Hardy said. "The number one thing people do when they're on vacation is shop. We want to be a part of that."

In addition to the busloads of visitors who already come here from the Buffalo-Rochester-Toronto area, Hardy is going after foreign travelers.

Ackerman said the center was renamed to reflect its sister property, Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas, which also is owned by Talisman Cos.

The renovation now under way has received mixed reviews from store managers. Lisa Gordon, manager of KB Toy Outlet, said work outside of her store along the outside corridor hampered business last month. Crews recently installed a new facade on the mall near her store, but Gordon said they tried to do the best they could with the noise and lack of a proper store front.

Deanna Mills, store manager for Skechers, a shoe emporium, said the construction has hampered her business. There was until recently "a wall blocking the store from the rest of the world . . .," she said. "If you drove through the lot, you probably didn't see our store."

Joel Wagner of North Tonawanda said he believes the construction is necessary.

"I haven't been here in three years," he said on a recent visit. "It's fine. You've got to move forward. If it makes it easier for the customers, it is good."

LOCKPORT - A proposed residential subdivision on Raymond Road won preliminary approval from the town Planning Board last week.
However, Chief Building Inspector Eugene Nenni said a public hearing will be held by the board Nov. 21 on the reconfigured plan.

Westcott Estates was redesigned after the board objected to several aspects of the original plan.
Yeah, approved for like the 58th time. That subdivision is a pain in my ass. I was supposed to be doing the traffic study this summer before the plans got canned yet again...

NFTA, airlines keep discussing N.F. airport
Business First of Buffalo - 2:30 PM EDT Mondayby James FinkBusiness First
Chicago-based Festival Airlines is circling the Niagara Falls International Airport and may soon be landing there.

Officials from the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority confirmed they are negotiating with the fledgling commercial passenger carrier to begin service to Niagara Falls International Airport -- perhaps as soon as next year.

Festival Airlines has been scouting airports in both the U.S. and Canada as the company is eyeing Niagara Falls as one of its primary destinations. Festival flies a 200-passenger, 757 airplane. The company uses Chicago-Rockford International Airport as its main hub and has plans to fly into several Florida cities.

Festival is planning on running its service between May and October, according to William Vanecek, NFTA director of aviation.

Representatives from Festival Airlines met with tourism officials and political leaders in April to discuss their plans. Niagara Falls caught the company's eye for the vast number of tourists it attracts including 14 million annually on the Canadian side and 8 million in the U.S. Larry Lewin, a former Hyatt executive who is working with the airline as a consultant, is very familiar with the area having served as the immediate past president of Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara.

Festival is one of several airlines and air cargo companies looking at the under-utilized Niagara Falls International Airport for services and routes.

NFTA officials are also negotiating with Myrtle Beach Direct, an adjunct of Golf Holdings, that wants to run charter service between the airport and Myrtle Beach.

Niagara Falls is attractive to the company because of the large number of Canadians who vacation in and around Myrtle Beach. Because of the marked difference between flying out of Toronto or Hamilton and the Buffalo Niagara region, Canadians make up a larger number of passengers at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Canadian passengers account for approximately 20 percent of the airport's traffic count.

"There is an opportunity for Myrtle Beach Direct to bring some people back this way, too," Vanecek said. "So we could feel some impact here as well."

Landing either Festival or Myrtle Beach Direct could be one the final pieces the NFTA needs to secure the last bit of public-sector funding required for the proposed $23 million new passenger terminal at Niagara Falls International Airport. The project is about $4 million shy of its goal.

The Niagara Falls airport is also being considered by two new cargo services, Gemini Air Cargo, which is looking for an East Coast hub for its DC-10 service.

"Niagara Falls seems to fit their financial model," Vanecek said.

Also considering bringing service to the airport is Yangtze River Express, a Chinese-based air cargo company. Yangtze River Express is scouting East Coast locations for places to run direct cargo flights into Shanghai. The company currently does runs between Los Angeles International Airport and Shanghai.

The company flies 747 air cargo planes.

Yangtze River Express has narrowed its search to Niagara Falls and John F Kennedy International Airport in metropolitan New York.

"We're making our best case for them," Vanecek said.

NFTA is Ughhhhhhhh

Jerome how is the United Office building coming along, and when is it set for completion. Can't wait to see some lights on in that beautiful old building. And what is going on with the land that the Senecas purchased that used to be a waterpark, or for that matter anything else they have going on?

double post: this site drives me crazy!

New life for Olcott is goal


Businessman who has invested $750,000 hopes to return village to its former glory
By TERESA SHARP
NIAGARA CORRESPONDENT
10/24/2006

OLCOTT - A Rochester-area businessman hopes his estimated $750,000 investment in the future of a dilapidated neighborhood could be a catalyst in recapturing the past glory of this Lake Ontario hamlet.
Eugene Mazzola of Webster, who has owned an insurance business for 40 years, has purchased eight buildings on the corner block bordered by East Main, Lockport and Ontario streets. He envisions turning the site, which adjoins the Olcott Beach Carousel Park, into 19 shops and a food court, with a gazebo and public parking. In addition, Mazzola and a partner want to purchase the abandoned Olcott Fire Hall and convert it into an antique auto museum.

Mazzola figures he's already spent about half of the estimated $750,000 investment needed for this project on acquiring properties and beginning some restoration work.

He said his plans hinge on the state's approval of a portion of a $300 million Restore New York Communities Initiative grant from the Empire State Development Corp. to demolish or reconstruct a handful of derelict properties in Olcott.

The town is seeking $631,000 in state grant money.

"This is going to be fantastic," Mazzola said, "but we need the state grant so that we can keep the rent down on the shops. We want to rent these stores out for around $400 a month. We're looking at possibly a winery shop selling local wines, a candy shop, a cheese shop.

"This would give people jobs," he said. "We estimate up to 150 related and unrelated summer jobs for people, such as clerks or maintenance. Of course, everything is subject to town approval."

In addition, if the town wins the grant, Mazzola said he and Richard Signorelli are prepared to purchase the former Olcott Fire Hall on Lockport Street and turn the deteriorating 13,000-square-foot building into an antique car museum.

The town is seeking a $135,000 state grant to help with that project.

Newfane Town Supervisor Timothy R. Horanburg said it could be another two weeks before the town learns if it has received the state grant, under which the state would reimburse the town for 90 percent of the demolition or reconstruction costs for commercial or residential properties.

The town could use its Highway Department for its 10 percent contribution.

Horanburg remains optimistic. "It'll happen," he said.

Walking around the dilapidated buildings late last week, the supervisor added, "We're trying to change 30 years of bad habits. Good things will bring good things, but we need to play our role."

State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, said he traveled to Albany earlier this month specifically to plead the town's case, saying of the grant, "I've never seen anything like this."

The town held a public hearing last month on the grant proposal.

"Eighty-five people attended that hearing and there was not one negative comment," Horanburg said. "The people came across loud and clear that this is what they want."

Mazzola said, "The town has not kept up its zoning laws. Everybody is responsible to live like normal human beings. You look around and most people have beautiful places, but one out of 50 let them go and that's not right. The largest investment most people make is their home.

