City says One Niagara is done

City Planner Thomas DeSantis plans to fire off a letter to developer Frank Parlato within a week, ordering the principal owner of the former Occidental Chemical building on Rainbow Boulevard to stop previously approved uses at the site.

That includes virtually all of the current activity at the building — now named One Niagara — including first-floor retail such as vendors and food stands and paid parking, DeSantis said.

Parlato responded with disdain for the city administration, calling members “a couple of little critters getting too big for their britches,” and vowing to keep the site active and open and fight the decision “up and down every court in this land.”

The letter comes after activity at the site has run afoul of numerous city departments, including public works, police, inspections and planning. The letter will specifically address the inability to bring the building into compliance with codes and standards in a certain timeframe, based on a site plan previously approved by the city planning board.

“We’re going to inform Mr. Parlato that the approvals he had were conditional approvals,” DeSantis said. “The time he was given (to bring the building into compliance) has since lapsed and therefore approvals he previously had are null and void.”

The city’s actions do not affect Parlato’s ownership of the site, which he purchased in 2004 after a developer dug a 40-foot hole in the ground with plans for an underground aquarium but ran out of money.

The siting plan makes up only one of a host of the site’s issues, which were the subject of a multi-department meeting Monday at City Hall.

n Mayor Paul Dyster said the city’s police department has been instructed to enforce the issue of flag wavers for the parking lot, who he said have frequently been found in the street.

Dyster said as recently as Saturday he saw them in the road, creating a chaotic situation potentially dangerous to travelers and the flaggers.

Falls Police said after problems with the parking lot operation last summer, Parlato was warned before the tourist season started to follow the city’s surface parking regulations.

“Captain (Salvatore) Pino went down and warned him and essentially nothing has changed,” Falls Police Administrative Captain John DeMarco said. “Our concerns are he has people driving over the curbs and through the handicap access ramps and flaggers blocking in the street and blocking the sidewalks.”

DeMarco said police would step up their monitoring of the situation, but would not necessarily issue tickets to tourists.

“It’s not their (tourists’) fault. They don’t know what their doing is wrong. You’ve got someone flagging them in. They’re just following directions,” DeMarco said. “It wouldn’t be fair to take enforcement action against them.”

Parlato denied flaggers were consistently entering the street while doing their job. Chitra Selvaraj, who supervises the parking lot, said she warned the flaggers two years ago not to do so and they’ve complied ever since.

n Department of Public Works Assistant Director John Caso said that cars have been illegally jumping curbs to park in spots not designated for parking at the site. He said the practice has damaged curbs and is dangerous to pedestrians, and that the department is taking steps to make sure the practice ends.

Parlato said the issue has been resolved.

n Guy Bax, head of the city’s inspections department, said illegal wiring has been found outside of the building and on the One Niagara grounds, but that it’s being cared for.

The building employs about 50 people, seven food-service vendors, six other vendors and three tour companies — all of whom would have to be let go, Parlato said. He said the action to shut down the site’s operations don’t square with any harm code violations are doing.

He said he’s spent three years trying to renovate the building while fighting City Hall.

His attorney, Paul Grenga, also issued a comment on the issue, saying, “Only in Niagara Falls would they move to shut down an operation that houses multiple tenants and that cleaned up an eyesore,” he said.

David Gross, head of the main contracting company working at the site, insisted that everything’s in compliance.

 

 

 

Falls warns building owner on problems

 

Published on June 5, 2008
Author:    Denise Jewell Gee - NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
© The Buffalo News Inc.

A nine-story glass building on Rainbow Boulevard that houses souvenir shops and a small food court is back under scrutiny after opening for the summer tourist season.

