Niagara Falls Redevelopment presses on data center

(Editor’s note: The following was submitted by Niagara Falls Redevelopment regarding its planned data center on land near 10th and Falls Street adjacent to the casino. Mayor Robert Restaino in his weekly address last month via Youtube said taxpayers can expect a groundbreaking on his Centennial Park mixed use arena this spring or summer on the same site. Restaino has released no feasibility study or funding plan. The Express will continue to cover both sides and is skeptical about either ever being built.)

• New PUD Petition filed with the City of Niagara Falls Planning Board resolves all issues regarding completeness raised by City’s outside counsel in response to NFR’s October 2024, 500-page PUD submission
• Proposed amendment to Niagara Falls’ zoning would resolve city-wide issues related the 2022 High Energy Use Law (HEUL).

Niagara Falls, NY (May 20, 2025)—Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) today announced that it has filed two new documents with the City of Niagara Falls Planning Board in furtherance of its efforts to develop the $1.48 billion Data Center at Niagara Digital Campus project planned for approximately 53 acres in downtown Niagara Falls.

NFR has partnered on the project with Urbacon Data Centre Solutions, a Toronto-based developer of state-of-the art data centers. Among its accomplishments, Urbacon has developed award-winning data centers in other high-density, urban locations, including in Toronto and Montreal.

The new filings were made to the City Planning Board on May 14, 2025. NFR has requested that both the Petition and the Text Amendment Request be put on the schedule for the June 11, 2025, City Planning Board meeting for a required public hearing.

Separate Approaches to Moving the Niagara Digital Campus Forward

The first document filed by NFR is an updated planned unit development (PUD) Petition, pursuant to Section 1318 of the City Zoning Ordinance. The document answers all questions raised by counsel to the City of Niagara Falls related to the completeness of an earlier, 500-page PUD submission filed in October 2024, and – significantly – provides critical new noise data showing the Data Center will comply with the applicable standards.

The second filing is a “Text Amendment Request to Revise the City’s High Energy Use Law,” (HEUL), which was enacted in late 2022. The request for a text amendment is designed to provide the City Council with greater flexibility regarding the location of high energy uses and to address noise restrictions that have proven to be unattainable and problematic for City officials, businesses, and residents.

The HEUL filing notes, for example, a key issue that makes compliance with the 2022 ordinance an impossibility: even without any additional development on property currently zoned as residential, commercial, and downtown, noise studies commissioned by NFR show that ambient noise levels already exceed the limits imposed by the law. This has resulted in numerous lawsuits against the City of Niagara Falls by other parties, and highlights the arbitrary, duplicative, and unnecessarily restrictive noise controls under the HEUL.

The HEUL, it should be noted, was enacted after NFR and Urbacon began planning the Niagara Digital Campus for land it owns in Niagara Falls. It was also noted at the time to be a temporary solution that was to be revisited by the City Council.

Councilmember Zajac, in fact, stated this at the public hearing for the HEUL on September 6, 2022. Zajac said: “And, you know, is this Code perfect? Probably not. Will we go back to it and revisit it in a year or so? I would probably say most definitely, just to make some changes and try to make it even better. But I do think this is in the right direction to welcome an industry.”

He added: “To close, my last comment is that I do believe we have to make a full evaluation of this Code if it is approved within the next year with all parties involved, the industry, the administration, our residents, and see what needs to be tweaked on it.”

The full PUD Petition can be found on the Niagara digital campus website, here. The Text Amendment request can be found here.

“With each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that working cooperatively to make the Niagara Digital Campus a reality would be a game-changer for the City of Niagara Falls, its