"This is probably the most speculative investment I've ever made because I have no control over whether we'll get this grant," said Mazzola, a former Monroe County legislator and Town of Irondequoit supervisor. "But I fell in love with this place three years ago when I first came here. The people here are wonderful. And the town government is interested in making things go here. Tim [Horanburg] convinced me the town is going to clean things up here."

Jerome how is the United Office building coming along, and when is it set for completion. Can't wait to see some lights on in that beautiful old building. And what is going on with the land that the Senecas purchased that used to be a waterpark, or for that matter anything else they have going on?

The United Office Building appears to be fully under construction based upon the activity I saw going on there on the 12th.

The Seneca's are said to be tweeking their plans for the Splash Park site and are still negotiating for the final parcels of their footprint. They have said that they plan to add two more hotels with a total of approximately 1,000 more rooms in addition to the 650 they already have. There are also prelininary plans for a family entertainment center (enclosed) as part of the total build out.

By the way here is a link to a rendering of the proposed new terminal for the Niagara Falls international Airport.

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/images_sizedimage_296214131/resources_photoview

I'm just asking about the tunnel coz we do have one here in Michigan. I'm here in this thread coz I don't know nothing about your place
Every once in a while there is talk about a tunnel between Buffalo and Ft Erie, but it's never taken too seriously. Since we have an expansion project (supposedly) in the works for the Buffalo Peace Bridge and 3 other bridges nearby in Niagara Falls, I don't think there's a real need for a tunnel.

I've also heard the excuse that a tunnel is much more expensive to build and takes up more land for the entrance and exit. But not sure how true that is. I'm curious if the Detroit/Windsor tunnel had similar issues... and while they chose to build a tunnel instead of a second bridge. (I know they're discussing a second bridge now, but I mean before they built the tunnel)

Guys, tell me abt this Chippewa street in NY. I used to hear about it alot on that one Buffalo radiostation, when I lived in NF (Can). I used to live on the outskirts of NF, and that area was also called Chippewa.
I think there is a spelling difference too... Chippewa vs. Chippawa in Ontario. Not positive on that.

Yeah, that's right. And Chippawa is an actual governmental entity (or used to be), right? Chippewa's just a street, nothing more. Though that's not to say they weren't originally named for similar reasons.

Chippewa is where the nightlife is in Buffalo. There are dozens & dozens of Bars, restaurants ,clubs, coffee shops, deli's, hotels, and a comedy club. Its more of a district because off of Chippewa the restaurants and clubs etc. continue on to other streets. Delaware ave is right off of Chippewa, there are even more restaurants and bars and shops on that street which leads to Allentown.Allentown is very artsy, and is full of culture and great architecture. There is also numerous place to eat, drink and shop. In the past 15 years Chippewa has totally been fixed up, it used to be very sketchy. Full of bums and prostitutes. Not anymore, it is full of life and entertainment. Hope this answers some questions gmb.

Also, Buffalo's Chippewa area has had two murders so far this year. The comedy club has closed as have several of the bars and restaurants including Flappys.

Of course, the pornographic book store is still open in the middle of the many post-teen bars. Most bars are still open, but to say that the area has been "totally fixed up" would stretch the imagination of even the most ardent Buffalo booster. A few are nice, most are decrepit college frat type hangouts, complete with plastic cups and sticky floors. At night when it's dark the area does not look too bad, but by day it still looks deserted and run down. There are a few nice places like the chocolate bar in the Hampton Hotel and Spot Coffee.

Sorry Jerome - your description of Chippewa St is very exaggerated and way off.

The street is in no way "rundown". Flappy's isn't even ON chippewa, it's on Delaware. And restaurants like Salsarita's, Papaya, Chocolate Bar, and Baccas have done a lot to bring non-frat boys back to the chip-strip.

By Jerome's description you'd swear nothing has changed in 20 years. For many people, nothing has. The Great Inertia.

He'll bash the city to no end when he perceives it to be in "competition" with something in Niagara County, otherwise he'll support it when he finds it convenient.

His self-serving prose (I'm not going to say provincial, I hate that word and everyone is to some degree) is as darn prediddilyictable as fprmer's tedious (both to type and to read) grammatical style.

Not to be a prude, but that adult book store is an embarrassment though. Right near the corner even. I know, they get fought everywhere and they gotta make money somehow. Just not in a location like that. Hopefully the Statler, Dulski and City Tower all live up to their billing (or even just half of it) and the residential influx should jack up the demand and something a bit more tasteful will replace it.

Time will tell.

The rest of downtown would do well to be more like Chippewa, IMO. I fail to see how 2 murders makes it a crime haven. Mix rap concerts (not so much the music as the types to attend them, though I don't care for the music myself, either) and guns elsewhere and I'd like to see what sort of result you'd expect. Certainly not an open-air lovefest. I keep saying, take notice at all the bizarre killings that are occuring all over the US, a great majority being in situations where someone gets the least bit antagonized and kills, be it guns, or more recently, vehicular. The days when people resolved their arguments via dialogue or even a fistfight are ending. We don't live in a bubble; these things are going to happen. Just wait until suicide bombings start showing up over here. Grim, I know, but I fear it's only a matter of time.

Anyways, seeing as this isn't even being compared to anything in the immediate vicinity of NF...

I am not saying Chippewa is not better than it was 20 years ago because it is. But to say it is "all fixed up" is totally incorrect. Look at the buildings there, very few have had any work done to them other than slapping a cheap sign up. Also I am not saying it is a crime mecca, but it's crime is increasing. Unless the City wakes up and nips this trend in the bud the young suburbanites who make it viable will go away. As many of the bar owners have stated in the Buffalo News, their business is not nearly as good now as it was 4 or 5 years ago. It is a trendy area that is nearing the end of it's life cycle. Unless new and different investments are made in the area it is in danger of returning to what it once was.

i think the focus of chippewa has shifted some in recent years though. there is more daytime traffic there than there was even five years ago(though not lively by any stretch). this is likely due to an increased number of restaurants and higher scale bars that cater to a much older, much wealthier crowd. take for example my father, who would never be caught dead in a college frat bar, has frequented chippewa in recent years as a diner.
furthermore, there have been increased crackdowns in the last couple years on bars that cater to the pre-21 crowd, which has always accounted for a significant portion of the bar business on chippewa.

just my take. i personally don't find chippewa that attractive. i think its better to try to incorporate small bar/nightclub sections into neighborhood commercial strips rather than a create a district with a very singular focus.
i will like chippewa more when it is better integrated with surrounding areas.

Flappy's isn't even ON chippewa, it's on Delaware.
My mistake the building that Flappy's was in, IS the corner building of Chippewa and Delaware. You are correct in that their door was a whopping 40-50 feet from Chippewa street. The buildings other storefront's closer to Chippewa contained the now closed music store/coffee shop, and the now closed comedy club.

and about chippewa becoming "what it once was".
i think thats a little far fetched.

if anything chippewa is becoming more like st. paul quarter in rochester. less lively as a nightime entertainment district but housing a much more diverse collection of tenants.

i think the focus of chippewa has shifted some in recent years though. there is more daytime traffic there than there was even five years ago(though not lively by any stretch). this is likely due to an increased number of restaurants and higher scale bars that cater to a much older, much wealthier crowd. take for example my father, who would never be caught dead in a college frat bar, has frequented chippewa in recent years as a diner.
furthermore, there have been increased crackdowns in the last couple years on bars that cater to the pre-21 crowd, which has always accounted for a significant portion of the bar business on chippewa.

just my take. i personally don't find chippewa that attractive. i think its better to try to incorporate small bar/nightclub sections into neighborhood commercial strips rather than a create a district with a very singular focus.
i will like chippewa more when it is better integrated with surrounding areas.

