NIAGARA FALLS, NY (WKBW) — There could finally be renewed hope in the City of Niagara Falls to transform its Main Street into a vibrant district.
For decades dozens of vacant buildings on Main Street in the Cataract city have been left in poor condition and abandoned. But now leaders announced a promising new redevelopment plan.
"Main Street has just been downhill for a long time,” said Simone Tyson, a Niagara Falls resident.
“How sad is it for you, as a resident?” I asked.
“I'm very sad. We drive down the street often and say it's not much to look at here. It’s not beautiful,” Tyson said.
Tyson and resident Thomas Kremer told me they want to see needed redevelopment to bring back more businesses along Main Street. They would like to see restaurants, food shopping, entertainment, and recreation and education centers for children.
"All these vacant buildings are an eyesore,” said Kremer.
Eyesores created by these vacant, dilapidated buildings line this section of Main Street in the City of Niagara Falls.
"Either fix them up, tear them down, or do something,” Kremer added.
"We wish someone would come along and do something,” said Tyson.
And now these residents' wishes might be coming true.
"While it's not going to be the main street of our childhood. It's going to be better and it's going to be what we need for our community,” said Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino.
Mayor Restaino appeared Tuesday with state lawmakers and members of the Niagara Orleans Regional Land Improvement Corporation to announce a new partnership.
The city is taking over vacant properties. They're also teaming up with Niagara University, which is already making plans to create student housing.
State Senator Rob Ortt said this housing will be a key driver in attracting other new businesses.
“Housing is the driver. Housing creates the demand for all the other things that very often we spend money on trying to do,” explained Ortt. “But if you have the people, if you have a built-in customer base and the built-in foot traffic, those students and the people living down here will create demand, and those businesses will want to be here because they'll already have a built-in customer base."
For years and even decades, some of the buildings were bought up by out-of-town developers, including a company called Blue Cardinal, but they left the properties behind undeveloped and decaying.
The state has provided $10 million to the city and now 39 pieces of property, including the vacant Rapids Theatre on Main Street, will be in the city's control and a committee has been formed to help “vet” new developers.
“All of the parcels, that will become part of this reimagining, reinventing main street, are all going to be deposited into the city's urban renewal agency,” stated Restaino.
However, the mayor admitted many of the properties are in rough shape, and they must make sure the city does everything it can to help future developers.
“There are two buildings – if you walk into one of the west sides of the street and look up, you can see heaven and if you walk across the street, and open the door on the east side, you'll look down and see hell. There are buildings that have such great challenges within them. That we've got to be reasonable too in our approach with those developers,” Restaino added.
The mayor said it won't be a “snap” of a finger transformation but added the city is finally on track to “re-imagine” and “reinvent” Main Street.
