Published: February 01, 2009 09:47 pm      

USA NIAGARA: The ‘Times Square’ promise

Years after infamous claim, downtown still struggling to find identity

Former Gov. George Pataki signaled the beginning of a “new chapter” in the history of Niagara Falls in January of 2001 — the formation of USA Niagara Development Corp.

The division of the state economic development department was formed with the express purpose of bringing a “brighter and stronger” future to the city’s downtown business district.

In theory, the new organization was supposed to create the same sort of public-private sector partnerships that had helped the state revitalize Times Square in New York City.

In practice, Pataki’s big promise has been slow to materialize.

Or at least slower to materialize than many residents and business owners in Niagara Falls had hoped.

“We’re not trying to criticize or attack,” said Dan Vecchies, one Third Street developer who has expressed frustration about a lack of progress downtown. “We’re asking for accountability. They haven’t done what they set out to do.”

The agency’s current president, Christopher Schoepflin, insists USA Niagara has done a lot in its eight years on the job. He believes critics have ignored progress that has already been made. He notes the agency has endured some significant challenges — the aftermath of 9/11, the abrupt departure of Pataki’s successor, Eliot Spitzer and the current economic crisis to name a few. He also said his team does not operate in a vacuum and other partners, including the city and its private investors, all play crucial roles in the success of the downtown business district.

“I would take the position that given the amount of resources that we have and have invested, we have made significant progress amid a number of challenges,” said Schoepflin, who has led USA Niagara since 2003. “I can’t speak to going all the way back to day one other than to say we had a marketplace that had suffered from decades of disinvestment and decline. Not only have we stemmed that to a certain degree, but I think, in some cases, we have reversed it.”

As proof, Schoepflin points to the positives. The reconstruction of the East Pedestrian Mall. A $34 million renovation at the nearby Crowne Plaza. The transformation of the Old Falls Street Faire into a $20-million downtown conference center. The ongoing revitalization of the United Office Building. Plans to raze the Wintergarden and clear the way for a new connection between Old Falls Street and Niagara Falls State Park.

“All things considered,” Schoepflin said, “it would be hard to say there isn’t noticeable progress that we made.”

Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte believes Pataki’s promise has fallen short but that’s at least partly because the state has failed to provide enough attention and resources for USA Niagara’s mission. For that reason, she said it’s tough to fairly review the agency’s effectiveness so far.

“I’ve heard of people who are very supportive of USA Niagara’s efforts and I’ve heard from people who think it’s not fulfilling its mission,” DelMonte said. “Somewhere in the middle is the truth.”

A Plan of Action

One of USA Niagara’s first official moves as an agency was to hire a private consultant to analyze downtown and determine the best course of action.

The state paid Hunter Interests, a Maryland-based urban economics and real estate firm, to assist in the development of a revitalization blueprint for the agency’s 192-acre coverage area. Working with Cannon Design, Inc. of Grand Island and Parsons Brinkerhoff of Buffalo, the consultant created the USA Niagara Development Strategy. If the steps in the 114-page document were ever fully executed, the consultants’ theorized the city could attract between 4.4 and 8.8 million new visitors per year and generate as much as $437.5 million in new spending annually.

“The long awaited renaissance of Niagara Falls is finally at hand,” proclaimed Hunter Interests Inc.’s President Don Hunter following the document’s release.

Or so it seemed.

The blueprint includes 26 “strategic links” — projects deemed “financially feasible and economically sustainable” under the right development circumstances. A review of those recommendations shows successes and failures.

The positives: Downtown does have a casino and an attached hotel thanks to the Seneca Nation. The state did convert Falls Street Faire into a conference center. The old Holiday Inn Select on Third Street is now a modernized Crowne Plaza. There’s a Starbucks on Old Falls Street. Restorations continue at the United Office Building.

On the down side, the city’s downtown area doesn’t have the foot traffic or the nightlife many originally expected. The Niagara Aerospace Museum opened but has since closed and been moved to Buffalo. The Turtle building is still empty. The proposed Niagara Experience Center remains on the drawing board. The Rainbow Mall is still closed. Third Street — a marquee renovation project supported in part by a $3 million investment from the state — remains home to empty buildings and a handful of committed business owners struggling to survive.

“If you took a big snapshot of downtown Niagara Falls eight years ago and a big snapshot of downtown Niagara Falls today, you could make a very good argument that it’s worse,” said Shawn Weber, owner of the Wine Bar on Third. “And, if it’s worse, and you have an agency that’s supposed to be in charge of development, that’s a big problem.”

The plan encouraged USA Niagara to set a goal of achieving one major announcement every 60 days. Each year, the agency was also expected to calculate the actual economic and fiscal impacts of finished projects and compare them with projections contained in the report. The state and the city were supposed to create an “aggressive business recruitment strategy” for downtown.

Vecchies wonders why more of the plan hasn’t been completed by now.

“Why, as a taxpayer, am I subsidizing your income for you to sit around here if you don’t have the tools to do what you’re here to do?” he said.

He said the situation illustrates some of the differences between the public and private sectors.

“If that was a division of business, it would have been shut down and everyone would have been fired,” he said.

All of the projects listed in the Hunter plan made perfect sense at the time the strategy was developed, Schoepflin said. Like any planning document, he said Hunter’s work was never intended to be set in stone. He added planning and development are often two different things and that it is important for officials in any community to maintain flexibility in anticipation of changes in the marketplace. The strategy is referred to in its pages as a “living” revitalization plan rather than a “rigid dictum for development.” The plan is also structured in three phases, with the second ending in 2010 and final completion pegged for 2015.

“This isn’t a linear endeavor,” Schoepflin said. “It’s not like we say ‘well, the Hunter Report says we’re on No. 16 so we’ve got to do No. 16’ even though we’ve got a guy who is going to do No. 27. It’s not a literal document. It is a document that guides us.”

The ‘Times Square’ promise

Surveying downtown, Vecchies asks a simple question: “Where’s Times Square?”

Weber says he’s past being disappointed by the state’s lofty development promises. He’s outraged.

Both men, who have for years worked with USA Niagara and, in Weber’s case, accepted financing for projects through the agency, expected more to happen by now. They understand the city has to play a larger role in the district’s future and that Schoepflin’s team answers to higher powers in Buffalo and Albany.

Still, both say downtown needs a greater sense of urgency and a renewed commitment to downtown from current Gov. David Paterson.

“It goes beyond USA Niagara,” Weber said. “They’re not sitting in their offices with a vault of money that they can do with what they please. They have to beg and borrow. The local politicians are not paying close enough attention.”

Schoepflin said it took at least 15 years to revive Times Square. He’s confident downtown Niagara Falls will come back in time as well.

“The remaking of this city is never going to be fast enough for anybody and it’s going to require a lot of patience and hard work and dollars,” Schoepflin said. “It is happening and it’s going to continue to happen.”

As for Pataki’s “Times Square” talk, Schoepflin believes many people took it too literally. The original goal, he said, was to concentrate development efforts in a specific amount of time in a specific geographical area as was done in Times Square. He said it makes more sense for Niagara Falls to have a distinctly different look and feel than that of the Big Apple’s epicenter.

“I don’t think anyone was saying that we’re going to build four square city blocks of hundred story buildings,” he said. “I don’t think that was the intention. Maybe it was a bad example, but I think it was perhaps misinterpreted.”





ABOUT THE SERIES

• MONDAY: Has USA Niagara lived up to expectations since forming in 2001?

• TUESDAY: From reconstructing Third Street to hotel renovations, how locals grade the agency’s projects.

• WEDNESDAY: What role will the agency play in the city’s future?