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(Editor's note: The Buffalo News published this editorial earlier this week. It is reproduced here without permission because it reflects the opinion of the vast majority of people who live in Niagara Falls.)
Niagara Falls deserves a victory. It's time for do-nothing developer Howard Milstein to relinquish his hold over 12 acres in the heart of the city's downtown. Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino hopes to transform this land at the corner of John B. Daly Boulevard and Falls Street into a multiuse park.There is hope he can. After the city's Council voted in 2022 to initiate eminent domain proceedings, it has bested Milstein's Niagara Falls Redevelopment in court multiple times and the window for any more appeals has closed. The city can now complete its takeover by purchasing the property.
As reported by The News' Jonathan D. Epstein, there's now a question as to whether NFR ever owned the northern part of the land. Restaino says the city needed permission from the New York Legislature to sell the property, as it had been protected parkland.
Of course, NFR disputes this, and the Council has authorized the city to file additional legal action to resolve the dispute and establish ownership. In the meantime, the lower triangle of land can be valued and purchased by the city.
However it happens, both of these parcels should be returned to the city of Niagara Falls so that at least these 12 acres can be beautified and made useful. Restaino plans a multipurpose Centennial Park at this site. It would have an outdoor amphitheater, ice rink, indoor arena, adventure course and splash pads, among other amenities. There may even be a junior hockey league team ready to make its home at the facility.
Indeed, this sounds much like the ambitious projects proposed and never attempted by NFR over the years, except that the city's park idea, inspired by a well-conceived tourism master plan developed with help from Niagara University, is a serious effort to improve the Cataract City's offerings to tourists and residents.
If completed, the park would stand in stark contrast to the surrounding blocks of deteriorating blight NFR has owned for decades.
Anyone driving into the Falls from the Niagara Scenic Parkway has a rude awakening upon exiting the highway. On the left can be seen the Seneca Niagara Resort and Casino, surrounded by mostly empty land. On the right are empty blocks punctuated by boarded-up houses, a situation that increases after taking a right on Niagara Street. This is the 25-year legacy of NFR: empty promises, vacant lots and decrepit structures.
Elsewhere, closer to the Falls, NFR owns The Turtle/Native American Center for the Living Arts, at 25 Rainbow Blvd. This structure, founded by Indigenous artists in the late 70s, its original purpose of telling the story of Haudenosaunee culture shamefully disregarded by NFR, now lives under the threat of demolition.
NFR now says it wants to build a data center in the same spot as the proposed Centennial Park. In partnership with Canadian developer Urbacon, NFR would create the Niagara Digital Campus, which is to employ 500 people within its 600,000 square-foot facility.
Never mind that this part of Niagara Falls isn't zoned for such a purpose and that the area is surrounded by residential neighborhoods. Does anyone have any reason to believe that this data center will ever be built? Not really, given the history.
The city of Niagara Falls has done well in its battle to wrest even a small portion of land from NFR, which no longer deserves to own any property in this beleaguered municipality.
In recent years, New York State has done its part with park renovations, a new visitor's center and the Great Lakes 360 aquarium expansion. That good work can be augmented by the city – if Niagara Falls Redevelopment will finally get out of the way.
