NFTA: Army Reserve Center eyed

By Mark Scheer<br><a href="mailto:scheerm@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Mark</a>
Niagara Gazette

Fri, May 16 2008

— With a bus station behind them and a new airport terminal in the works, officials from the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority are now planning to focus on their next Niagara County project: convincing the Town of Niagara to let them play a greater role in the redevelopment of the Army Reserve Center on Porter Road.
NFTA Chairman Gregory Stamm told a group of community and business leaders Thursday that the agency would like to take the lead on plans to reuse the 22-acre site which has been declared as “surplus” property by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Although the Town of Niagara’s Local Redevelopment Authority has been formally assigned the task of finding the “highest and best” use for the property, Stamm said the NFTA believes the parcel, which includes a 68,000-square-foot hangar and 13 other buildings, would fit in nicely with ongoing redevelopment efforts at Niagara Falls International Airport.
“That our next agenda,” said Stamm, one of the featured speakers the Niagara County Summit for Economic Success, held Thursday at the Knights of Columbus hall on Erie Avenue in North Tonawanda.
While the NFTA has been working to attract more passengers to the Falls airport, Stamm said tremendous potential exists for the facility to become a cargo hub as well.
“We don’t want to run air cargo,” Stamm said. “We want to be able to make it an opportunity for you folks, the business community, to run air cargo.”
The hangar and other aspects of the Army Reserve Center would help the airport reach its potential, according to NFTA Commissioner Henry Sloma.
While town officials have not exactly been warm to the idea of the NFTA guiding redevelopment efforts, Sloma said he believes the cold reception has had much to do with misunderstanding about the agency’s intentions. He said the NFTA would like to participate in the planning process and, as part of that, will suggest to the town that the property — or at least a portion of it — be used to expand local air cargo operations.
“We just think it is a natural for us,” Sloma said.