I could not agree with you more. It needs to get some retail in there. Things like a clothing store, jeweler, newstand/variety store, etc. Otherwise it will fade out again. That is why it was so disheartening to see the Calumet project fall apart. This street has the makings of being a good dense connecting street between Main and the new Delaware/Elmwood projects that are in the planning stages, but it appears to be heading in the wrong direction as of late.

My mistake the building that Flappy's was in, IS the corner building of Chippewa and Delaware. You are correct in that their door was a whopping 40-50 feet from Chippewa street. The buildings other storefront's closer to Chippewa contained the now closed music store/coffee shop, and the now closed comedy club.

the now closed music store/coffee shop?
if you mean "java records" then good fucking riddance.
that place was nothing but a front for an afterhours drug pit.
im not sure if thats the former business you refer to but thats what comes to my mind.

Chippewa Street is hardly abondoned during the daytime, as Jerome said. There is a High School (Emerson) on the Street that provides plenty of activity during business hours. It's not just the students and teachers, but the students also run a restaurant that is very popular with the downtown worker lunch crowd. Spot (on the corner of Chippewa and Delaware) and Starbucks across the street are constantly busy. A new hair salon is about to open there as well. Chez Anne, a successful and established business in Williamsville, is opening a second location there. Salsarita's and Subway, though not high end, also provide a lot of activity in the middle of the day. Don't forget there is a new office building currently under construction just up Delaware Avenue, which will bring hundreds of new employees to this area. And on Delaware, in the other direction, New Era Cap's Headquarters are under construction, which will include a museum and a retail shop. The Dulski Building is also about to undergo a trasnformation, complete with a new facade and hundreds of tenants.

Jerome, You think that the buildings on Chippewa have received no investment in terms of rennovation other than hanging signs on them? That's completely wrong. The building where the Hampton Inn underwent a complete rennovation. The building where Emerson High School is did so as well. Only about two years ago, the building's windows were just replaced and an addition was built on behind it. The building across from Emerson also just had windows replaced. The Calumet Building (which houses Bacchus and the Third Room) is already nice to look at. The buildings in the Chippewa District on Franklin (The Brownstone, Buffalo Chophouse, the Country Western Bar, Laughlins) have all undergone expensive rennovations. So what the hell are you talking about, Jerome? The entire City of Niagara Falls doesn't even have as many entertainment options as the ones I just listed here.

Anyone have some Niagara Falls dev news?

Chippewa Street is hardly abondoned during the daytime, as Jerome said.
I did not say that Veryprotourism did. I said it looks run down by the light of day.. and it does.

BTW - I would hope that the City of Buffalo population 275,000 has more entertainment options than Niagara Falls NY population 50,000.

Don't forget there is a new office building currently under construction just up Delaware Avenue, which will bring hundreds of new employees to this area. And on Delaware, in the other direction, New Era Cap's Headquarters are under construction, which will include a museum and a retail shop. The Dulski Building is also about to undergo a trasnformation, complete with a new facade and hundreds of tenants.


I don't think you can count those as I was severly chided for mentioning a restaurant (Flappy's) in building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa as being on Chippewa but with the entrance on Delaware.

I think all of the construction you mentioned is great. But I think it is noticable (as the Buffalo News has pointed out) that Chippewa is at a tipping point. There has been a well documented increase in violence in that area and the bar owners DO say that their business is down, by a not insignificant amount. The City needs to step and put a stop to that before the area gets back it's old reputation for being unsafe. If not, the undeniable progress made in the last ten years will be lost.

Future Shop Opens In Niagara Falls
Future Shop will be opening a new store in Niagara Falls, ON, and is celebrating with festivities all weekend, starting with a ribbon cutting ceremony with Mayor Ted Salci on Friday, October 20.

The new store, located at 7555 Montrose Rd., measures over 20,000 sq. ft., and will offer car audio install bays, DVD preview stations, and music listening stations. In-store computer technicians will also be on hand to assist customers with their PC concerns.

"We are thrilled to be extending the Future Shop experience to Niagara Falls, and believe that this new store will be a perfect fit for shoppers looking for the latest technology at the lowest price," commented Moe Amirie, Vice President and Business Group Leader for Future Shop. "We are confident that the expert service provided by the Future Shop team will be well received by Niagara Falls and we look forward to becoming a part of the community."

The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m., after which a $1,000 donation will be presented to a representative from the local Boys and Girls Club.

The first 100 people in line prior to store opening each day will receive a gift card for $5, $25, or $100. Customers will also have the opportunity to enter to win one of three XM Satellite Radio packages, consisting of a Pioneer Inno portable XM Satellite radio and three months of service. Gamers can test their Xbox 360 skills and enter to win one of the popular gaming consoles.

Celebrity appearances will include hockey legend and former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Wendel Clark, who will visit and sign autographs on Saturday, October 21 from 1-3:00 p.m.; and current Maple Leafs forward Darcy Tucker on the Sunday between 3 and 5:00 p.m.

FRIDAY THE 13th FINE FALL DAY IN FALLS
By Frank Thomas Croisdale
Friday the 13th brought the storm of the new millennium to Buffalo. The earliest October snowfall on record crashed down tree limbs that felled power lines, and drove the Queen City to its knees. The newscasters pleaded with folks everywhere in Western New York to just stay home, and Gov. Pataki flew in to declare the whole mess a state disaster emergency.



Anyone watching The Weather Channel might reasonably conclude that all points of Western New York were blanketed under two-plus feet of snow and that dealing with this disaster was a chore shared by everyone in the region. However, for most of Niagara County, Friday the 13th will go down as the storm that wasn't. It also will be remembered for the poor job the local television affiliates did in relaying accurate information concerning the storm's (non)impact on Niagara County.

Every man, woman and child on the Niagara Frontier has a story about how the storm affected them -- here's mine. Upon seeing weather reports on Thursday of what was headed our way, the wife and I decided to do a few winterizing chores that we'd put off the prior weekend as we'd enjoyed the 70-degree Indian summer. After storing the swings from the play-yard, placing the deck chairs in the shed and swapping the screens for windows in the storm doors, we went to bed that evening confident we were prepared for what was headed our way.

We awoke Friday morning to a landscape completely unchanged from the day before. There was not one flake of snow in the air or on the ground. The tree in our front yard, which we were certain would crack under any added weight and bring down the power lines, was gleefully intact. Not one political sign had blown over, and all of the Halloween decorations were still standing.

I was thinking the whole thing must have been a non-event when the wife drew my attention to the TV screen. As I looked at the blizzard-like scenes unfolding on the Zenith widescreen, I got a sense of what it must be like for folks holed up in a Third World five-star hotel when insurgents overtake the streets outside. I remember thinking that this can't possibly be happening here -- the view outside my window belying the one on my television screen. It would take some time, but I would eventually find out that it really wasn't happening here, in most of Niagara County, and that the talking heads on the TV had no clue as to where the end of the storm line really was.

