Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Ten trucks cycled into a deep pit at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Niagara Street on Tuesday and unloaded piles of thick rock under the shadow of a nine-story glass building.

The steady construction work marked the end of an era for some.

“I don’t remember anything that was there before,” said Buffalo resident Brian Fugle as he passed the high fences that have surrounded the failed AquaFalls project for years. “It’s just always been the hole.”

Developer Frank Parlato Jr. hopes the hole — a remnant of the notorious development project started more than five years ago — will be filled by mid-summer.

Parlato, who foreclosed on the former Occidental Building at 360 Rainbow Blvd. in December, plans to turn the pit into a parking lot once it’s filled.

The site has become a symbol of failed development in the city after lawmakers in 1999 championed the plans of two overseas developers to build an underground aquarium that never materialized.

Excavation work that began on the site in 2000 left it in a condition that city officials last year said had “serious structural defects.”

“When it was all said and done, it was really the city of Niagara Falls that ended up with a big hole in the center of town and everybody else was able to walk away,” Anello said.

Now, Parlato plans to turn the first and top floors of the building into tourism space, while renting out offices in the rest of the nine-story glass building.

Workers will spend about two weeks filling the bottom of the hole with dolomite torn from a local quarry, said Steve Biahen, the site supervisor for Tri-C Inc. in Sanborn.

They will then use material left over from a Town of Niagara construction project to fill the pit under a deal facilitated by Falls Mayor Vince Anello and approved by town officials in February.

While Parlato foreclosed on the AquaFalls site in December, records show that the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission gave a .22-acre piece of adjacent land in 2000 to a corporation, 360-7 Rainbow Inc., controlled by a developer associated with the former AquaFalls project.

It was unclear Tuesday how control of that land would affect Parlato’s project. However, Parlato said the owner of the land had indicated he doesn’t plan to hold up work to fill the hole.

Anello said the city’s legal department is attempting to address the matter.

“It’s not a piece of land that can be developed,” Anello said of the adjacent property. “It’s a piece of land that can disrupt development.”