back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
Editor's note: In a meeting scheduled for April 18 between Niagara Falls Redevelopment officials and the Irene Elia administration, a number of differences are bound to come up on both sides. The relationship has been rocky over the first two years of Elia's term as mayor, NFR, after all, having been brought to town by Elia's vanquished predecessor, James C. Galie.
With more than three years remaining on its contract with the city -- which give it exclusive options on approximately 142 acres of prime tourist district real estate -- NFR is the biggest player in the local development game. Founded in 1997 by millionaire Toronto real estate baron Eddy Cogan, the company is backed by billionaire New York real estate mogul Howard Milstein.
While Elia has blasted the company because it hasn't actually built anything yet, NFR officials counter that unplanned one-off developments are exactly the sort of thing that led to the destruction of Falls Street and the decline of what should be the city's most vibrant neighborhood.
Furthermore, the company points to more than $15 million in expenditures on its Niagara Falls project over the past five years, its considerable charitable contributions here and its open-door policy toward elected officials, the media and the general public in portraying itself as a good neighbor to the community.
Eddy Cogan came to town last week to prepare for the upcoming meeting through a whirlwind series of conferences with local business and political leaders and journalists. A soft-spoken, affable man who nonetheless embraces the show business aspects of his profession, Cogan, 67, knows a game of hardball when he sees it. A veteran of multi-million dollar deals from the Toronto waterfront to Fifth Avenue in New York City and across the Atlantic in the former Soviet Union, he was a key player in bringing casino gaming to Niagara Falls, Ont.
He sat for a wide-ranging interview with Reporter Editors Mike Hudson and David Staba to discuss his company's future here.
Reporter: It's been a rocky road, public relations-wise, for NFR here over the past couple of years. What seems to be the problem?
Cogan: There's a perception that we were some fast-talking people who came in here and conned Galie. I know that, but that isn't even close to the truth. I was involved with Wayne Townsend in bringing the casinos across the river. So that's how I got in and we were very successful on the Canadian side.
So Frank Taibi used to come over and say, "Galie wants to meet you. He's a cop that's become the mayor." I said no because I wasn't looking to this side. I'd never even been to this side in my life. But Frank kept coming over and on probably the worst day of my life I said OK. But there's no sense in going on the defensive. If you're telling the truth, you're losing. You can't get caught in those emotions or it becomes like a dogfight.
Reporter: Mayor Elia has on more than one occasion publicly threatened legal action against you in order to nullify NFR's options. Has this made doing business a problem?
Cogan: This is the deal. It's like a marriage. We came up with some ideas and put up some capital, and the city provided us with some options. We worked it out with the Galie administration and it was unanimously approved by the City Council. That's why I find it fascinating to watch the mayor knock us. She called (NFR vice president) Roger (Trevino) "sleaze" and "slippery." I don't know what she says about me when I'm not there, but I'm sure it isn't flattery.
I said it was like a marriage, well now it's like a dysfunctional marriage. If we did our deal and left town, they'd be mad because we left town. But we did our deal and stayed in town and they're mad. Why?
This was all done textbook. I've done $30 billion in deals, a lot of controversial deals, and it's all about your credibility, your record.
I make a lot of money by being honest. I was brought up that way, to understand the foolishness of not being honest and the price you pay.
I told Galie the properties as they were were essentially worthless. But if we got the gaming, they'd be worth a lot. I bought options somewhere in the middle. I was still by myself then.
Milstein and I had done a couple successful deals together in Manhattan, we got to know each other and I liked him. And there was the added advantage that he was from New York. I didn't want to get into the politics of it, that would have taken a year just to figure out the road maps.
I asked him to take over the management. All these guys were fighting with each other and it's not what I do well. I'm so bad at it.
He sent three people to run it and I thought Tony Bergamo would be the right guy down here. He's got a street sensibility. Niagara Falls, New York, is not a place for someone from an Ivy League college.
I did what I've always done. This was done textbook. Transparent.
Reporter: The main criticism seems to stem from the fact you haven't undertaken any building projects yet.
Cogan: It's always about the shovel in the ground. Well they put a shovel in the ground at AquaFalls and what do you have? A hole in the ground. Take all the other private developers here and pile them up. Put them all together and it pales next to what we've done, both in terms of money and ideas.