This might be a good time in the story to attempt to pre-empt any nasty letters from readers in Erie County. Yes, I realize the rant that follows pales in comparison to what folks hit hardest by the storm have had to deal with the past few days. Yes, I have many relatives and friends who lost power and had to boil their drinking water. Yes, I understand that we in Niagara County were fortunate to have been spared the wrath of the storm. You have my sympathy and my respect for the way that you again demonstrated to the entire country how steadfastly Western New Yorkers brave natural disasters without blinking an eye.

That said, I still have major issues with the local news coverage of the storm and its aftermath.

Getting back to my Friday morning, after listing to Jodi Johnston and Pete Gallivan of Channel 2 tell me for the umpteenth time to "stay home," I began to have great doubts about my commute into the city. I live in Appleton and I work in Niagara Falls. My usual route into work is Route 18 West into Youngstown, then hop onto the Robert Moses Parkway and into the city. The live radar shot that the station kept running showed a clearing in the area where Appleton should be, but a huge snow-cloud cover right over Lockport. I imagined that Route 18, being right off Lake Ontario, must be a mess just west of my location. That thought was buttressed by Gallivan, who said something along the lines of "all of Western New York has been devastated by the storm, and no unnecessary travel is advised."

Compounding my personal drama was the fact that I had a very important meeting scheduled for that afternoon, one that might lead to a lucrative business deal in the near future. I called the office and was told that things were OK in the immediate vicinity. Now I was thinking about that big band over Lockport. Johnston was talking about folks who had been trapped in their cars overnight on the New York State Thruway. I could see myself in a similar predicament on Route 18.

The scroll at the bottom of the screen said that the Barker School District was closed for the day. Barker is just three miles from my home. Did they somehow get hit with the snow and we didn't? I remember thinking that it took nearly an hour for the full school closing scroll to go by on the screen. At that rate, a kid waiting to see if his school was closed might miss his bus anyway and be labeled as a truant.

Now some girl looking like she was doing a college internship was on Channel 2 showing camera shots of highways decimated by the storm. One of them was of the I-190. The coed stated that there were power lines down across all lanes. Much later, I would find out that she was strictly speaking of the southern corridor of the I-190, but at the time I imagined the Niagara Falls Boulevard and Porter/Packard Road exits backed up for miles with cars trying to avoid crackling live power lines.

I decided to try the radio for a different perspective. I tuned in WLVL out of Lockport to see if I could get a read on what was happening in the county seat. The first thing I heard was a joke-of-the-day segment. The joke was awful, but I took it as a good sign nonetheless, as I couldn't imagine anyone at Channel 2 segueing into anything humorous while in the middle of storm coverage. Next, WLVL ran a commercial for bear hunting -- you've gotta love the country. Finally, the host came back on and went into general banter on a bevy of subjects. Not one mention was made of the storm.

Back on Channel 2, Gallivan was relating for folks how he got stuck in the parking lot of the station and had to be shoveled out. Johnston chimed in that she stranded her husband's car in a snow bank and left it marooned there. I couldn't help but think they must not realize how disingenuous it is of them to tell other people not to risk driving to work when they've done just that. News flash to all local television media: News reader does not equal emergency personnel.

At that moment, I found myself in a true quandary as to what to do. I looked to the heavens for an answer, and as they've done so many times before, the heavens answered. The westward sky over Lake Ontario opened up, and a ray of sunshine burst through. I decided to take the ride to the Falls. I made sure that the car had a snowbrush and a shovel. As I left, I kissed my wife and promised her I'd turn around if things got bad.

The entire ride was as clear as a freshly Windexed mirror. I drove from one end of Niagara County to the other, and there wasn't a trace of snow anywhere. The trees were all standing erect, sporting a brilliant array of fall colors, and the county snowplows were nowhere to be seen.

A thought came to mind concerning Channel 2's coverage of the snow storm: All of that radar equipment should be thrown in the garbage.

At least five minutes of every half-hour newscast is devoted to looking at that radar and what it purports to tell us. If it can't tell that 90 percent of the area's second-largest county is untouched by a massive storm, what good is it, anyway?

History will judge the squall of Friday the 13th to be one of the costliest in the history of our region. For folks in Erie County, it will be a tragedy they won't soon forget. For most of the denizens of Niagara County, it will be remembered as an early Halloween fright that modern technology should have spared us.

Over the next few days, the local stations will all air promos congratulating themselves on being the first to report this or that concerning the storm. On behalf of the people of Niagara Falls and its surroundings, let me be the first to congratulate you on your coverage. For us, it turned out to be one big snow job.

I did not say that Veryprotourism did. I said it looks run down by the light of day.. and it does.

BTW - I would hope that the City of Buffalo population 275,000 has more entertainment options than Niagara Falls NY population 50,000.
I dunno, that's faulty logic. I'm sure Las Vegas had more to do than Buffalo 40-50 years ago when it started it's gambling industry, all with a far smaller population. What else you have around you as a tourist destination makes a big difference. On that note, I'm sure there's alot Niagara Falls, Ontario has that Toronto doesn't offer; or at least it can compete with Toronto despite the population disparity. Obviously I think it can be safely said that NFON beats Buffalo, despite a similar relative population (as NFNY, not Toronto obviously).

FRIDAY THE 13th FINE FALL DAY IN FALLS
Anyone watching The Weather Channel might reasonably conclude that all points of Western New York were blanketed under two-plus feet of snow and that dealing with this disaster was a chore shared by everyone in the region. However, for most of Niagara County, Friday the 13th will go down as the storm that wasn't. It also will be remembered for the poor job the local television affiliates did in relaying accurate information concerning the storm's (non)impact on Niagara County.
First of all, the Weather Channel sucks. I used to watch them every morning until about a month ago, I stopped because not only were they consistently wrong, they weren't even close.

Second, an area that got blasted is going to make a far more marketable story than an area that didn't. Maybe Nashville (or whatever other city experienced Katrina after landfall) should complain they haven't gotten the same coverage as New Orleans.

Obviously I think it can be safely said that NFON beats Buffalo, despite a similar relative population (as NFNY, not Toronto obviously).



True enough but then again you must remember that Ontario pours back almost all of their revenue from the parks and casinos back into NF Ontario while NY sucks out revenue not only from the Casino but also from the NF State Parks. Until this dynamic changes the NY side will have a difficult time catching up indeed.

The crux of the argument and the basis for my opposition to the Buffalo casino. I could give less than a shit about people pissing their money away gambling.

Not even a natural wonder can offset the damage done by inept governance. At least in a free country. That's a brainbuster if I've ever seen one.

I did not say that Veryprotourism did. I said it looks run down by the light of day.. and it does.

BTW - I would hope that the City of Buffalo population 275,000 has more entertainment options than Niagara Falls NY population 50,000.


Actuall being that NF is a tourist destination that draws millions I would think that It would have more than Buffalo.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sargeantcm
Obviously I think it can be safely said that NFON beats Buffalo, despite a similar relative population (as NFNY, not Toronto obviously).


True enough but then again you must remember that Ontario pours back almost all of their revenue from the parks and casinos back into NF Ontario while NY sucks out revenue not only from the Casino but also from the NF State Parks. Until this dynamic changes the NY side will have a difficult time catching up indeed.



