Niagara Falls Development News

[Jerome]

DOWNTOWN BUSINESS: Club coming to City Centre

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

An upscale restaurant/night club will be added to the tenants’ roster at Ulrich City Centre.

Peter Calieri, owner/operator of The Village Eatery, will open the club next spring, possibly as early as April. The yet-to-be-named establishment will be Calieri’s second enterprise in the city; the Village Eatery will remain in business on Davison Road.

The City Centre business will be “more of an adult night club because there’s nothing else like it in this town,” Calieri said. “Let’s fill a niche.”

Greater Lockport Development Corporation on Thursday approved a series of loans and grants to aid restaurant startup. The total package is worth $400,000, “and it’s personally guaranteed by Peter,” Mayor Michael Tucker said.

Considering Calieri’s excellent reputation, the restaurant/club plan gives champions of downtown something to cheer for, Tucker said.

“I’ve said for a while we need to have an entertainment district down here. This is a nice start,” he said. “It’s very exciting. We need a place like this.”

The new establishment will stand apart from the Village Eatery in several ways, according to Calieri. Cuisine style will be fine American, rather than Italian. Live music and potentially a dance floor are planned.

Attire and attitude will be “upscale, but still casual,” he said. “Nobody goes out in a jacket and tie anymore.”

There may also be some outdoor dining, according to City Centre developer David Ulrich. The club will be sited on Main Street just west of the complex’s arched center.

“This goes along with our plans to have a Friday in the Square at City Centre,” Ulrich said. “I hope it will be the impetus to bringing all of eastern Niagara County to happy hour downtown after work on Fridays. Let the good times roll.”

Calieri said the enterprise is “a project in excess of $500,000.”

The financial package approved by GLDC includes two loans worth $206,250 and two grants worth $143,750. Most of the money comes from a Governor’s Office of Small Cities award granted to the City of Lockport last year for aiding business startups in City Centre.

[Jerome]

BUSINESS: Family Video ready to move dirt

By Bill Wolcott/wolcottb@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Family Video is close to closing on property at the corner of East Avenue and Washburn Street and the country’s largest privately-owned video story chain plans to be ready to rent movies in Lockport early in 2007.

“They’re looking forward to us and we’re looking forward to being there,” Family Video regional manager Todd Bezenah said Saturday. “There are no problems. We’re in the closing stage with Sunoco.”

The permit has been ready at city hall since Sept. 20, but Sunoco still has title to the land. The state requires that the site of the former gas station be cleaned up as a safety measure. After that, the Family Video will own the property. The store should open about 30 days from closing.

“Sunoco has been great to deal with,” Bezenah said. “There have been no problems with the process.” The city Planning Board has approved the plan.

There will be no adult videos in Lockport, Tonawanda or Niagara Falls, according to Bezenah. Adult videos are available in other areas of the state.

“We welcome them to our city,” Mayor Michael Tucker said Saturday. “The ball’s really in their court. We can’t wait for them to move along.”

Family Video, which has 470 stores nationwide, plans to open a Niagara Falls store on Dec. 21 at 24th Street and Pine Avenue. The Lockport store will have about 11 employees, full-time and part-time.

“We own our land and own our property,” said Bezenah who lives in Rochester. “We invest in the community heavily on corners that need help.”

Family Video will have movies for $1 and $2 and offers free kids movies. “You don’t have to rent,” Bezenah said. “It’s just like the library.”

Family Video, which is the largest privately held video store chain in the United States, is currently expanding in New York state and Texas. The Video Movie Club was started by Charles Hoogland in 1978 and was one of first video rental stores in the country. Family Video employs over 4,000 people across 14 states.

Contact Bill Wolcott at 439-9222, Ext. 6246.

[Jerome]

Q&A: Consultant talks about developing airport, economy

BY Jill Terreri/terrerij@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

Patrick J. Whalen works with World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara, whose slogan is “Building Economic Vitality Through Global Trade.”

Whalen has become a subcontractor for Innova Consulting, a Baltimore-based aviation consultant hired by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to bring passenger flights and cargo airlines to Niagara Falls International Airport.

He talks about the Come to America trade initiative, which he started, as well as a way to overcome Western New York’s image problems and why cargo will help build the region’s economy.

•••

QUESTION: What are you doing to try to develop cargo at the airport?

