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By Rob Creehan
Niagara Gazette
Stavatti Aerospace wants to use some of its 9400 Porter Road site grounds for another company to store cars, but the Niagara Town Planning Board isn’t having it.
The company, which designs prototype aircraft and hopes to get military contracts, had proposed leasing a portion of its 19.8 acres of property on the Niagara Falls International Airport grounds to DVS Corp., an Indianapolis-based company that claims to be North America’s largest registered importer of foreign cars. Its website claims it handled more than 650,000 cross-border transactions in its 22-year history.
They planned to use 3 acres of Stavatti land as a staging area for storing presold cars until they are cleared by U.S. customs, with another building used as their offices and for car inspections. Its other listed registered importer locations are in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Toledo, Ohio.
At its meeting earlier this month, the Town of Niagara Planning Board had recommended denying Stavatti’s site plan proposal, with town Supervisor Sylvia Virtuoso saying the property was initially approved for aerospace use, not car storage. The property is zoned for light industrial use, though the town zoning code does specifically say car storage is an allowed use.
John Simon, Stavatti’s chief strategic development and asset officer, told the Buffalo News that DVS had lost its previously planned space on Witmer Road because a neighbor wanted it. They then approached Stavatti, who still is not utilizing most of its space.
CEO Chris Beskar said they formed a new division called Stavatti Automotive in June for all of its planned automobile work, with DVS one of its partners due to planned international work. He added they plan to work with some foreign auto companies, like some in Germany, to make SUVs, sports cars, and sedans, claiming they will be designed and tested here.
“It would be unfortunate,” Beskar said Monday after hearing of the planning board’s denial, “I’d think they would want this auto and aerospace development. If not, we would just operate in another location.”
The Town of Niagara won an eviction proceeding against Stavatti this past December, claiming they allowed multiple unrelated businesses to operate there without town approvals. The company is also reportedly the subject of liens and lawsuits from five construction contractors for work done in 2021 and of a suit from investor Valentino Dimitrov in 2023 alleging fraud, racketeering, and breach of contract, accusing the company of being a Ponzi scheme, which the company has denied.
The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency had previously granted Stavatti, in October 2020 $2.15 million in tax incentives for a proposed $25.875 million project for its aircraft development, shortly before it acquired the property from the town. Those were pulled in March 2024 after a lack of progress at the site and using only $4,000 in incentives.