The Niagara Parks Commission is a self-sustaining entity. They receive absolutely no government money. The City of Niagara Falls Ont. receives only, I believe, about $2million a year from casino revenue. The remaining hundreds of millions goes into the coffers of the Ontario Lottery Commission, never to be seen again.

Sounds similar to NYS, and I've heard that that region of Canada, anyways, at least used to be run very similarly, at least until about 10 or so years ago when they finally got their acts together. Anyways I don't think there's any comparing the successes of the two as they stand today.

At least yours goes into a lottery (not to mention at least you know where it goes). Ours probably gets lost in the vast reserves of pork and patronage money. I say probably, because probably nobody outside the "three men in the room" knows where it goes. Just another method of Albany to get their grubby hands on more money and then turn around and say "at least we didn't raise taxes". Bull. It's like a crack addiction.

The Niagara Parks Commission is a self-sustaining entity. They receive absolutely no government money. .
That is as it should be. On our side of the border unfortunately the large surpluses that the Niagara State Parks (upwards of $10 million per year) are sent off to Albany. If that money was kept by the local parks they too could create tourist amenities such as your Butterfly Conservatory. That money could and should be used to grow the tourism pie on this side of the border in a way to complement what is going on on your side.

Nah, Joe Bruno's pork funded pension is more important to us residents than tourism and marketing. They just don't understand why we don't see it that way.

The purported 'greatest' state, in the so-called 'greatest nation ever' can't even properly utilize a stinking natural wonder. Forget the fact that just about every major Upstate city has lost 33-50+% of their peak populations, or that it even stunted NYC's growth for a while - this is probably the most telling and continual reminder of the complete backwardness of the way Albany (mis)manages things.

Just be glad they got that damn highway off the Falls, at least... That must've taken an act of God.

That is as it should be. On our side of the border unfortunately the large surpluses that the Niagara State Parks (upwards of $10 million per year) are sent off to Albany. If that money was kept by the local parks they too could create tourist amenities such as your Butterfly Conservatory. That money could and should be used to grow the tourism pie on this side of the border in a way to complement what is going on on your side.

Yes, we are very lucky that people 120yrs ago had the forsight to create the Niagara Parks Commission, originally to protect the area from commercialism, even though they have now become a part of it in order to survive.
But the difference in the 2 cities, I have always thought, has a lot more to do with the physical makeup of the area than anything else. The Ontario side is on the outside part of the curve of the river and the NY side is on the inside, so our side has a great deal more area in which the Falls and river are viewable and therefore, more area to develop. Also, the natural escarpment that separates the park area from the commercial area provides a higher,and again, better view of the Falls. The large hotels have used this to great advantage by building right along the edge to offer the best views. On the NY side, there are precious few places that even large hotels could have similar views.
Hopefully, Seneca Casino and their ongoing projects will spawn further development. There is no doubt that more development on either side will help both sides in the future.

I agree with Drafty, I have always thought of Niagara as one entity. I always think in terms of what can both sides do to enhance their cities, therefore make it a better place to visit for everyone. This place called Niagara is one of the most unique places on earth it borders two countries, both cities share the same name and it shares one of the most powerful and beautiful natural wonders of the world. It celebrates holidays together with fireworks displays, and visitors pass through each other's cities with different vantage points to brag about. I love Niagara NY for it's raw and natural views while standing right next to the falls, that's where you really feel the power these Falls create. You can almost get a sense of what it would be like for a traveller two hundred years ago, lighting an evening fire while writing in a journal about this incredible waterfall in front of him. Buildings will come and go, but what people come to see is the same thing that has been rushing down a jaded cliff for thousands of years, and Ny State and Ontario can always lay claim to that.

. At night when it's dark the area does not look too bad, but by day it still looks deserted and run down. There are a few nice places like the chocolate bar in the Hampton Hotel and Spot Coffee.

there is more daytime traffic there than there was even five years ago(though not lively by any stretch).


I did not say that Veryprotourism did. I said it looks run down by the light of day.. and it does.

BTW - I would hope that the City of Buffalo population 275,000 has more entertainment options than Niagara Falls NY population 50,000.


note what i said, vs what jerome said. stop trying to pass your ignorance off on me assclown. you also said it is "deserted". i pointed out that daytime traffic has increased. if you go back and read my entire post you will find that i never suggested it was dead at anytime.
its clear that you haven't been there in years(i question when the last time you left niagara county was) and that i, ummm, well ,have.
jerome,when you say something, and everyone rightfully points out how stupid you are being, just be a man and admit that you are wrong.

Deserted and "Not lively by any stretch" are basically the same thingk. So what's your problemo. We are in agreement.

Face it Both Elmwood and Chippewa with their extensive empty storefronts (especially Elmwood) would not be considered premier streets in any similarly sized City that was thriving. They are only vibrant by Buffalo standards. Even then whenever there is a push to bring Elmwood up a notch it is beaten to a bloody pulp with lawsuits - hotel, gallery etc. etc.

Travel around the country once in a while, like I do, and you will quickly see that commercial districts in other cities even Cincy or Pittsburgh are much more vibrant than Elmwood or Chippewa.

^And here lies the problem^ All you guy's do is argue about the same things over and over, hell you even managed to chase away Gmb who was interested in moving to your "area." By the way in case you were too busy bickering, he stopped posting 5 pages ago and has probably reconsidered his future re-location. The rest of America likes to kick you guys while your down, why do you add fuel to the fire?

DING DING DING!!!

We have a winner!!!!

All hail the great buckster!!

:master: :master:

my apoligies for the name calling jerome, i was on a rampage that day.

yeah the argument is kind of petty. i guess its just a matter of interpretation.

by "not lively by any stretch" was to suggest that chippewa is not an active 24 hour neighborhood. however, at very least there is daytime traffic from the small number of residents and lunch/happy hour patrons.

to me "deserted" suggests that it is similar to cobblestone or the outer harbor.

New airline would like to use Falls airport


Festival Airlines plans flights to Orlando and Las Vegas, and will add the Caribbean and Mexico during winter

By SHARON LINSTEDT
News Staff Reporter
10/31/2006

The NFTA is pursuing several airlines to bring the nearly idle Niagara Falls airport back to life.

A Chicago-based "vacation" airline is eyeing the Niagara Falls International Airport as a 2007 destination.
Festival Airlines, a start-up carrier slated to take off later this year, is talking with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority about adding Niagara Falls to its flight roster.

"We're working hard to land regularly scheduled charter service to the Niagara Falls airport, and this is another strong lead," said NFTA Executive Director Lawrence M. Meckler.

"As we get closer and closer to building a new terminal, it's important that we have actual traffic to back up our passenger projections."

Festival Airlines representatives could not be reached to comment on their interest in Niagara Falls, but the airline is working with a consultant with personal knowledge of the Western New York and Southern Ontario tourism markets. Larry Lewin, a veteran Hyatt Gaming executive, had served as president of Niagara Casinos, the parent firm of Niagara Fallsview Casino and Casino Niagara, from July 2004 through August 2005.

Festival announced in March that its inaugural flights would depart the Chicago/Rockford International Airport, located approximately 85 miles northwest of Chicago in Rockford, Ill., late this year. The airline has yet to unveil details of its exact destinations in North and South America, but has said it plans to offer flights to Orlando and Las Vegas on a year-round basis, with additional trips to Florida, as well as the Caribbean and Mexico in the winter months.