ANSWER: What we’re doing is looking for freight forwarders, shippers and receivers in the area around the airport we consider to be local, which is about five states and southern Ontario and maybe even a part of Quebec. The area where we can generate air freight for the airport is pretty big.

Intercontinenal airlines, when they land in a gateway city, the stuff travels pretty far. International cargo airlines, when they land in JFK (in New York City) or O’Hare or LAX, stuff is trucked from there or is put on another domestic cargo carrier.

So, we have a pretty big area to work from.

•••

Q: Is the infrastructure there to support cargo?

A: The NFTA has given a contract to a group called Niagara Cargo Port. They have until a year from February to build a building to handle cargo. So, there will be.

There’s limited capabilities now.

•••

Q: What is the Come to America trade initiative?

A: It’s unincorporated. It’s kind of an idea. It was started by myself and a marketing guy named Bill McKibben. He talked to me about the Niagara Falls airport, saying that it’s an unused asset and we should be taking advantage of it.

We have everything we need here to be a first-class international trade port. In fact we already are a first-class international trade port. We’re the fourth-largest port of entry in the United States. There’s more licensed customs brokers in the port of Buffalo than in any other port.

We already handle tons and tons of goods. Thousands of transactions, thousands of trucks every day and we have all the infrastructure we need to handle that. If we had the Niagara Falls airport kicking in, we’d have all the things we need already to clear all the goods that come in on international flights.

All the customs brokers are here, all the trucks are here, all the freight forwarders are here. So we wouldn’t need to add all these things like some other communities might.

We produced a seven-minute video. We had hoped that we would turn over the video to the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise and the BNE would have a ready-made marketing campaign for off-shore companies that want to establish a foothold in North America.

The BNE took a pass on the video, took a pass on the whole idea of in-bound foreign investment and continued to focus on Fortune 500 companies and their site selectors. ...

I just think it’s a great idea. It’s a great idea that can move the area forward. I think small- to mid-sized companies from outside the United States don’t have any misconceptions about the area. They don’t know about the blizzard of ’77 and all the things that we all worry about.

It’s a difficult sell to sell somebody in San Diego on Buffalo. It’s hard.

•••

Q: Is it the rust-belt image or the weather?

A: Both. Lots of things. Just lots of image problems we have.

Plus, we don’t have a sustainable advantage. What do we have to sell to somebody in San Diego or Topeka? Maybe water. ...

We are already an international trade port. It’s just that we only do it for Canada. Why don’t we do it for the rest of the world?

•••

Q: What has Innova asked you to do?

A: Innova has great contacts for airlines, passenger and cargo. They’re working on the tourism industry and cargo. They’re contacting cargo airlines and we’re out talking to the shippers and receivers in that five-state, two-province area about the advantages of using the Niagara Falls airport. And hopefully, those people are going to the airlines and saying, have you ever thought about flying into Niagara Falls?

So we’re building awareness and we’re building a database ... of shippers and receivers in this area.

Innova also asked us to see what air freight there is in the region to fill the cargo planes for their return trip. We’ve got a lot of interest from local manufacturers.

The overall concept behind Come to America. It’s not to develop an intermodal yard, it’s not to develop an airport. It’s to develop our economy.

•••

Q: I think when people look at the cargo operation, they see the trucks and the buildings where the cargo is housed, but they don’t understand the spin-offs.

A: No, most people don’t. European shippers will need lawyers and accountants, payroll services and insurers. The list goes on and on and on. It’s what we need, companies that spin off other kinds of jobs. ...

NFTA Chairman Gregory Stamm is totally committed to making Niagara Falls a big airport.

The goal here is not to move things from Buffalo to Niagara Falls. We want to bring new business to Niagara Falls. We’re not talking about domestic air cargo here, because the domestic air cargo goes in and out of Buffalo. We want heavy air cargo flights to Niagara Falls.

I don’t blame people in Niagara Falls for being skeptical. It’s a tough sell.

Contact Jill Terreriat 282-2311, Ext. 2250.

[Spaulding97]

Any new news on the Oz theme park? last time i heard it was all funded.

[Jerome]

Crowne Plaza conversion complete in Falls
Business First of Buffalo - 4:44 PM EST Mondayby James FinkBusiness First
The $20 million conversion of the former Holiday Inn Select into a Crowne Plaza Hotel is complete for the downtown Niagara Falls property.

