From WGRZ Channel 2 in Buffalo:
For the first time in a very long time, there are signs of life in downtown Niagara Falls.
On Rainbow Boulevard, construction crews have been working around the clock to build Mark Hamister’s $35 million Hyatt Place hotel, set to open later this year. The world-famous Rainforest Café opened on Old Falls Street in 2015, and a few years before that, the downtown corridor welcomed the launch of the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute. The Robert Moses Parkway, with its prime riverfront location, will be more accessible due to a reconfiguration project funded through the state’s Buffalo Billion investment program.
In his State of the State speech last week at the University at Buffalo, Gov. Cuomo credited the state’s Buffalo Billion investment for creating $200 million in additional private-sector investment.
Then, as he unveiled the second phase of the Buffalo Billion, the governor announced a proposal for even more state investment.
“We’ll acquire underutilized property in downtown Niagara Falls,” Cuomo said. “So we can free up that land that has been locked up for too long and actually have productive commercial activity developed on it that capitalizes on the growth.”