Published: February 04, 2009 12:27 am      

USA NIAGARA: Erasing the past, painting the future

Christopher Schoepflin gets a good look at downtown Niagara Falls at least five days a week.

From his office on the seventh floor of the Giacomo — formerly known as the United Office Building — Schoepflin has a bird’s eye view of many of downtown’s problem areas, places where buildings remain vacant and properties are still not being used to their full potential.

When he looks out the window, the head of the state-run USA Niagara Development Corp. also recognizes signs of progress.

There’s still plenty of work to do, but he’s confident there will be more success stories than disappointments in the months ahead.

“It took us an awful long time to get to this point where we were maybe 10 years ago in terms of decline,” Schoepflin said. “It’s easier to decline than it is to rise.”

So where does the agency and the city go from here?

From a project standpoint, Schoepflin’s team is now focused on moving forward with the demolition of the Wintergarden and the reconstruction of the west pedestrian mall.

Longer term, Schoepflin said the agency intends to continue doing much of what it has been doing for the past eight years: Promoting available incentive programs, supporting local planning and improvement efforts and working with city officials and private investors to form partnerships that result in viable projects that will have a lasting impact.

All of it, Schoepflin said, takes money.

USA Niagara has already allocated slightly more than $60 million, including: $20 million to turn Falls Street Faire into Conference Center Niagara Falls; $20 million to cover the United Office Building restoration, the Crowne Plaza redevelopment, new streetscapes for Third and Old Falls streets and various other projects and $20 million that was set aside for future developments, such as the Niagara Experience Center and proposed redesign of the Robert Moses Parkway.

Schoepflin said additional public investment will be necessary to keep the momentum going. The challenge now is the current state and national economic crisis. The good news, according to Schoepflin, is that the powers that be in Buffalo and Albany — people like new Empire State Development Corp. Chairman Bob Wilmers and Gov. David Paterson — have publicly acknowledged the value in rebuilding the tourism infrastructure in Niagara Falls. The state also has backed up words with funding, most recently with $7.9 million in revenue for the west mall project, the single largest allocation of state dollars funneled through USA Niagara to date.

“To hear Gov. Paterson talk about rebuilding the tourism infrastructure in downtown Niagara Falls in the State of the State speech is very positive,” Schoepflin said. “I think we should all be encouraged and be working together to leverage those words into dollars and into projects and positive momentum for downtown.”

Katie Krawczyk, director of upstate communications for Empire State Development, said the agency is pleased with the ongoing revitalization efforts occurring downtown and will continue to support USA Niagara in the future.

“The redevelopment of Niagara Falls is one of Governor Paterson and ESD’s highest priorities,” Krawczyk said. “We have every confidence that USA Niagara, with our support and that of the governor, can continue to help restore Niagara Falls back to the bustling community and destination it once was.”

Mayor Paul Dyster said his administration considers USA Niagara an essential partner in the ongoing struggle to restore vitality to the downtown business district. Dyster said the agency provides the city with assistance in many areas, from maintaining dialogue with developers to assessing long-term parking needs downtown. While critics have charged that the agency has not done enough with the resources at hand, Dyster said there’s no denying the positive impact the agency’s projects have had on the downtown area.

“Some of the things that they are working on, if they weren’t doing them, we would have to do it ourselves and we would have to pay people to do it,” he said.

The city must do a better job of helping USA Niagara do its job, according to Dyster. As such, city officials are looking to do a better job of promoting available grant and loan programs and are considering plans that would provide downtown property owners with more incentives to spruce up their properties. Dyster said part of that effort will involve a stepped-up code enforcement policy aimed at forcing lax property owners to make sure they are meeting local building codes or, at the very least, achieving minimum standards for property maintenance.

It is hoped such efforts will convince property speculators to either get moving or get out, Dyster said.

“Clearly, there’s a lot of stuff that’s happening downtown, but we’ve got a very, very long way to go,” he said.

Both Schoepflin and Dyster agree that government cannot be expected to do it all. While his agency does have incentives available for such projects, Schoepflin said it also must strike a balance when it comes to supporting development and protecting taxpayers’ interests.

Looking out his office window, Schoepflin can see a place that is full of opportunities waiting for the right investors to take advantage of them. He believes the beginning of the end of the turnaround is at hand. He also knows, when it comes to remaking a city, success stories don’t happen overnight and, unfortunately, often require decades worth of effort.

“What we really hope is for the day the private sector is operating here without the need for public money,” Schoepflin said. “That’s when we will know our job is complete.”