The Crowne Plaza nameplate officially goes on the 397-room, Third Street hotel Tuesday morning. The conversion began last year shortly after Phoenix-based Namwest LLC acquired the hotel. The hotel is third largest in the immediate Buffalo Niagara area.

The Crowne Plaza will be managed by Sentry Hospitality, the same firm that manages the neighboring Conference Center Niagara Falls.

Namwest literally renovated every room and suite, expanded the fitness center, rebuilt the lobby, refurbished the pool and added a Starbucks coffee shop.

"This outstanding property is a welcome addition to our portfolio of hotels in the Northeast," said Kevin Kowalski, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts North American vice president of brand management.

The renovations come on the heels of last year's opening of the 604-room hotel that accompanies the Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort, located one block away.

Combined both are expected to beef of the local tourism industry by giving Niagara Falls nearly 1,000 new or renovated hotel rooms during the past 12 months.

[bjfan82]

Originally Posted by Spaulding97

Any new news on the Oz theme park? last time i heard it was all funded.

I haven't heard in months...I'll check with my contact at URS tommorrow who is working on that project. He told me that we should've heard a "big announcement" back in August, but it never came.

[ECoastTransplant]

Originally Posted by bjfan82

I haven't heard in months...I'll check with my contact at URS tommorrow who is working on that project. He told me that we should've heard a "big announcement" back in August, but it never came.

Sounds like another Bass Pro.

[bjfan82]

Originally Posted by ECoastTransplant

Sounds like another Bass Pro.

I just sent an email over to a contact of mine I should hear something shortly. I know everyone was skeptical of this Oz thing at first, much like Bass Pro, but everyone I've talked to through the summer was extremely confident that this project was moving forward and that the money was there, so I guess we'll see.

[Jerome]

New development could revive Third Street

By Eric Duvall
Niagara Gazette

It’s not Chippewa, at least not yet.

While Third Street in the Falls comes up short of Buffalo’s popular entertainment district, a strip of bars and nightclubs turned weekend destination for young people across Western New York, several ongoing projects are aiming at some competition.

Plans for two separate bars are in the works on the 500 block of Third Street. A group of current Falls business owners announced plans for a wine bar to occupy a vacated deli on the street. The proposal was subsequently rewarded with $150,000 in assistance from USA Niagara, the state’s development office for Niagara Falls. The state also recently granted a liquor license to Louis Bax to open a bar called “Club New York” on the same block. Workers have begun putting hammer to nail at both sites.

Wine bar partner Shawn Weber said the old real estate maxim — location, location, location — helps his bid for opening a wine bar.

“It’s (the site’s) proximity to the casino and the falls and the tourist area,” Weber said. “It’s a nice location in regards to what’s going on with future development.”

Work at Weber’s site has been ongoing, the entrepreneur said, though he has seen some delays while a “technicality” in his private financing is worked out. Weber said he had to wait for the public money in order to approach private financiers with a specific plan and request. Roof repairs are slated for next week while the location’s interior is “gutted.”

“I’ve already spend about $20,000 inside,” he said.

The second plan, put forth by Joe Anderson, owner of the popular Smokin’ Joe’s Tuscarora chain of gas stations and smoke shops, calls for a new large-scale hotel. Anderson also owns the property for Club New York, where the planned hotel would be located. Anderson, who owns the Quality Inn on Rainbow Boulevard, said hotel rooms in the city are at a premium.

He cited conversations with those in charge of the convention center, who said they had to turn away a 3,000-person convention because of the lack of hotel space in the city.

It’s a situation that Anderson said needs to be addressed.

“Entrepreneurs better step up to the plate,” he said. “To me, that makes me sick. They weren’t even talking quality rooms, they’re just talking rooms.”

Conversations with three major hotel chains — the Hilton, Holiday Inn Select and Marriott hotel groups — have yielded interest, he said.

“Even if they run a small event, we’re out of rooms,” he said. “In the storm, we were putting people on roll outs. We just don’t have the rooms.”

If the project comes to fruition, any tenant, including Club New York, would have to be moved, with the stipulation built into the bar’s lease agreement, Anderson said.

He envisions a tall, “New Orleans-style” hotel, with balconies overlooking Third Street. He has had meetings with an architect who he is considering putting on retainer for the project.

“It’s kind of like an anchor,” he said. “That would create critical mass to bring Third Street alive.”

It’s a vision that Weber and his business partners share. When the wine bar is complete, along with the three newly-renovated apartments and an available commercial space, they hope they can bring some of the nightlife back to downtown Niagara Falls.

