EDITORIAL: Development fight will leave Niagara Falls the loser

On one side we have a $1.5 billion data center known as the Niagara Digital Campus. On the other side is the $150-million “events campus” known as Centennial Park.

And as it stands now, there’s no middle ground whatsoever.

We’re not here to endorse either project. For the purposes of this editorial we’re not going to dwell on the few details and many questions surrounding each grand plan. We just want to focus on the point that there are two potentially game-changing, large-scale developments being discussed that could transform downtown Niagara Falls.

And it’s an apparent battle to the death as both projects must land on the same 10-acre piece of property currently owned by Niagara Falls Redevelopment but recently issued to the city — pending a hefty payment plan — in an eminent domain ruling by the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division’s Fourth Department. There will be an appeal, NFR vows.

We’re appealing to both sides to sit down and figure out a better way to move forward. If the intent really is to bring the Niagara Digital Campus and Centennial Park to downtown Niagara Falls, a lack of cooperation, legal battles, closed meetings and strongly worded public statements aren’t the way to go.

As we see it, the path we’re on now comes with the potential for a lot of wasted time and money — a whole lot of money — all at the taxpayers’ expense, with likely little to show for it at the end.

It’s amazing really, details surrounding both projects are so scarce, yet both sides are so dug in. A “two-project solution” seems more of a pipe dream than the projects themselves — with most in the city wondering why that is.

There’s finally a worthy project for the owners of land they’ve been sitting on for decades. They own 140 acres downtown but this fight is over less than a 10th of that property.

Then there’s talk of a mayor’s “legacy project” and Centennial Park. We can’t imagine a better legacy than bringing a $1.5 billion data center and a $150 million events campus downtown. It would completely change the landscape for the Falls.

Yet both sides are fighting it out.

We’re left wondering if the animosity and lack of cooperation is impacting perception of both projects outside of the Falls.

Is the fact that this has turned into a squabble over a piece of land kept local and state politicians from getting involved? We can’t get any of our lawmakers in Albany or Washington to return calls on either plan.

Think about that for a minute. Potential million- and billion-dollar projects that no one outside of Niagara Falls will publicly discuss.

We’ve never seen anything like it.

Without both sides coming to the table to work together, the real potential here is that we’re going to watch what will likely be millions of taxpayer dollars spent with neither of the projects coming to fruition.

More wasted resources and opportunity. That’s something we’ve seen plenty of in Niagara Falls.