Unconventional developer Frank Parlato Jr. has pitched a lot of unusual ideas for a nine-story glass building he controls on Rainbow Boulevard in Niagara Falls.

   Parlato powered the 150,000-square-foot building in late 2005 and early 2006 on a basement generator that ran on waste oil from restaurants blended with kerosene.

   Another time, Parlato allowed vehicles to park inside a partially filled excavation on the parcel at 360 Rainbow Blvd., as he waited for dirt to settle in what once was a 40-foot hole left by the prior owners.

   Now, he has cooked up another idea. This time, it's about roughly $1 million in back property taxes owed on the former Occidental Chemical office building he calls One Niagara.

   Parlato, in an interview with The Buffalo News on Wednesday, said he is holding the money in an escrow account because he doesn't believe his property should be taxed when it operates just a few blocks from the tax-free Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel.

   Meanwhile, the tax bills have continued to pile up.

   Here's his explanation:

   "I can't in good conscience cooperate with a program that will cripple this whole area without making some kind of stance," Parlato said. "It's a seeking of justice. I want to have, for myself and all the people in Niagara Falls, equality with the Seneca. It's just wrong to have a tax-free nation next to an overly taxed, declining area."

   Ought to be interesting to see how far the argument gets him with Niagara Falls billing and collections.

… Denise Jewell Gee