The Festival Airlines Web site notes: "You probably won't find us flying to many of our destinations seven days a week. Instead, we intend to fly at the times when vacation travelers are on the go."

If the airline selects Niagara Falls as a destination, flights would likely be offered between May and October.

Williams Gateway Airport, in Mesa, Ariz., has confirmed it is talking with Festival about becoming a destination for future flights.

The airline has said tickets for its flight-only service will cost between $195 and $395 round trip. Prices for vacation packages will vary by destination, but Festival said it will keep costs low through strategic relationships with hotel and cruise line partners.

Festival plans to utilize a Florida-based fleet of 200-passenger Boeing 757s.

Meckler said Festival is one of several "strong leads" the NFTA is pursuing to bring the nearly idle Niagara Falls airport back to life.

"We have a number of good prospects for both passenger and cargo flights," Meckler said. "We're feeling very good about the chances of having a lot more activity in Niagara Falls in 2007."

The NFTA also is in talking with Myrtle Beach Direct, a charter service that specializes in golf vacations in Myrtle Beach, S.C., about offering flights here next year.

Two cargo handlers, Virginia-based Gemini Air Cargo and Yangtze River Express, headquartered in Shanghai, also are considering hubs at the Niagara Falls airfield.

Other active leads include Eurofly, an Italian airline that flies charters to Milan, and Martin Air, a Dutch cargo carrier.

The NFTA wants to construct a new $23 million terminal at the Niagara County airport as early as next year. The authority needs about $4 million more to make the project a reality.

Niagara powers profits, auditors agree


Lewiston plants keep authority in black

By JAMES HEANEY
News Staff Reporter
10/31/2006

Click to view larger picture

News file photo
Rep. Brian Higgins says findings bolster his case.

A state audit has confirmed that the Lewiston hydropower complex generates huge profits for the State Power Authority, including $166 million last year.
The findings by Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi underscore the importance of the Niagara Power Project to the authority's financial well-being.

The audit shows that without the project's earnings, the authority would have operated in the red in both 2004 and 2005. The same could be said of the hydropower plant on the St. Lawrence River near Massena, the authority's other major profit center, whose finances were not part of the study.

Also inferred from the audit is that the authority committed a small fraction of the Lewiston operation's profits to garner the support of local governments in its bid to extend its license to operate the two-plant hydropower complex. The deals with governments in Niagara and Erie counties would cost the authority slightly less than $5 million a year in present-day dollars.

The audit, released Monday, is the byproduct of a disagreement last year between Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and the power authority over how much money the Niagara Power Project makes. The dispute prompted Higgins to ask Hevesi to conduct the audit, which calculated profit figures without offering any opinion about their appropriateness or the manner in which the authority uses them.

Higgins contends the audit lends creedence to his claim that the authority is cheating the region out of the benefits of having the project located in its backyard.

"The audit confirms that Western New York and our natural resources are being used by the power authority to subsidize abuse and inefficiency statewide" he said.

The power authority had a different take on Hevesi's audit.

"The findings affirm [the power authority's] sound and responsible management of the Niagara Project. [the authority's] finances are an open record," the authority said in a statement.

The audit criticized the power authority for failing to make public, via annual financial statements, its internal figures on the revenues and expenses of each of the 17 electrical generating facilities it operates.

The audit notes that the law establishing the authority requires a "full and complete disclosure of all factors of cost in the transmission and distribution of power. However, detailed information on the fiscal impacts of various power projects is not currently provided."

The audit concluded that last year, the Lewiston complex cleared $165.8 million on revenues of $397.7 million. In 2004, its revenues exceeded expenses by $112.2 million.

The audit compared these profits against the authority's overall profits of $58.5 million last year and $82 million in 2004, after subtracting payments to the state treasury and several economic development projects.

The figures for the Niagara Power Project do not include a share of these costs.

In its official response to the audit, the authority told Hevesi's staff that the project's profits do not reflect historical trends and were higher than usual last year in part because of increased energy prices caused by Hurricane Katrina.

But past past audits by the comptroller have concluded the authority has long used the profits of the hydropower operations in Lewiston and Massena to subsidize losses elsewhere in the system.

Higgins said the audit's findings will help him press his case to keep more of the wealth generated at the Lewiston complex in the community.

His blistering attacks over the past two years generally have been regarded as a factor in the authority's raising its offer to Buffalo and Erie County, which would bring $279 million into the community over 50 years. That settlement has a value of about $90 million in present-day dollars.

Higgins said the profits disclosed in the audit show that settlement "is easily justifiable."

Next on Higgins' agenda: "A very significant block of cheap hydropower to give business that are here, and business we want here, to give Western New York a competitive advantage in the national and global economy."

The authority is seeking another 50-year license from the federal government to operate the Lewiston plants. To bolster its application, on which federal officials are expected to rule early next year, the authority has negotiated settlements with a number of local, state and federal governments and agencies, as well as other non-governmental entities.

These agreements essentially call for the authority to provide money and, in some cases, low-cost power, to offset the impacts of the complex, in exchange for support of the license application.

A coalition of seven municipalities and school districts in Niagara County negotiated the largest deal, which they have touted as worth up to $1.2 billion over 50 years. The value in present-day dollars, however, is about $146.5 million. In addition, the authority would sell coalition members an allocation of power at cost, allowing them to reduce their electricity expenditures but not costing the authority any out-of-pocket expenses.

The authority reached much smaller settlements with several other organizations, including Niagara University and the Tuscarora Nation.

PORTER: Canadian firm eyes residential development

Nearly 300 units part of early proposal

By Aaron Besecker
Niagara Gazette

PORTER — A Toronto development firm presented preliminary plans on Thursday to build 176 single-family homes and 100 town house units in a new development off Lower River Road just north of Joseph Davis State Park.

Members of the Town of Porter Planning Board told representatives of International Business Consortium Inc. their proposal may have to be scaled back somewhat, and will need to address numerous issues including traffic, drainage, fire department access, greenspace requirements and sewer system capacity.

The developers would also likely need a special use permit, and possibly a variance in order to build the multi-family homes, town officials said.

While none of the plans have been finalized on the developers’ end, their proposal for the 104-acre site may eventually include some type of community building, said Claudiu Murgan, the firm’s director.

The development may also include some type of structure along the riverfront, said the firm’s acquisition manager Craig Jasper.

The parcel, which has 340 feet of frontage on the Niagara River, is owned by Samuel J. Civiletto, Carolyn J. Grossman, Morree Levine, Donald H. Smith and Gordon F. Smith.

Murgan also said the firm is looking to acquire additional property near the current site, which sits between Collingwood Estates and Joseph Davis State Park abutting the Robert Moses Parkway.

Developers should expect around a yearlong process before building permits could be issued. Numerous town approvals and public hearings would be required before the project could receive final approval.

Planning Board member J. Anthony Collard said he had a “positive” feeling toward the proposal and it was just the start of a long road.

“We’re more than happy to work with you,” he told the developers.

Murgan asked board members what type of community they would like to see in that area. He was directed to the town’s Comprehensive Plan, a document meant to guide development within the town.

Members of the development firm, represented by attorney Tom Augello, said the decision has not yet been made on who would build the homes.

Project engineer Don Hoefler said whether the development was built in phases or all at once would depend on market conditions.

