NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WBEN)......Calling it a development pillar for Niagara Falls' North Main Street district, a team of New York City investors are poised to convert a long vacant department store building into a student housing complex for those enrolled in Niagara University.
The $25 million project - set for a three-story, 40,000-square-foot long vacant building - will bring at least 100 Niagara University students into one of the core districts within Niagara Falls.
Niagara Development Partners have branded the building as University Gateway.
"It will play a major role in bringing new life back to Main Street," said Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino.
Abe Bose, Niagara Development Partners majority partner, said he sees nothing but potential in the 2018 Main Street building.
"It was a great find," Bose said.
Taken into context with the redevelopment of the nearby former Jenss Department Store building and Ryan Dallavia's six-unit apartment building - where both are on Main Street and bookend the University Gateway building - more than 140 people will be living in a four-block area of North Main Street bringing life back to a stretch that has been dominated by vacant and dilapidated buildings for decades.
In all, more than $50 million in private sector-backed North Main Street projects have been announced and are slated to get underway by next spring - at the latest.
"It is time for us to take (development) control of our own destiny," Restaino said.
Restaino championed Niagara Falls gaining control of 38 North Main Street district buildings and finding new developers.
The intent was to revive a long overlooked section of Niagara Falls.
"I call it a re-imaging of Main Street," Restaino said.
For it to work - to land commercial and retail-based street level tenants - a critical mass was needed including students and working professionals.
"Student housing was that linchpin for us," Restaino said.
Enter Niagara University that was looking for student housing options.
North Main Street works because it is just minutes from Niagara University's campus.
"One the pillars of our vision was to bring both student housing and market rate housing to North Main Street," said Andrea Klyczek, Niagara County Industrial Development Agency executive director. "We are starting to see that take hold."
Work on the University Gateway, the Jenss building, Dallavia's building and the Rapids Theater should all get underway by this spring.
Dallavia's project and the Rapids Theater should be ready by late 2027 with the others to follow by 2028.
"We view this as creating an economic engine that brings activity back to this block," Bose said.
NYC investors to spend $25 million on their first Niagara Falls project
NYC investors to spend $25 million on their first Niagara Falls project