Weber’s partners, brothers John and David Giusianna, said people tend to flock together. The trick is getting the ball rolling.

The group is quick to point out that Chippewa in Buffalo arose from a shady “red light district.” Similar concerns over safety and overcoming a negative image were combated there.

“All of a sudden it just started to clean up,” John Giusianna said. “People said ‘it’s a red light district’ and ‘it’s not safe down there.’”

Brother John agreed, saying momentum is the biggest factor in building a downtown entertainment strip.

“It’s the funny thing about crowds,” David Giusianna said. “If you get a good one, a lot of people show up.”

[ECoastTransplant]

Originally Posted by Jerome

New development could revive Third Street

By Eric Duvall
Niagara Gazette

It’s not Chippewa, at least not yet.

While Third Street in the Falls comes up short of Buffalo’s popular entertainment district, a strip of bars and nightclubs turned weekend destination for young people across Western New York, several ongoing projects are aiming at some competition.

Plans for two separate bars are in the works on the 500 block of Third Street. A group of current Falls business owners announced plans for a wine bar to occupy a vacated deli on the street. The proposal was subsequently rewarded with $150,000 in assistance from USA Niagara, the state’s development office for Niagara Falls. The state also recently granted a liquor license to Louis Bax to open a bar called “Club New York” on the same block. Workers have begun putting hammer to nail at both sites.

Wine bar partner Shawn Weber said the old real estate maxim — location, location, location — helps his bid for opening a wine bar.

“It’s (the site’s) proximity to the casino and the falls and the tourist area,” Weber said. “It’s a nice location in regards to what’s going on with future development.”

Work at Weber’s site has been ongoing, the entrepreneur said, though he has seen some delays while a “technicality” in his private financing is worked out. Weber said he had to wait for the public money in order to approach private financiers with a specific plan and request. Roof repairs are slated for next week while the location’s interior is “gutted.”

“I’ve already spend about $20,000 inside,” he said.

The second plan, put forth by Joe Anderson, owner of the popular Smokin’ Joe’s Tuscarora chain of gas stations and smoke shops, calls for a new large-scale hotel. Anderson also owns the property for Club New York, where the planned hotel would be located. Anderson, who owns the Quality Inn on Rainbow Boulevard, said hotel rooms in the city are at a premium.

He cited conversations with those in charge of the convention center, who said they had to turn away a 3,000-person convention because of the lack of hotel space in the city.

It’s a situation that Anderson said needs to be addressed.

“Entrepreneurs better step up to the plate,” he said. “To me, that makes me sick. They weren’t even talking quality rooms, they’re just talking rooms.”

Conversations with three major hotel chains — the Hilton, Holiday Inn Select and Marriott hotel groups — have yielded interest, he said.

“Even if they run a small event, we’re out of rooms,” he said. “In the storm, we were putting people on roll outs. We just don’t have the rooms.”

If the project comes to fruition, any tenant, including Club New York, would have to be moved, with the stipulation built into the bar’s lease agreement, Anderson said.

He envisions a tall, “New Orleans-style” hotel, with balconies overlooking Third Street. He has had meetings with an architect who he is considering putting on retainer for the project.

“It’s kind of like an anchor,” he said. “That would create critical mass to bring Third Street alive.”

It’s a vision that Weber and his business partners share. When the wine bar is complete, along with the three newly-renovated apartments and an available commercial space, they hope they can bring some of the nightlife back to downtown Niagara Falls.

Weber’s partners, brothers John and David Giusianna, said people tend to flock together. The trick is getting the ball rolling.

The group is quick to point out that Chippewa in Buffalo arose from a shady “red light district.” Similar concerns over safety and overcoming a negative image were combated there.

“All of a sudden it just started to clean up,” John Giusianna said. “People said ‘it’s a red light district’ and ‘it’s not safe down there.’”

Brother John agreed, saying momentum is the biggest factor in building a downtown entertainment strip.

“It’s the funny thing about crowds,” David Giusianna said. “If you get a good one, a lot of people show up.”

Yah right....any day now.

[Jerome]

Delphi’s CHANGING faces: Newly hired Delphi permanent workers got early gift of job security


By April Amadon
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Heading into the Christmas season, things are a little brighter for some Delphi workers, after 900 temporary employees were granted permanent status.