Thomas J. DeSantis, the city's senior planner, said his department has annulled site plan approval for the One Niagara building after Frank Parlato Jr., the controversial businessman who controls it, failed to comply with a list of conditions set by the city's Planning Board in March 2007. Problems at One Niagara outlined by the city's acting building commissioner in a May 27 memorandum included: employees standing in the city's right of way while flagging cars into the building's paid parking lot; cars that have driven on a city curb to access parking on the property; an illegal gravel parking lot that was not approved by the city; and illegal signs. DeSantis said Wednesday he had drafted a letter to the building's owner to notify the company that the property has not complied with a list of conditions that accompanied the Planning Board's approval of the building's site plan. "I'm hoping that this letter brings them into compliance," DeSantis said. "If there continues to be no compliance, I would also think that the city would follow up with some court action." Parlato, managing member of One Niagara LLC, said Wednesday he is taking steps to deal with all of the city's issues. He said he stopped using a temporary gravel parking area after he was told to do so by the city and has advised employees not to stand in the city's right of way. Signs on the property are temporary, he said. "I am correcting or have corrected everything I know that the city has found objectable," Parlato said. Parlato said he plans to cooperate, but will seek legal action if the city attempts to shut down the building. "I think that this is much ado about very little, a couple of trees, a couple of cars, a flagger on a sidewalk," Parlato said. "And you talk about a disproportionate response." Parlato, who was part of a group of investors that took control of the former Occidental Chemical building in December 2004, has been battling the city for more than two years over violations on the premises as he sought to operate the first floor as a welcome center for tourists. Vendors who rent space in the building sell a variety of souvenirs, food and tours. But employees working outside One Niagara who use flags to direct people into the site's paid parking lot have drawn complaints from members of the city's Tourism Advisory Board and other officials. The remaining eight floors of the building have remained closed and condemned by the city. The building, near the foot of the Rainbow Bridge, sits between a paid parking lot operated by Niagara Falls State Park and a paid parking ramp run by the city. The One Niagara property at 360 Rainbow Blvd. also is at the center of an ongoing legal battle between Parlato and David Ho, another investor who had been involved in a failed venture to construct an underground aquarium on the property before 2004. A memorandum written May 27 by acting Building Commissioner Guy A. Bax said One Niagara owed more than $1 million in back property taxes. Parlato said he has put the money in an escrow account, but wants to meet with Mayor Paul A. Dyster before he pays the taxes. He claims that because the Seneca Nation of Indians can operate tax-free businesses on its land in Niagara Falls, he should have "equity." Parlato, meanwhile, said he plans to continue to "beautify" the property this summer. A Niagara Falls police officer reported vehicles driving on the city's sidewalk outside the building and vehicles parked illegally on the property May 26. In response to the police report, Bax wrote that, in his opinion, "One Niagara LLC has no intention of complying with the mandates and ordinances of this municipality. The complaints remain constant and continuous." e-mail: djgee@buffnews.com

Frank Parlato Jr. calls the issue "much ado about very little."

 

 

Below is a response to the original article in the Gazette.

 

My family and I (we're all local people) have been tenants in One Niagara (the old Oxy building aka the pit) for the past four tourist seasons. We sell Niagara Falls souvenirs and buy most of them right here locally from a wholesaler. All of the other vendors, food, tours and retails are also all local people utilizing local wholesalers to provide their goods and services. To read in your paper every year the threats that the city makes to shut this building down for minor code violations is mind boggling given the current state of our city. The business' within One Niagara all pay taxes and pass on a significant amount of sales taxes which ultimately makes it way to city. Why does the city continue to be confrontatinal with the developer (Frank Parlato) instead of trying to work with him? Frank has taken this building from a vacant office building with a huge hole in front of it to a thriving tourist center providing information and services to thousands of travelers each year. Each year improvement are made and everyone involved gets better at what they are doing. It irks me to no end to think the city could put this to an end and put the local people involved here out of business. The mayor should meet with his department heads and Frank Parlato to sensibly work out what needs to be corrected to avoid an embarrassment. The city egos should be checked at the door and they should come prepared to help a new business not close it down. Also, if they do shut it down what is the alternative? We will just have another empty building downtown generating no income or property taxes. And how about the handful of local people in the building of which for some this is their only means of supporting themselves. I caution that the city think carefully and not be shortsighted.

 

John Gibas,

Tenant,

One Niagara