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Casino is no jackpot for neighborhood
On the
blighted streets of
Niagara Falls’ inner city
... the Seneca complex has been better at stifling growth than stimulating it. Casino no jackpot for Falls Neighborhoods show little sign of benefit By Denise Jewell Gee and Bill Michelmore - 12/29/07 At night, the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel stands out as the brightest light on the Niagara Falls horizon. But when it comes to stimulating activity in the surrounding neighborhoods, the casino complex casts a less impressive glow. Since opening five years ago on New Year’s Eve, the casino has become a city within a city. Today, a sprawling gambling floor is surrounded by a 604- room hotel, health spa and salon, six restaurants, four bars, a 2,200-seat events center and a variety of stores. The 24 acres has just about everything one needs for entertainment, pleasure and nourishment, so it’s no wonder the 8 million visitors a year mainly stay inside the complex. Outside, on the blighted streets of Niagara Falls’ inner city, many say the Seneca complex has been better at stifling growth than stimulating it. Anyone who believes the Seneca casino planned for Buffalo’s Cobblestone District will jump-start a dying downtown ought to take a look at the blocks that circle the gambling operation in Niagara Falls, critics say. “You could build a wall around the casino and the hotel for all the good they do for neighboring businesses,” said Buffalo developer Carl A. Paladino, who is trying to redevelop the second-tallest building in Niagara Falls, a block from the casino. Casino supporters point to the benefits: The City of Niagara Falls will receive $23 million this year alone in slot machine revenue from the Seneca Nation of Indians; the casino and hotel employ more than 2,900 people, more than two-thirds of whom live in Niagara and Erie counties; last year alone, the Seneca Gaming Corp.’s payroll for its Niagara Falls complex was more than $76 million. But it’s hard to see much of a spillover effect if you walk outside the casino two blocks in any direction, where houses are boarded up and businesses are struggling to survive. As Niagara Falls lurches ahead, the casino is on a roll. It has raked in more than $1 billion net since it opened. But, said Paladino, “You could build a wall around the casino and the hotel for all the good they do for neighboring businesses,” said Buffalo developer Carl A. Paladino, who is trying to redevelop the second-tallest building in Niagara Falls, a block from the casino “It hasn’t been a catalyst for development and there’s no good reason to think that it ever will be.” Brian Hansberry, the Seneca Gaming chief executive, is quick to point out that the corporation has made a $450 million investment in the city at a time when no one else was willing. “I don’t care what community you go to, they expect something right away,” he said. “But the point that people have to realize is, this didn’t happen overnight, either. The number of people leaving Niagara County or even Erie County, it’s over the last 30 years that the population’s been declining, and it’s been declining because there aren’t jobs. “We’re just a piece of the puzzle.” But five years after the gambling center opened, the puzzle is nowhere near complete. Some upgrades There has been some development, including the $18 million Conference Center Niagara Falls and a $22 million upgrade to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, on Third Street opposite the casino. Paladino is at work on a $9 million renovation of the United Office Building, and other work continues on a face-lift for the Third Street entertainment district. “A lot of restaurants are really hurting in Niagara Falls and the hotels aren’t exactly experiencing a rush business,” Paladino said. “There is no office development at all.” Paladino is the only developer game enough to tackle the 78-year-old art deco United Office Building, which defied several attempts at renovation during its more than 20 years of standing empty. It was the tallest building in the city until the Seneca hotel topped it by six floors when it opened in December 2005. Paladino plans office space on the seventh floor, primarily to house USA Niagara Development, the state’s development arm. It will open next month. Two dozen luxury apartments on the upper floors are expected to be completed by April. A boutique hotel on the lower floors will open later in 2008, Paladino said. “We’re trying to differentiate what tourists get at the Seneca Hotel,” he said. Just south of the casino, a former Rodeway Inn has upgraded to a Super 8 Motel, and a nearby Hampton Inn has expanded. The 193-room former Hotel Niagara sold at auction in July for twice the initial asking price. The Texas couple who bought the building plans to renovate it into a boutique hotel with shops. There are a growing number of bed and breakfasts on nearby Buffalo Avenue. Robert and Merilyn Shively intend to open a B&B on the street soon. Hansberry, the casino CEO, sees good signs in the hotel upgrades that have occurred. He got his start in Atlantic City 25 years ago, and saw that investment in the community there took longer than people wanted. “It took 20 years before they did anything in Atlantic City, and Atlantic City still has a ways to go, but they’ve done a lot with the funds created from gaming down there,” Hansberry said. Atlantic City has the benefit of Donald Trump’s huge Taj Mahal casino complex. Another positive sign: Convention business has steadily increased since the conference center opened in May 2004, but its proximity to the casino has been a mixed blessing. While some large groups can be drawn in part by the prospect of gambling, the Seneca hotel won’t cater to large blocks of customers whose members are less likely to gamble, said Jennifer Noble, director of sales and marketing for the conference center. The problem, said Hansberry, is that the casino does not yet have enough hotel rooms. Its occupancy rate is, on average, about 92 percent, he said, leaving little room to commit to conferences. Future casino expansion plans, he said, likely will include additional hotel rooms. Few successes While there have been minor successes around the Seneca footprint, they are exceptions. The blocks north of the casino are marked by boarded-up storefronts. A row of vacant buildings on Niagara Street sits in front of houses with crumbling porches, broken windows and condemned signs. To the east of the casino, weeds grow tall along the emptied pools and winding slides of a splash park built mostly with federal funds in the 1980s. For the better part of a decade, aside from a brief reopening in the summer of 2005, the park has lain dormant in an expanse of concrete parking lots. A block away, a vacant Nabisco plant towers over an empty, fenced-off parking lot. The building — and more than 100 acres of land to the east - are owned by a private company, Niagara Falls Redevelopment. The firm came to the city a decade ago with grand plans to rebuild downtown that banked on a casino being located in the city. It has pieced together parcels of land and razed derelict structures, but in the five years the Senecas have run a Falls casino, NFR has yet to build anything but a cement foundation. The bars and restaurants that line Niagara and Third streets have seen the most visible change since the casino opened, but it has come with painful growth spurts paid for with slots revenue. Players Bar and Grill, kitty corner from the casino on Niagara Street, still draws mostly a local clientele or casino workers. Owner Steve Masic is among those disappointed in the casino’s impact on the neighborhood. “That’s what I’m disappointed in, the lack of spin-off,” Masic said. “Most of the cars go directly into the casino, and they stay there, which I really can’t blame them because there’s nothing else for them to do in the area.” The city and state used casino funds to add wide brick sidewalks, antique-style lights and granite signs to the distressed entertainment district north of the Seneca Niagara, but businesses continue to struggle. Thirteen buildings in a twoblock stretch of Third Street still appear to be vacant. Buildings that remain empty south of the casino are now owned by the Seneca Nation and await plans for expansion. Hansberry said the gaming corporation has “grand plans” for its 50 acres, but he cannot discuss details until approved by the Seneca Tribal Council and corporation directors. “This is a long time line,” Hansberry stressed. “We’re not here for the next couple of years. . . . The term of the compact is to 2023, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen beyond that, whether the compact’s extended or gaming is approved in the state of New York, but we’re going to be here, and I think the business leaders in the area are well aware of that and they’re going to jump on this economic engine.” djewell@buffnews.com.com and bmichelmore@buffnews.com http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/238843.html?imw=Y |
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