Among them are a grandmother of seven who has now been granted job security. A mother of three young children went Christmas shopping without worrying about the family’s future finances. A young woman found a stable job that can keep her close to her family for years to come.

Delphi and the United Auto Workers International union agreed Nov. 21 to convert all temporary employees hired prior to that date to permanent status. Delphi’s Lockport plant employs 900 of those workers.

“It’s brightened their holidays,” UAW Local 686 Unit 1 President Paul Siejak said. “Now they are gaining seniority, and certain benefits that are now available to them.”

The news came after a tough year for Delphi. The company filed for bankruptcy in October, 2005, and since then, 21 of the company’s 29 plants have been identified for closure, consolidation or sale. When the restructuring plan was announced in March, the Lockport Thermal Systems plant was spared.

Siejak said the decision to make the new workers permanent is a positive thing for the union.

“They were pleased because our union brothers and sisters now have been converted to permanent status,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to move forward, and keep working, because right now we still have other issues that are before us. This is just one piece of the puzzle.”



‘Ask and you shall receive’

For Juanita Duncan, a grandmother of seven, the news offered her a second chance for a sound financial future.

Duncan was hired as a temporary employee at Delphi in August. With Thanksgiving coming, she said she was worried about taking the two days off, because she was not entitled to paid vacation time and couldn’t afford to have two days unpaid.

She spoke to her foreman at Delphi about her concerns.

“I was saying, ‘You gotta find me some work for that Thursday and Friday,’” she said.

Another worker approached her, smiling.

“She asked me why I wasn’t dancing with my Janet Jackson, which I play a lot,” Duncan said. “And I said, ‘Why?’ And she said, ‘Because you’re permanent!’”

The newly permanent employees will get four vacation days this year, Duncan said, including days off for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As the news spread that day, workers celebrated after the shift with drinks at The Ritts on Upper Mountain Road. Duncan said everyone was thrilled by the news.

“I was very happy about it,” she said. “One person came over and said, ‘Ask and you shall receive,’ because I kept talking about finding work on Thursday and Friday.”

Duncan lives in Cheektowaga with her husband, Robert. She has three children — ages 35, 34 and 25 — and seven grandchildren.

She graduated from high school in Buffalo and once worked at a Buffalo shelter for women and children, where she said she had an office of her own.

“I just do not like office jobs,” she said. “I’m a worker. I have to move.”

Duncan was told about the temporary job openings at Delphi by a friend. She was hired on Aug. 14.

At Delphi, she said she’s found job satisfaction in her position as a cell operator.

“It’s not just the money,” she said. “I’m happy about the job. I like the people I’m working with.”



New sense of security

Lisa Nelson, 27, a Town of Niagara mother of three, said the news that she was moving from temporary to permanent at Delphi was a total surprise.

“I felt better with my finances, like Christmas shopping,” she said “Like I could do everything without worrying. There was a security, knowing there was going to be a job here.”

The sense of security means a better Christmas for Nelson and her three kids — 6-year-old James, 3-year-old Malachi and 22-month-old Sam — as well as her husband, Michael.

Nelson just hit her 30 days at Delphi on Monday. She first interviewed for a temporary position in early fall, and had to wait six weeks before she knew whether she was hired or not.

She is a graduate of Starpoint High School and attended University of Buffalo and Niagara County Community College, studying to be an English teacher.

When she became a mother, however, her plans changed. She was a stay-at-home mom for two years, working part-time jobs on and off until the opportunity at Delphi came along.

So far, she said she’s enjoying her work.

“It’s a lot more interesting than I thought it would be, honestly,” she said. “I thought it was going to be mind-numbing, but I’m doing a lot more stuff. There’s like 10 steps to the job that I do, and I actually have to use my brain. There’s a lot more thinking involved. I’m not zoning out during the day.”

Now that she has permanent status, the future looks brighter for Nelson and her family and many more possibilities are now open to her.

“I want to see, with my education, if I can move up within the company,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”



A new family

When first hired, some temporary employees were nervous there would be a negative backlash from already-permanent employees.

Former temp Natalie Ficarra, 23, said that couldn’t be further from the case.

“I think something a lot of the new people were concerned about was how the older employees were going to take us, how they were going to accept us,” she said. “And actually, I know people were nervous about that, but they came with open arms. They were willing to train us. They were excited that we were there. I haven’t felt any negativity toward us at all.”

