Tomorrow's Niagara Falls Reporter will carry a story about big-time Baltimore developer, David Cordish's threat to sue the weekly tabloid and this writer over an expose published serially about him in recent weeks.

The Reporter suggested that Cordish has cheated the city of Niagara Falls by failing to live up to the terms of his long-term lease with the city on the now decade-long, vacant Rainbow Centre Mall.

Cordish who is also a lawyer had his law firm of Cordish and Cordish threaten legal action if the Reporter did not make a complete retraction within days.

The Reporter’s reaction to his threat will be on line tomorrow (www.niagarafallsreporter.com)and in print on Tuesday.

Cordish leases the mall for 45 cents a square foot as opposed to the going market rate of $10 a square foot in Niagara Falls.

Hence Cordish who pays $106,000 per year for the 282,000 square foot mall would be paying about $2.8 million if he were paying market rent.

No wonder he can afford to keep it vacant, as the Reporter suggested.

Cordish ran the mall from 1982 to the mid 1990’s as a fairly successful mall marketed to both American and Canadian customers situate as it was within 400 feet from thr Rainbow International bridge. Gradually it became became vacant and by 2000 it was entirely vacant.

Since 2001 Cordish has said he planned to convert the vacant Mall into a family entertainment complex with "multi-screen theater, video parlors and ticketed attractions." Later it was to be a "dinosaur edu-tainment attraction" featuring "authentic artifacts" and Jurassic Park-type animation, with dance clubs and "live performance venues." Next, a Seneca-run high-stakes bingo parlor. Later, a "giant nightclub." Then a Nascar-themed attraction.

For 10 years, the block-long concrete building remains vacant in the heart of downtown, serving as a hideous obstruction for tourists who have to walk around it to get to the falls. Through three mayoral administrations, the ugly, vacant mall helped Cordish earn a well-deserved citywide reputation as a premier do-nothing developer. And since he pays so little rent (almost nothing) he can afford to keep the place vacant while he waits for someone to come along and buy his lease out for big bucks.

Cordish also acquired from the city a 275-by 150-foot lot across from the mall that was a revenue-producing paid parking lot for the city based on his promise that he was going to develop it into a world-class development.

Now in what appears it is going to revert to a paid parking lot, only this time Cordish and his partners get the profits, not the city.

There is a possible legal fight in the works to have the property taken away from Cordish based on fraudulent inducement.

While Cordish has been a flop in Niagara Falls the Baltimore developer has had some successful developments in Baltimore, Kansas City , St Louis and elsewhere.