Town officials said some consideration should be given to building a north-south road connecting Blairville and Pletcher roads, a proposal that’s been discussed for years.

William Choboy, who served co-chair of the town’s Master Plan Committee, pointed to what he viewed as a deficiency in allotted lot coverage in the preliminary plans.

“I see a lot of houses, but I don’t see much greenspace,” Choboy said.

Representatives of the development firm said they considered Thursday’s discussion “informal,” and plan to come back with more specific plans.

Development of a preliminary and final site plan is required before any issues can be brought before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, said Robert Lannon, town engineer.

Site plan reviews would include environmental impact assessments, Lannon said.

DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT: Towers facade gets preliminary approval

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

The new owners of Urban Park Towers have partial city approval of a design to change the look of downtown’s most imposing structure.

The planning board on Monday accepted the concept by Tennessee-based Lawler-Wood Housing Corp. but wants the final say on precise colors selected to cover the institutional green of the 12-story structure.

The design, adapted from one originally conjured up by Lockport developer David Ulrich, aims to make the Towers “blend” more with its more historic neighbors. The first four and five floors of the structure will be refaced with synthetic stucco to resemble the dark beige stone work on the lower portion of the Bewley Building.

The rest of the structure will be painted a lighter beige tone, the original thought being that a neutral color would help the hulking structure turn somewhat “invisible” past the first few floors.

The fade concept drew criticism from planners who thought some embellishments were in order instead.

“The bottom is lovely but ... nobody’s paying attention to the top,” new board member Julie Muscato said. “When you’re driving into the city that’s what you’re going to see.”

Lawler-Wood Vice President Barry Brooke held his company’s ground, saying the design is already going to cost the company more than the $300,000 maximum it agreed to spend on facade repair in exchange for an updated payment-in-lieu-of-taxes from the City of Lockport.

Between architects’ fees, materials and labor, he said, the cost is now: “$320,000 plus. ... And the additional money is coming out of our pocket. We’re going to take the hit.”

Lawler-Wood at one point had hinted that the more it spent on facade work, the less money it would have to spend on apartment renovations, which include all new windows, new kitchen cabinets, new electrical wiring and a new fire alarm system. All those things will be done, Brooke said, and the facade repair cost is in addition.

The design aims to make the Towers look like three separate buildings. Ornate reface will extend up five floors on the middle portion and four floors on the east and west wings; for additional contrast, windows in the middle refaced section will be block-style. The lower-level reface will “wrap around” the building’s east and west corners eight feet, Brooke said, and beige-tone paint will be added from there. Green canvas awnings will be placed along the building front.

The company does not intend to paint the back of the building, which faces the Erie Canal.

“We’re all out of money,” Brooke said.

Lawler-Wood purchased Urban Park Towers from Paul A. Burke this past summer in a package deal that included Niagara Towers and Tonawanda Towers, all for $26 million. Interior renovations are planned in all three structures but only Lockport’s Towers are getting a facelift in addition.

It’s a request, or demand, the company has never encountered before, a bemused Brooke observed.

“It certainly is out of the norm,” he said.

Construction will be done next spring and summer.

Contact Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.

Current View

http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/images_sizedimage_313213022/resources_photoview

Proposed makeover

http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/images_sizedimage_311001425/resources_photoview

Oh my...that sounds tacky. Fake historic rendered in Drivit. I hope this one does not happen. Do you have a picture of these towers.

Oh my...that sounds tacky. Fake historic rendered in Drivit. I hope this one does not happen. Do you have a picture of these towers.

For a photo of how they look now click on the first link above. They have to do something with the place as it is nothing but a concrete box now. There was some talk of putting retail on the first floor but it turned out to be cost prohibitive to retrofit the first floor for that purpose.

HUGE BLAZE: FIRE AT BARDEN HOMES WAREHOUSE

BY APRIL AMADON / amadona@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

MIDDLEPORT — An early-morning fire destroyed a major production site at Barden Homes on Tuesday.

Fire crews responded to Barden and Robeson Corp., 103 Kelly Ave., just before 4 a.m. and found the plant’s wall department, a building on the east side of the property, up in flames.

Middleport Fire Chief Matt Herriven said it took about two and a half hours to get the fire under control.

Fire crews from surrounding areas, including Hartland, Gasport, Terry’s Corners, Wolcottsville, Medina and Albion, responded to the scene to assist.

No one was inside the building at the time of the fire, and there were no injuries.

Plant Foreman Dan Wissinger said the fire has dealt a devastating blow to the company.

“It’s a big loss,” he said, “It’s the main part of the plant, actually.”

Based in Middleport, Barden and Robeson Corp. manufactures homes, churches and other commercial buildings. Wissinger said the building is where workers frame and build walls for building projects.

Barden was founded in 1909 as a wheel manufacturer and has been located in Middleport for the last 50 years.

Earlier this year, the company built a new 14,000 square-foot administrative building and announced plans to expand production.

Normally, eight to 10 people would work in the wall department building during the day, Wissinger said, but no one was there at the time of the fire because the plant was closed for the night.

“It’s a little upsetting,” he said, surveying the damage Tuesday morning. “It’s all just a little shell-shocked right now.”

Herriven said he knew the fire would be bad from the beginning.

“I pulled out of my driveway and saw the glow,” he said.

Steve Cooley, Middleport assistant fire chief, said the original call was for a possible model home fire.

“I was hoping it would be a small fire,” he said, though when he arrived on scene, “the flames were through the roof.”

“You really couldn’t tell which building was burning,” he added.

Between 80 and 100 firefighters were eventually on scene, with both aerial trucks and hand lines used to control the flames, Cooley said. One concern was making sure the fire didn’t spread to nearby propane tanks, so firefighters hosed the tanks down to ensure they stayed cool.

The metal roof dropped down in the center of the building, making it tough to fight the fire underneath, Cooley said.

Now, fire investigators are going through the rubble to try and determine what caused the fire.

“We’re letting them get in there and dig and sift and take pictures,” Cooley said.



Click link below to view video of the fire
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/local_story_311175538.html

Oh my...that sounds tacky. Fake historic rendered in Drivit. I hope this one does not happen. Do you have a picture of these towers.


tacky or not it will be a massive improvement over the current look.

tacky or not it will be a massive improvement over the current look.

I really don't think so

Falls flights taking off to Myrtle Beach

By Jill Terreri
Niagara Gazette

The first scheduled passenger service at the Niagara Falls airport in years is set to begin in March.

Lured by the many Western New Yorkers and Canadians who vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a start-up airline is planning to schedule two flights per week out of Niagara Falls International Airport.

The flights, which will last two hours and can hold 125 passengers, won’t only be a milestone for boosters of the Falls airport. They will also mark the only direct flights out of Western New York to the sandy destination, eliminating stopovers or a 14-hour drive for golfers, Spring Breakers and families.

Ed Warneck, president of Myrtle Beach Direct, called Western New York, Rochester and Southern Ontario “a very dense golf market.”

Myrtle Beach is home to at least 85 golf courses, and the airline is planning golf and entertainment packages for its customers.

“We feel there’s a large market to pull from,” said airline CEO Judy Tull, who noted that the flights will be competitively priced.

The airline is planning a public announcement on Tuesday at the Falls airport, in which they will say that the service will begin on March 7 and end on Nov. 1. Reservations will be accepted beginning Tuesday.