There was no indication the employees would become permanent before it happened, but Ficarra said she knew it was something union leaders were hoping to accomplish.

“There was a lot of push for it,” she said. “We could tell they were really working on our behalf.”

Ficarra was hired as a temporary employee on the same day as Duncan, Aug. 14.

A Wilson High School graduate, she joined the U.S. Air Force when she was 17 and lived in Hawaii for a year. When she came back home for her twin sister’s wedding, she decided to stay.

“I’d been away since I was 17, and I was around family for a couple of months and just got addicted to hanging around with my family,” she said. “I was supposed to go back to Hawaii, but then I just stayed. The job opportunity came open, I was like, ‘Well, if I’m going to be here, I’d better get a job!’

She’s since found an even bigger family at Delphi.

“All the new people that I’ve came in contact with, in our department, are friends,” she said. “We hang out after work. We hang out on the weekends. We just help each other out. It’s actually a quick family.”

When Ficarra learned she was moving from temporary to permanent, she felt like celebrating.

“I could relax,” she said. “I could have fun. I didn’t have to worry about trying to find something to do those two days (at Thanksgiving) to make up for the lost time at work. So I went shopping and I didn’t feel bad about it. I went Christmas shopping, and it was okay.”

[Jerome]

NIAGARA FALLS: Making the move to Main Street

By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

Craig Reinstein saw potential in a vacant office building on Main Street.

The physical therapist had outgrown the Third Street location where he started Advanced Care Physical Therapy seven years ago. He looked at sites in the towns of Niagara and Wheatfield, but wanted to stay within the city’s limits.

After buying the former Labor Ready building near Main Street and Elmwood Avenue and spending nearly $1 million to renovate the 10,000-square-foot facility, he expects to open the site next year. When complete, the building will have a suite of medical offices, physical therapy space and a fitness center with a pool.

“I see a lot of growth,” Reinstein said of the Main Street neighborhood and its potential to draw clients to the area. “We can offer a lot of services for people from all over — Wheatfield, Youngstown, Grand Island.”

Reinstein is one of a handful of local entrepreneurs bringing new investment to a neighborhood struggling to rebound. At least three of the projects are moving forward with little or no public dollars.

Across the street, in a former house now painted periwinkle blue, Debora Krieger has opened an independent coffee house in a three-story building that once housed Cactus Jack’s restaurant. A block away, a local family is working through the approval process to open a soul food restaurant.

Construction workers, new paint and coming-soon signs sprouting up amid the vacant store fronts and deteriorating buildings on Main Street are signs of new life in a neighborhood left behind by shopping malls and superstores.

“We’re going to have some choices on Main Street that we haven’t had in the past,” said Claudia Miller, president of the Main Street Business and Professional Association.

Miller believes the new businesses are a sign that another project meant to spur economic development — the $42 million planned city courthouse and police station — may have some success.

“We fought so hard to bring the courthouse, knowing that it was not a panacea. We didn’t expect it to be the answer to all of our problems,” Miller said.

Business pushes toward Main Street

Donna Portale is an associate broker for Realty USA who helped Reinstein find the site on Main Street more than a year ago when he was looking to expand. She sees a natural progression of development toward Main Street and Pine Avenue as businesses that are not tourism-related move from the direct vicinity of the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel.

That was the case for Reinstein, who has been renting space at the corner of Third and Falls streets for seven years since he started Advance Care Physical Therapy. During the last four years, the block has undergone extensive renovation as the Seneca Nation of Indians turned the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center into a glistening, 26-story hotel and casino directly across the street.

Two other businesses on Main Street have moved from downtown areas within walking distance of the casino to the North End within the last year. Krieger’s Bada Bean Cafe first opened on Niagara Street. She moved the business to Main Street this fall after buying a vacant building at the corner of Main Street and Elmwood Avenue.

Connie Hamilton, who operated Sass beauty salon on Third Street for years, moved to a north Main Street storefront last year to avoid the headache of extensive street construction near the casino. The renovated salon joined with the Haircut Warehouse barbershop to open a new location a block from where the city is planning to build the new courthouse.

Like Portale, the Main Street association’s neighborhood revitalization coordinator, Zach Casale, believes the new projects on Main Street are an outgrowth of other development in the city.

“Money goes where money’s spent,” Casale said. “Even with just having Starbucks down the road on Third Street, people start to pay attention to where corporations or chains are starting to spend money.”

