Niagara Reporter
By Tony Farina
Even if you believe Mayor Robert Restaino’s heart is in the right place when it comes to rebuilding Niagara Falls, his vision on how to get it done is unfortunately an old, worn path that has not delivered in the past and is not likely to prove successful today.
There may be a better path available today that wasn’t there in the past that doesn’t rely on hit-or-miss developers counting on taxpayer money no matter the source, city or state. The money just isn’t there, and that includes for the mayor’s legacy events center project in the South End.
The new path that is sitting right in front of the city won’t require huge land acquisition costs, dependence on unreliable developers counting on public assistance, or massive amounts of state, county, or city taxpayer funds to remake the city, starting with the latest bid to buy the 38 Main St. properties with Urban Renewal funds which of course is taxpayer money.
What is available for the taking, and worth a second, third, and fourth look, is Niagara Falls Redevelopment’s $1.5 billion data center on the same South End site that NFR now owns. As I’ve written about in the past, the data center would bring lots of jobs, tax money, and widespread economic benefits that would not cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg to build. In fact it would cost taxpayers nothing. NFR and its Toronto-based partner Urbacon would build the data center on its own dime and deliver a real gem in economic deliverance.
“Niagara Digital Campus” digital rendering
The city and the Restaino team must look again and again at the NFR application that they now have and determine whether or not it is what it says it is: a possible gold mine for the city across the board, bringing everything to a city badly in need of such a gem that would mean so much to so many, starting with beleaguered Niagara Falls taxpayers.
Sure, they need to put NFR’s application to super close scrutiny given NFR’s track record, but certainly if it passes muster there is no better path for Restaino and company to follow to jump-start Niagara Falls.
No land acquisition costs, no hit-or-miss developers, and no reliance on public money that right now is very much up in the air with the new administration coming to Washington and the state’s huge budget deficits.
The NFR data center is certainly and without question the best path to follow to rebuild and regenerate Niagara Falls for years to come. It delivers the crown jewel of economic development to a city starving for such a project and it appears to be right there for the taking.
I believe the residents of the Cataract City would embrace the data center and its huge economic benefits and thank Mayor Restaino for breaking the deadlock and getting it done.
It looks like a better path is there for the taking and we hope the city will seize the opportunity while it is there.