Officials with Myrtle Beach Direct said they recognize that Niagara Falls is growing as a tourist destination, one that South Carolinians are interested in visiting.

“In addition to seasonal trips to Myrtle Beach, they’re looking to sell destinations like Niagara Falls,” said Lawrence Meckler, Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority executive director.

The flights will be charters, but they will be open to the public, Meckler said.

The airline is also planning service between Myrtle Beach and Pittsburgh and Myrtle Beach and Newark, N.J.

The NFTA, which owns the Falls airport, is planning a $30 million makeover of the terminal and surrounding grounds at Porter and Williams roads.

Despite the fact that post-9/11 security requirements have made the terminal obsolete in many respects, Meckler said it is still functional.

“We’ll make sure this works,” he said. “Obviously, from our point of view, this is a big opportunity.”

I really don't think so

ummm steel are you serious?

Falls flights taking off to Myrtle Beach
About bloody time. Hopefully this will be a successful venture and be the jump start that airport appears to need.

ummm steel are you serious?


Very,

That reno looks silly

Very,

That reno looks silly

Slight improvement...but it still looks like it was imported from E. Berlin.
Buffalo has a few of these slab elder holders too. Sick.

I haven't been in downtown Niagara Falls in a few months. I'm dying to know if there has been any noticable progress on the United Building. When I was there last, I noticed that they had at least one of those orange(?) chutes attached to at least one of the upper windows, so obviously the demo work was underway. Are there any signs of progress? If anyone is in NF and could get some pics, that would be super cool. Also, Buffcity downtown Niagara Falls is only 20 to 25 minutes away from downtown Buffalo if you'd ever be interested in a field trip. Your pics never disappoint.

Also, what's going on with that occidental building, or whatever it's called. You know the one that looks like a flashcube. I love that building. If it was properly rennovated, it could look like a work of art. In fact, it reminds me of that mirror room in the Albright Knox Art Gallery. And it is certainly distinctive, and one of the first buildings you notice when you enter the USA from the Rainbow Bridge. Buffcity, am I enticing you enough to get some pics posted? :) Last I heard, this building was condemned, then reopened, or something.

Also, pictures of (and from) the Rainbow Bridge and the New York State Park would be awesome. And come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing some pics of my BF's home neighborhood, Devaux. That would help to dispell myths that there are no attractive places to live in the Falls. Devaux is full of mostly stately Colonial homes, and it's right along the Niagara gorge. It's as attractive as any neighborhood Buffalo has, except maybe Lincoln Pkwy and Chapin Pkwy near the art gallery and Delaware Park, yet most people from outside Niagara County don't even know that it exists. We almost moved there instead of buying our house in Buffalo's West Village, but decided against it because the city leadership is even worse than Buffalo's government, and if that doesn't change then property values are going to completely diminish. I guess it didn't seem like a good investment uder present circumstances. But I would move there (or buy a condo in the United Building) if things change.

This is sort of relavant to the Buffalo thread, since NF is really sort of a sibling city to Buffalo. They're very near each other, and after all, this is often called the "Buffalo Niagara Region." Do I gotta take up photography myself to get some pic on here? :)

Oh, I almost forgot. What's going on with that building that is (or was) a hotel near the United Building? It reminds me of Buffalo's Statler Tower. Does it have a name? I think this is a vintage pic of it:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ny/niagara/postcards/hniag.jpg

OK, I answered my own question. It's now a two-star Travelodge. How sad; what a fall from grace:

http://www.americatourist.com/ny/niagara_falls/fallsview_travelodge_hotel.shtml

It could surely be used for a higher porpose, a new grand hotel perhaps or condos. But something definitely closer to this image of Niagara Falls:

http://www.marilynmonroe.altervista.org/film/niagara1.jpg

Taking Flight? Old Post Office eyed for space center

A local committee has started on the road to raising the funds in order to bring a Challenger Center to Lockport.

The effort has a big supporter in Steven Talarico, a former Lockportian who bought the Historic Post Office on East Avenue recently and is working with the committee to possibly put the center there.

Challenger Centers are nationally sanctioned private education centers that focus attention on math, science and related careers through simulated space travel missions.

Talarico, who left Lockport in 1977 as a grade-schooler, is convinced his native city ought to have one.

“I’m open to whatever it takes to get it in (the post office), but it’s not about me. It’s about the town and getting the Challenger Center into Lockport, whether it’s in my building or not,” he says. “This is a terrific project and I am all for it.”

Talarico, an auto dealer who also restores classic cars in Phoenix, has lived most of his life in the U.S. west but he’s never forgotten his native Lockport. In visits with family still living in the area, he says he’s been struck by the city’s growth potential — and awed by its architectural heritage. So much so, in fact, he bought the old post office — and the House of God Church on Market Street — this past summer. Now he’s in the process of buying an old stone home at High and Locust streets.

“(The home) is just magnificent. They don’t have anything like that in Arizona — or anyplace else I’ve ever been,” he said.

Kathy Michaels, co-chairman of the Challenger Center committee, looked up Talarico not long after he’d completed the post office purchase. The committee had unveiled its Challenger aspirations back in February but without a home hadn’t been able to start fund-raising.

That changed after Talarico met with the committee — and buoyed members with an unexpected show of enthusiasm.

“He’s so thrilled about this project. He really wants it to happen,” Michaels said.

The sides haven’t struck a deal yet but according to Michaels, Talarico has given the committee a written proposal outlining what he’s prepared to offer in order to accommodate the center.

“Now we just have to nail down the details,” Michaels said. “I think it will be mutually beneficial. The site is an almost-perfect fit for our needs and our use would fit his vision for how the building ought to be used.”

The original suggested site for the Challenger Center of O.N.E. (Orleans, Niagara, Erie counties ), a city-held building on Canal Street, is no longer under consideration, according to Michaels. Fitting a building shell would likely cost the group an extra $600,000 to $700,000.

The Historic Post Office, on the other hand, already has 20-foot ceilings to accommodate space travel simulators and other rooms fit perfectly the center’s needs for offices, classrooms and, eventually, a planetarium. Relatively few physical changes would be needed, Michaels said.

“It’s a better fit. The city would still like us to be (on Canal Street) but renovation to fit our needs would just be very, very, very expensive.”

And trusting it is close to finally landing a site, the committee has gone ahead and kicked off its formal fundraising campaign. Public funding earmark requests have been submitted to state and federal lawmakers, for $500,000 a piece, and the center’s pitch is being rolled out to area corporations, charitable foundations and individuals.

The aerospace industry particularly is targeted for appeals, as well as charities like the Grigg-Lewis, Oishei and Niagara Area foundations, Michaels said.

“We’re building momentum at this point,” she said. “That’s the hard part.”

Construction won’t begin until the money is raised, according to Michaels. Opening would be 18 months after that.

Around the country, 52 Challenger Centers for Space Science Education have been formed with the permission of a national foundation formed in honor of the astronauts killed in the 1986 Challenger explosion. The centers’ overarching goal is to increase science literacy and interest among youths but they end up being attractions for adults too.


PHOTOS
Interior stairwell
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/images_sizedimage_313092929/resources_photoview


Interior lobby
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/images_sizedimage_313093002/resources_photoview

Exterior
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/images_sizedimage_313093045/resources_photoview