Builder's cookin' with Falls plan, and he's using oil

By ANDREW Z. GALARNEAU

January 15 , 2006

NIAGARA FALLS - Frank Parlato, an unconventional Buffalo developer, has added another first to his resume: an office building electrified by vegetable oil.
"This is probably the first elevator you've been in that runs on french-fry oil," Parlato told a recent visitor as they stepped in for a ride.
Disconnected from the National Grid power supply since October, the nearly vacant 150,000-square-foot building near the brink of the American Falls is powered by a generator in the basement. It burns filtered waste oil from local restaurants, blended with kerosene.
It's only part of Parlato's alternative energy approach. Three stoves that burn wood and coal are arrayed in the two-story open lobby, their stovepipes protruding from the glass walls. Other rooms are heated with natural gas space heaters.

The nine-story building beside the Rainbow Bridge plaza has been at the center of a succession of unusual proposals in the last decade. Seven years ago its owners announced plans for a $35 million underground aquarium beneath the structure, originally built as the environmentally friendly Occidental Chemical Building.
Five years later, the AquaFalls proposal was officially declared dead. Parlato acquired the building in December 2004 and introduced former Erie County Democratic Party Chairman Steven Pigeon as a partner.
Pigeon, an attorney with the Underberg Kessler firm, said that he remains a minority partner in the project but that decisions about the building are up to the managing partner, Parlato.
Parlato calls his new venture Niagara One. He said he's going to turn the building into a retail tourist center by the time sightseers start arriving in late spring. Restaurants, an Internet cafe, currency exchange, beer and wine store and other amenities are already set to open, he said.
The two-story pit beside the building, originally excavated as part of the AquaFalls project, is about two-thirds filled.

"It's been a battle," Parlato said of the project. "It's a difficult place to do business. We're optimistic that the hole can be filled in by the spring and we can put some parking in there and start generating some revenue for the property."
He's not concerned that his unusual energy policies will make it hard to find tenants.
"I don't care if I scare off timid people," he said. "I'll run it all myself."
If prospective tenants want electricity from National Grid, they can have their own meters installed and use regular electricity, Parlato said.
The building once contained an office of the U.S. Small Business Administration and several smaller office users but has lost its paying tenants.
During the 2005 tourist season, Parlato invited hawkers to sell food and items like sunglasses from tables outside the building, which borders on the Niagara Falls State Park.
He also began using the partially filled patch outside the building as a pay parking lot.
City officials objected, ordering Parlato to stop using the site for parking and other uses not covered under its use permit.
The city wants the building to succeed, and Parlato has been talking to city officials about how to make that happen, Niagara Falls City Administrator Daniel Bristol said.
"He knows that the first big step in his usage of the building is to come sit with our Inspections Department and explain what his site plan is, so that can go through Planning Board site plan approval," Bristol said.
As long as Parlato respects city regulations and cooperates, there shouldn't be more conflict, said Bristol. For instance, the city engineer will have guidelines on how the top layer of the filled-in pit must be constructed, to make sure it's stable.
"He's starting to comply. He's headed in the right direction," Bristol said. "You can't just put down gravel and park cars there. If we witness cars going in there again, he's going to have problems," Bristol said.
Unless the Planning Board finds problems with the arrangement, Bristol said, the city wouldn't object to his running the building's electrical system on used french-fry oil.

"I think Mr. Parlato is an entrepreneur, and entrepreneurs sometimes have ideas that are out of the box," said Bristol. "But he also knows that compliance with the procedures makes life a lot easier along the way."
Parlato said he's looking forward to making the building a beehive of tourist activity in the coming season. Business people with ideas for making the building work better are always welcome, he said.
"I can work with people, or they can be a tenant. Everybody can be part of the grid, or they can be part of a careful, calculated gamble," Parlato said. "The right people will come to this place because they see the opportunity."