| Subject: More Madness |
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RCM
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Date Posted: Wednesday, January 22, 08:06:31am
Author Host/IP: NoHost/104.28.132.120
I still can not believe this is real.
NF allows off campus housing in Devaux area for 70 years. NF bans it and then almost immediately there is some crazy project announced to “relocate 300 students” to a run down portion of Main Street? Under the guise of community redevelopment? This is the wildest plan NU has ever had. There is 0% chance this works. Why isn’t campus being developed? The library for example has a terrible leaky roof and no matching furniture.
What none of these articles feature is any comments from kids or parents. No parents will allow their kids to live down there. No kids will ever want to live there.
What is NUs obsession with NF?
The current scorecard
TREC 616 Niagara $2.5M spent. Lasted 2 years. Now a souvenir shop.
Methodist Church : $1.8 M spent. Still no progress after several years.
Complete madness
per: Buffalo NEXT. 1-22-2025
Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News.
With the Rapids Theatre on Main Street in Niagara Falls likely facing foreclosure, the city is teaming up with the county and other agencies to buy it, along with dozens of other prime properties downtown.
Harry Scull Jr./News file photo
Niagara Falls and Niagara County are putting on a full court press to snag some developers who are interested, willing and able to put their money into the city's North End along Main Street.
That's where the city's Urban Renewal Agency has taken title to 38 properties formerly owned by Blue Cardinal Capital, as well as the Rapids Theatre that was owned by businessman John Hutchins. And now officials want to put these buildings and properties back into the hands of developers or business owners who actually intend to do something with them, not just sit on them as land speculators.
"We’re no longer looking for that single developer to come in and to build out these properties," said Kevin Forma, director of planning for Niagara Falls. "We’re really looking for a mix of large and small developers who have the capability, who have the time, and who really want to invest in Niagara Falls."
Working with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency and the land bank for Niagara and Orleans counties, the city has kicked off a process to solicit and select redevelopment proposals, with a focus on restoring the vibrancy that the North Main Street neighborhood once had when the theater and the former Jenss Department Store were active.
The first round of proposals are due by Feb. 12, but properties could still be available for a second round later.
"We’re waiting for private developers to get in touch with us and work with us to submit proposals for acquisition and redevelopment," said Andrea Klyczek, executive director of the NCIDA and the land bank, formally called the Niagara Orleans Regional Land Improvement Corp.
A committee will review proposals before making any decisions. Once a developer is selected, the property will be transferred to the land bank, which has the ability to assign a "development-enforcement" mortgage as a lien on the property, to ensure a project gets done. The terms will be guided by the developer, based on how long the project is expected to take and how much it will cost, but it's also flexible in case circumstances change.
"We want to make sure that that development takes place and that investment is made," Klyczek said. "For far too long, we’ve suffered a lot of false promise. We want to make sure that... they’re actually going to do it."
So far, the interest has been strong, although not necessarily from all the places that Klyczek had expected. The partners hosted a bus and walking tour of the properties earlier this month, with 55 to 60 people in attendance, including developer Samuel Savarino and representatives from known firms like Colby Development, Arc Building Partners, CJS Architects, Colliers Engineering & Design and Tops Markets.
But the vast majority were from smaller, local and lesser-known players – Frontier Management and Development, Niagara Guys LLC, Majadi Enterprises, Team Radio Records, BW Enterprise, United Dedicated Niagara, Restore Niagara Falls, EMHA Development, Storch Cooperative Development and DiFelice Development, among others. Some were not previously known to city and county officials.
"There were people from smaller development companies and people I've never seen before. The next day, people asked me about it," Klyczek said. "That’s kind of what I was hoping for, that there would be a little buzz around it."
Forma and Klyczek also made a pitch to dozens of attendees at a Buffalo Niagara Partnership forum about construction and development last week in Amherst. And both pledged help from the city, county and other resources to support redevelopment.
"The city is all in on this project," said Forma, who is also executive director of the Niagara Falls Urban Renewal Agency. "We are here, committed to the development community, to cut out the red tape, to make it easy to develop in Niagara Falls."
Forma noted that the North End is already the city's targeted area for its $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant, and the city is also spending $5.5 million on streetscape reconstruction. He said he's seeking federal dollars as well, and the neighborhood is also within the city's waterfront revitalization zone. And both the city and county are forgiving back taxes.
Some properties are even in the city's short-term rental district, offering "an opportunity to capitalize on some of the tourism," he added. It's also a historic district, near the Underground Railroad Museum, and there are links to gorges and trails at the end of the block. And the proximity to the Niagara Power Project means developments could be eligible for Power Proceeds from New York Power Authority.
Empire State Development and the NCIDA have also committed to help developers. "The IDA board is prepared to do what they think is going to be helpful to make these projects makes sense," Klyczek said.
In pursuing this effort, the city's goal is to address multiple issues at once, including not only the vacant and neglected North End properties but also the complaints from the DeVeaux neighborhood about Niagara University students taking up too many single-family homes. Last year, officials decided to change its ordinance to limit student housing in that area, but "we didn't want to just put these students out," Forma said.
Meanwhile, the Blue Cardinal and Rapids properties had fallen into foreclosure, and the city "decided to take matters into its own hands" rather than allow the properties to go to public auction where they could be snapped up again by a single land speculator, Forma said.
A lot of these are old commercial spaces. A lot of these are mixed-use buildings. Some of them are vacant properties, of course," Forma said. "We decided to not only purchase these properties but partner with the county IDA, with Niagara University, with Empire State Development, to really come up with a plan to activate these properties again."
So the city is working with Niagara University to effectively relocate those students − numbering about 300 − to redeveloped properties in the North End instead. The university even purchased the old First Congregational United Church of Christ at 822 Cleveland Ave., that it's converting into an academic innovation and outreach hub.
"We really have been working with these partners to come up with a plan and a commitment," Forma said. "We’re really trying to build a nexus of activity here, to really double-down on some of the investment that’s already been made."
"This is really a watershed moment for the city," Forma said. "We want to change that dynamic of what people think about Niagara Falls, about doing business in Niagara Falls, and we want to make sure this project works for everyone involved."
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