After more than two decades with little visible redevelopment on key parcels, some residents and public officials say they have lost faith in Niagara Falls Redevelopment’s ability to deliver on its long-promised projects.
Still, the company has had its share of supporters over the years and, in some circles, still does.
One of the main arguments made by those who have defended NFR revolves around a basic question: Why would billionaire investors spend millions of dollars acquiring and assembling land in a city just to let it lie fallow with little to no return to show for it?
Others believe some residents have forgotten about the condition of NFR’s development territory — a residential neighborhood bordered by John B. Daly and Rainbow boulevards, Niagara Street and Portage Road — before the company got there.
“Look at the history of this city,” Bruce Andrews, a real estate agent who has worked with NFR, told the Buffalo News in 2007. “Lots of other developers have come in, tried and failed. I think they have tried their darnedest to get people interested in the area. If anyone can get it done, they can.
“If the only thing they ever did was to purchase all these blighted properties and clear the sites for future development, that alone would be a huge public service,” Andrews added.
While the hotels and attractions envisioned by NFR’s original visionary Ed Cogan, never materialized, NFR officials consistently argue that the company has done other things to benefit the community since acquiring 140 acres of real estate off John B. Daly Boulevard.
For starters, they insist the development territory has been maintained under NFR’s watch and note that the company has always remained up-to-date on all property taxes. On its website, NFR boasts of having spent more than $116 million on acquiring and assembling “key” parcels in the city while contributing nearly $11.6 million in local school and property taxes.
Beyond basic obligations as property owners, NFR has also donated more than $1.4 million to the city school district and various local non-profit and community groups, such as the Niagara Street Business Association.
A recent example of NFR’s charitable support came last year when the company, led by long-time Executive Vice President Roger Trevino, joined with the local non-profit group, Niagara United Vision, Inc., to donate $7,500 in support of the Summer Enrichment Program. The donation helped provide educational, cultural and recreational opportunities to more than 75 children at the Doris W. Jones Family Resource Building in the city’s north end.
“Initiatives of this nature produce tangible benefits,” Trevino said at the time. “They foster constructive habits, encourage the development of friendships, and provide opportunities for mentorship. We are proud to support a program that contributes significantly to the well-being of our community.”
While some view the company’s charitable contributions as more like goodwill offerings designed to curry favor among the locals, others consider NFR’s assistance as genuine. They also say it is helpful in a poverty-stricken community like the Falls, where resources are often scarce.
Arlene Jackson-Doss, president and CEO of Niagara United Vision, Inc., said NFR’s contribution was one of many the company has made to various groups in recent years. She said the company also donated funds to support last year’s NAACP gala without much public fanfare.
“The bottom line is they really have put millions of dollars into our community,” she said.
The company itself never directly accepted credit for the visit; however, NFR representatives were intimately involved in what many consider one of the most successful public events in Western New York history — aerialist Nik Wallenda’s tightrope walk across the Falls in 2012.
In a preview for the event, the Niagara Reporter credited Trevino with kick-starting talks about bringing Wallenda to the Falls when he spoke with the daredevil during a convention two years earlier. The Reporter also credited Trevino with working with former state Sen. George Maziarz to secure passage of a bill in Albany that allowed the cross-border walk to happen.
The event garnered global coverage, with more than 300 credentialed media members visiting the Niagara Region to cover Wallenda’s walk. Thousands of people filled Niagara Falls State Park and the downtown area that day, which Trevino predicted would be one outcome of the spectacle.
“The impact is immeasurable: hundreds of millions of people around the world have been reminded of Niagara Falls,” Trevino said at the time.
Of course, NFR’s most ambitious proposal remains on the table. The company has submitted plans to use part of its holdings in the Falls to build, in partnership with the Toronto firm Urbacon, a $1.5 billion data center known as the Niagara Digital Campus.
The plan is now being discussed as part of closed-door, court-sanctioned mediation talks aimed at resolving various legal disputes between the city and NFR.
While he previously criticized the project and has suggested several times publicly it is not real, Falls Mayor Robert Restaino has said in recent weeks that it is now under consideration as part of what some describe as a “two-project solution” that could allow both the data center and the mayor’s proposed $210 million Centennial Park arena and events campus to be built in the same area.
While NFR officials have at times been critical of Restaino’s arena plan, they also have publicly held the position that both projects could co-exist, provided the mayor and city officials were willing to cooperate.