Even though most people can’t see it, soil, stone and concrete fill creeps toward the surface of the former AquaFalls hole, the once 40-foot pit that symbolized the Cataract City’s continued development failures.

And while the infamous, outdoor stain on the city’s image is between six and 10 feet from reaching ground level, a tour of Frank Parlato Jr.’s One Niagara revealed the building’s condition isn’t as bad as one city councilmember characterized it.

Visitors would find some floors of the former Occidental Chemical building littered with crumbled building materials, piles of excess pipe, soaking wet rugs from dripping ceilings — sights not unusual for a completely vacant office structure.

Parlato admits the building has a few flaws, but stressed there was nothing structurally wrong with the building.

“There’s nothing that couldn’t be fixed,” he said.

A few hops over piles of metal sheeting or some looms of wire and electrical cords would distract a visitor from views of the falls or downtown. Still, it was nothing a little elbow grease, a vacuum and some mops couldn’t heal.

A ride up the building’s elevator, often aided by a rider’s manual push to fully open the chute’s doors, was steady for the most part.

Interesting sites on the way to the roof included portions of the flooring on the fifth floor, which housed Oxy’s computers, had been removed to reveal the skeleton of a sub-floor.

The building’s seventh floor was the cleanest in the building. The ninth showed signs of a leaky roof, which Parlato admitted needs to be patched.

Still, he dismissed statements made by City Councilmember Sam Fruscione, who recently told the Niagara Gazette, “I’ve been in that building. It has to come down.”

Fruscione called the building “a shell,” saying he believed the building’s heating and air conditioning systems were in disrepair, and there was significant damage to the ninth floor.

Parlato said both systems function properly, but neither has been turned on since the building currently lacks occupants.

He can see the building’s ninth floor used as a restaurant, Parlato said, but isn’t sure how likely a project of that type would get done this year.

As for the building in general, any required improvements to a building originally designed for a single tenant wouldn’t hold up progress there, according to Parlato.

“Nothing’s impossible if you have enough money,” he said.