An affiliate of a Syracuse company that once had plans to renovate and reopen The Hotel Niagara in downtown Niagara Falls has asked Niagara County’s lead economic development agency to assist in a renewed plan that seeks to finish the job that was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hotel Niagara Development, a subsidiary of Brine Wells, the firm that embarked on a plan to refurbish the hotel in 2018 before the pandemic set in, has submitted an application to the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency seeking $6.71 million to assist in what its application says will be a $43.95 million renovation of the property that, once completed, would create more than 67 full-time jobs over three years.
The 12-story building, located in the heart of the city on Rainbow Boulevard, is widely regarded as architecturally and historically significant, having once catered to several high-profile guests including Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. Opened in 1927, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2019, Brine Wells joined officials from the state-run downtown development agency, USA Niagara Development Corp., in a groundbreaking on what was then a plan to renovate and restore the property as a 160-room “upper scale hotel with restaurants, lounges and banquet facilities. USA Niagara, a subsidiary of the state’s lead economic development agency, Empire State Development, entered into an agreement with Brine Wells for the building’s restoration after acquiring the property in 2016 using $4.4 million in funding from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion initiative.
At the time, officials anticipated Brine Wells would secure state and federal historic preservation tax credits worth a projected $10.6 million for the project, which was touted being the “largest historic rehabilitation project ever in the City of Niagara Falls.” The hotel was originally expected to reopen in 2021, however, it stalled amid the economic downtown related to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
The Brine Wells affiliate is asking the county’s IDA to support the new $50.79 million redevelopment proposal with a total of $6.71 million in tax breaks, including a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, worth $4.38 million, $1.98 million in sales taxes on project-related purchases and $348,000 in mortgage-recording tax exemption.
Brine Wells previously sought and received NCIDA approval for tax breaks related to the original project in 2018. The company also received a series of extensions as it attempted to maintain bank financing for the redevelopment during the pandemic.