When I first started working across the river, it was as broken down as it is here now. You could buy land at 10 cents on the dollar. Then the casino came and the lights went on. With that revenue stream they began building attractions, expanding attractions like Marineland, which is going to be the No. 1 aquarium in the world. But it's the casino. Because a lot of those attractions don't make money but they attract people. It's the old Vegas style of why they comp you.
We've got a marriage license with the city, our contract. If anyone thinks they're going to hijack what we've done here, the money we've put in, it's just not going to happen.
At the same time, if they said, "Here's your $15 million plus interest and liability," we'd probably just take it and leave.
The third option, the one that makes the most sense, is to put the nonsense of the past two years behind us and start working together to make something happen here.
It's been dysfunctional. We're trying to make it functional. That should be everybody's goal. To make it successful. To get away from the whole bad guys and good guys thing.
There's got to be leadership. Is it unfair to say we're the major player in the private sector downtown? It's not an exaggeration.
Reporter: You recently acquired the former Nabisco building and there's been talk of converting it for use as the city's new convention center.
Cogan: When we got Nabisco, we weren't looking for a convention center. It was just a lot of great space. Then John Prozeralik got a hold of me after the hotel owners woke up to the fact that the lack of convention space was going to be a problem.
The convention business is this city's life-support system. A casino that has a 70 or 80 percent chance of going through, that would be good. But this is not a plaything.
We had tremendous luck getting Nabisco. Let me tell you, it was built to suit for a convention center. You've got 25-foot ceilings, clear spans and great space, owned by a company that maintained it to the hilt. We're closing on that in July, and if they were smart, they'd have a brochure ready promoting it at that time. A state-of-the art, 21st century facility.
Giambra turned down an expo center in Buffalo and, on the Canadian side, the largest thing they have is 50,000 square feet. Here we're sitting with 150,000 square feet of operating space.
I was talking this week with (Niagara Falls, Ont. mayor) Wayne Thompson and I asked what would he do if he had a convention bigger than 50,000 square feet. He said, "Why wouldn't we book it there rather than have the people not come at all."
Time is money with this. We could have this place open a year from now. A class operation. Turnkey. Nine months after the closing. Why not do first class? Because the difference in money is not that much.
Reporter: The state recently brought in the Hunter Group to look at the convention center situation, and they appear to be working on a development plan for the tourist district as well. Isn't that what you've just spent the last five years doing?
Cogan: In 1997, we brought in Jerge Associates to develop a plan. In that world there might be five, six, nine people all on that level and Jerge's one of them. If you like red, you'd like this one, if you like blue, you'd like this one, but they're all borderline geniuses with this stuff.
Jerge's global, lectures at Harvard and we paid a lot of money for him to develop the master plan.
Now they bring in Hunter. Hunter's very solid, but not a heavyweight creative guy. He's an organized guy.
The planning is done. What's everybody planning again?
The key to everything is the convention business, which is now on hold because of the casino.
There's three places you could conceivably put something like that, the Falls Street Faire, the Rainbow Centre Mall and the Nabisco Building. Three places where you could fix the mistake.
If you're looking at Falls Street Faire or Rainbow Centre Mall, you've got to do two things. First you've got to fix it, then you've got to fix it up.
So, instead of screwing around with this political thing -- that gives the appearance and perception that you're doing something -- why not build something that's wonderful for the same money? Take Falls Street Faire and do what? Get by the election.
It's like Scotch tape holding that together. You put in the kitchens and meeting rooms, and they're down to 50,000 square feet competing with the brand new Hyatt across the river. Rainbow Centre and Falls Street Faire, it's going to take you a year just to straighten out to get ready for construction and then another year to open.
Reporter: Do you see the state, with USA Niagara, coming in here and trying to reinvent the wheel as a hindrance?
Cogan: No. I see them as the solution. They have to be the solution. They've got the power, they've got the money, they've got the licenses. Everybody's got to come together. What will happen, I don't know. But this is the moment. You won't have another moment like this for the next three years.
You've got the election and everybody's focused.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 16 2002 |