Seeking a better deal for the city

TOURISM: One Niagara's owner says, he supports center, but only for the right price - prosperity.

By Aaron Besecker

January 17, 2006

The developer whose downtown land is being eyed for a proposed $75 million visitor and orientation center says he’ll support a move to build on the property he now owns only if state officials promise to do the city and its residents better than he believes they have until now.

“I think it’s a great idea to have an experience center,” said Frank Parlato Jr. “How about the people of Niagara Falls having a new experience – prosperity.”

Parlato owns “One Niagara,” a 2.27 acre chunk of prime downtown property at 360 Rainbow Boulevard – formerly known as the Occidental Building and the former site of the AquaFalls project, which made it a symbol of failed development opportunities in the city.

That property is now the subject of a downtown economic development analysis project by consultants for the executive board of the Niagara Experience Center.

Board member and Niagara Falls Senior Planner Thomas DeSantis recently revealed economic analysis was being done by Economics Research Associates on two overlapping downtown sites, one of which includes Parlato’s mostly vacant “One Niagara.”

Parlato said he has not been contacted by anyone involved in the Niagara Experience Center project, and did not dismiss the notion of selling his land for the project.

“There’s one and only one way that this will ever be an Experience Center, and that is if the people of Niagara Falls are included in the profit equation,” Parlato said.

Experience Center officials stressed they are far from making a final decision on a site for the project.

Parlato had some harsh words for state leaders who he believes have mismanaged the profits from one of the country’s most popular state parks with millions of annual visitors.

“They do nothing but hijack our profits and make our city broke,” he said.

Parlato finalized the deal to purchase the property in December 2004, when he also relocated his business’ headquarters here from Orlando.  He has been involved in several residential developments in Western New York, as well as development in Illinois and Florida.

Parlato never disclosed the price he paid to purchase the downtown property, though one of the mortgages was sold for $3.5 million. The face value of the other mortgage was about $7 million.

Experience Center Executive Board Chairman Paul Dyster, who was involved with the idea for the project well before the state made the first substantial commitment of $10 million in March 2002, said he has also been dissatisfied with state agencies’ reinvestment in Niagara Falls in the past.

Still, Dyster pointed to the genesis of the project by local author and historian Paul Gromosiak, and believes the real work on the project is still being done by local hands.

“We know that we locals have a to do a better job, too,” Dyster said, noting civic and community leaders must put in the effort to work with state officials and push for more reinvestment locally.

Parlato said he expects to make an announcement on upcoming activity at “One Niagara” – including information about the removal of the perimeter fence around the once 40-foot hole on the property – within the next few weeks.

Contact Aaron Besecker at 282-2311, Ext. 2263.