New projects provide mix of development

Reinstein, the physical therapist, has a unique vision for Main Street. He is planning to create a “one-stop shop for health and fitness needs” that would provide physical programs tailored to the health needs of individual members.

He has had the inside of the former office site gutted and rebuilt, with room to lease two offices as medical suites. Behind the building, two houses have been torn down to add an indoor pool for physical therapy treatments.

Reinstein’s practice will also offer a golf clinic that will help players identify problems and improve their swings.

Aside from a façade grant from the city and state tax credits eligible to Main Street businesses, the project is being financed entirely through private investment.

A few blocks away, the non-profit Health Association of Niagara County Inc. is planning to expand its Main Street location by 2,500 square feet to accommodate a senior care center that focuses on helping elderly residents remain in their homes. The program, a $3.5 million joint venture with the Dale Association of Lockport, is expected to create up to 150 new jobs during the next five years at its two locations, including the Main Street site.

That emerging mix between public and private development — whether restaurants or health care centers — is the type of development Main Street supporters say they want for the area when the new courthouse and police station opens in 2009.

“With the fact that there will be construction and workers on the street, they’ll be some changes,” Miller said. “I think what we need to do is make sure that we are carefully involved in a planning process so that we don’t mess it up.”

[Jerome]

'Niagara Experience' project likely to gain ground with casino funds

Interactive attraction seen boosting tourism in Falls

By GAIL FRANKLIN
NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
12/21/2006

NIAGARA FALLS - The planned $92 million Niagara Experience Center museum could gain a lot of ground in the new year with casino revenues to pay for a new executive director, preconstruction work on an undisclosed site and development of how the region's story will be told.
USA Niagara Development Corp. recently approved a funding agreement with the nonprofit corporation spearheading the plan to build an interactive attraction that would be a regional boost for tourism.

It spells out how $3 million from 2004 and 2005 local casino slots revenues, given to the state agency but allocated specifically for the initiative, will be spent.

Until now, the effort has been maintained by a volunteer board and with the use of staff at USA Niagara, the state's development arm in the city. Employees there are working on a Web site and grant applications, among other things. "Having USA Niagara staff work on the project has been very, very helpful," said Paul C. Dyster, chairman of the Experience Center board. "But we're at a point now where we have the funding and we have to start weaning ourselves from using that staff for everything."

Dyster envisions hiring a full-time director, but said the board hasn't written a job announcement, or settled on duties, qualifications or salary. The agreement with USA Niagara transfers $100,000 to the board of directors of Niagara Experience Center Inc., immediately, with up to $50,000 of that available for a director search.

The rest of the money, after a spending plan is approved, can be used for consultants for preconstruction activities such as urban planning, environmental review and landscape design. An architect could be hired, and money will be available for legal, public relations and marketing firms to attract more funding and get the word out about why this is important for the region.

Board member Robert Shibley, of the University at Buffalo's Urban Design Project, explains there is a "hub and spokes" concept of its expected effect. The hub is Niagara Falls, where the region's stories will be interpreted, and the spokes are the significant historic and cultural places visitors will want to visit once they've learned about them at the museum.

The plan is to design an interpretive center attractive enough to draw the attention, and interest, of a sizable number of the millions of visitors to both sides of Niagara Falls.

There's still a lot of work to do before it's on firm financial footing, but the vision has gained enough backing that it now has the ability to take more concrete steps.

Besides the $3 million in casino revenue, Gov. George E. Pataki has committed $10 million in capital funding for the end of construction, and $145,000 was donated for start-up costs last year from the John R. Oishei and Margaret L. Wendt foundations.

The latter money was used on planners that have helped the board come up with a master schematic plan, which includes a preferred site. It has been made clear that the museum will be a 100,000-square-foot building located near the American Falls and Niagara Falls State Park. Until the master plan is approved by the board and released to the public, that's all they're saying.

Dyster said approval could come sometime between the next month and the next year, depending on how soon funding sources can be solidified. He wants to present the package to the public when it has the necessary backing.

In the meantime, Dyster said the board has met with federal lawmakers about gaining support and will soon meet with the new staff at Empire State Development Corp.

Gov.-elect Eliot L. Spitzer told The Buffalo News in September that he would continue with Pataki's precedent of making the project a priority.

"Niagara Falls needs some world-class attractions that will give people a reason to stay on the U.S. side once they have visited the state park," Spitzer said in an e-mail. "If elected governor, I would continue to work with USA Niagara and with the people of Niagara Falls to move this project forward."

