Dec. 4 -- Rev. Gwendolyn Walker, of the Guardian-Highland Block Club, has hope.
Hope that there is finally a plan, a strategy -- something -- to reimagine, restore and revitalize a decaying stretch of north Main Street and return a portion of the Falls North End to prosperity.
"I think this is wonderful," Walker said after almost an hour of speeches by local politicians Tuesday afternoon, touting the vision of Falls Mayor Robert Restaino and the city's Urban Renewal Agency to take control of development along the north Main Street corridor and infuse it with student housing.
"It's a step to the future," Walker said. "I remember how Main Street used to be."
The basis for Walker's hope is recent agreements by the Niagara Falls Urban Renewal Agency (NFURA) to acquire the Rapids Theatre and 38 other properties, formerly owned by Blue Cardinal Capital, on and around north Main Street. The properties had been in foreclosure proceedings, by two local financial institutions, until Restaino and the NFURA stepped in.
"Bank on Buffalo and Niagara's Choice Federal Credit Union, I want to thank both of these financial institutions for their participation in this effort to reimagine and reinvest in Main Street," Restaino said. "All of us believe Main Street does have a future."
The mayor emphasized that the combined property purchases, which total roughly $1.7 million, will allow the city, the state, Niagara County and the Niagara Orleans Land Bank to control future development in the blighted downtown corridor by blocking a single developer from acquiring all or a majority of the properties.
"People come to Niagara Falls with a dream and they want to do something big," Restaino said. "And because of the economic challenges (in the Falls), acquiring land is easy. But then nothing happens. A lot of things are going on around Main Street, but on Main Street, nothing happens."
With $10 million in funding from New York state, for Gov. Kathy Hochul's Downtown Revitalization effort, the mayor said an emerging partnership with Niagara University would look to bring student housing and commercial space back onto Main Street.
"We have university students who need housing," Restaino said. "Niagara University is in conversations with a number of developers of student housing to bring that housing to Main Street."
State Sen. Rob Ortt (R-North Tonawanda) said the return of people living in and around Main Street will drive other development growth.
"Housing is the driver of everything else we want to do," Ortt said. "Students will create the demand (for new businesses)."
Buffalo-based developer Nick Sinatra, who has a significant development presence in areas of that city that are dominated by student housing, is reportedly eyeing the acquisition of the former Jenss' Department store for a conversation to student living. Sinatra would also reportedly look to attract businesses with an interest in student consumers into the Falls.
"Western New York is not at its full economic potential unless Niagara Falls is at full economic potential," Ortt said. "We want to replicate Buffalo's experience. This, I hope, is a turning point day."
Restaino has said that the foreclosure on the Blue Cardinal properties is still working its way through court and that the purchase is not expected to take place before sometime in January. The Rapids Theatre purchase is expected to be completed in December.
"It's going to take time to build out what we want," the mayor said. "Hopefully some of the first signs of this will come this spring or summer."
That is Rev. Walker's hope as well.
"I hope nothing stops this, nothing gets in the way," she said.