Shibley said, "We're now demonstrating community support with the money that has got us this far. It's an ambitious project but it's one of those things that if you believe it won't happen, it won't, but if you do, it will happen."

[bjfan82]

I finally spoke to a guy yesterday that is working on the Land of Oz project...I wish I had something a little more substantial, but basically he just said it is hung up in "studies and negotiations" right now. Its not dead by any stretch of the imagination but not moving along as quickly as they would've hoped. This time he wasn't able to give me a timetable of when we should expect to hear something.

[Jerome]

NIAGARA FALLS: NFR redeveloping its deal

City is in talks to renegotiate agreement that outlines required development projects for South End
By Denise Jewell
Niagara Gazette

A private firm that was promised development rights to 142 acres of South End property under a deal with Niagara Falls is asking the city to renegotiate the agreement that sets out what projects it must build.

Niagara Falls Redevelopment has given city attorneys a proposed revision of its 2003 agreement with the city that would streamline the existing 18-page contract.

Damon DeCastro, the city’s acting corporation counsel, told the City Council on Monday that the law department is currently reviewing the document and may forward it to city lawmakers within a week.

DeCastro said after the meeting that the proposed contract is a “shorter agreement” that is “more concise” and “more specific.”

“It changes everything,” DeCastro said. He declined to release the proposal or discuss its specifics while it is under negotiation.

NFR attorney John Bartolomei confirmed Monday that the firm has proposed a new agreement. He said the changes would “simplify the remainder of the rights and obligations” in the document.

The proposed revision was submitted to the city as an April deadline for construction on a project at 10th and Falls streets approaches. A concrete foundation was poured in 2005 at the site, but construction has not moved forward.

Bartolomei contends the April deadline is an “outside date” that has been extended under the terms of NFR’s agreement with the city.

NFR’s history with the city dates back to 1997, when it first promised to develop about 140 acres of South End property between John B. Daly Boulevard, then known as Quay Street, and Portage Road. The agreement was renegotiated in 2003 as a settlement to a series of lawsuits between the city and NFR under then Mayor Irene Elia.

Under both contracts, the city agreed to use its power of eminent domain to acquire property for NFR. The firm promised to invest $110 million into developing the projects.

While construction on NFR’s land has not yet materialized, a representative for the firm said in 2005 that NFR and its affiliate companies had spent about $4.5 million to assemble parcels in the neighborhood.

Bartolomei said Monday the company has acquired 438 properties in the area and has another 38 under contract. The entire 142-acre block includes 518 properties, he said.

The firm is currently the largest taxpayer in the city and controls the former Nabisco plant and a vacant turtle-shaped building near Niagara Falls State Park.

Bartolomei said NFR intends to do what it has promised in the existing contract.

“This is kind of refreshing the agreement,” Bartolomei said.

He said the proposed revision would whittle the agreement down to about six or eight pages and would eliminate sections of the contract that have already been completed.

He expects NFR will do “considerable construction” in 2007, including demolishing and cleaning up 109 properties within the 142-acre block.

DeCastro said the city is interested in facilitating NFR’s development.

“We’re looking for construction to commence immediately to improve the area,” DeCastro said.

Last year, a company connected to NFR acquired a 13-acre swath of Department of Transportation surplus land that fronts John B. Daly Boulevard. The parcel had been described by NFR representatives as a critical component to connecting its land to property near the Seneca Niagara Casino and the Robert Moses Parkway.

The first project required under NFR’s agreement with the city had been delayed because neither the firm nor the city could acquire the DOT surplus land.

[ECoastTransplant]

Renegotiate? HAHAHA
Get the land speculators to sell and pack their bags.

[DomMich]

How are they going to screw NF now. They are just renegotiating because they had deadlines coming. As part of the renegotiation the dates will be changed I am sure.

[BuffCity]

sounds to me like some of these guys better eat some pasta and tell their cousins to shut up...Niagara Falls is soooooo backwards...makes Buffalo look ooooo oooooo good.

[ECoastTransplant]

New Niagara Falls (USA) Courthouse design:

[veryprotourism]

that courthouse design is far more ped-friendly than what i expected.

i mean, the front entrance really exits to the sidewalk as it appears?
quite a few windows too. for some reason i expected this thing to look like lockport city hall.