By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It reflects the views of the writer.
The Hotel Niagara deserves to come back. The 12-story landmark on Rainbow Boulevard has been empty since 2007, and a restored, branded hotel a short walk from Niagara Falls State Park would do more for downtown than almost any other single project.
But the public is a partner in this deal, and right now the public cannot say what the deal costs. As the Chronicle reported Thursday, the restoration has carried at least six price tags since 2018, from $42 million to a reported $66.6 million. The county’s tax-break file still uses a figure from the middle of that range.
Before another dollar of public help goes in, USA Niagara Development Corp. and the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency should publish one current cost, one current schedule and the terms the developer has agreed to meet.
Three agencies, three numbers
In July 2025, the board of USA Niagara, the Empire State Development subsidiary that owns the building, approved an extra $4 million incentive and said the project “is now estimated to cost $58.8 million, an increase of $16.8 million from the original $42 million total project cost.” Its release blamed “current market conditions, which have increased project costs and the access to capital financing,” and predicted completion “at the end of 2026.”
The Niagara County IDA worked from a different number. The project summary for Hotel Niagara Development LLC lists a total cost of $43,959,500 and a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal, and its cost-benefit worksheet puts the value of the tax breaks at $6,707,234. One box on that worksheet, “Project Total Investment,” reads $16,000,000. The documents do not explain the gap.
The IDA closed the deal on April 16 of this year, according to a fee report in its Aug. 12 board packet, still at $43,959,500. That was more than eight months after the state had said $58.8 million. Then, in August, Buffalo Business First reported a $66.6 million budget and a 2028 opening. The Chronicle has not found a state document confirming that figure, and Empire State Development’s hotel investment page still describes “the approximately $58.8 million project.”
Meanwhile, public help keeps arriving. The Chronicle reported that National Grid has awarded the project a $312,500 economic development grant. By the Niagara Gazette’s count, the state’s total commitment is $11.9 million, including the $4.4 million it paid for the building in 2016.
The people running it believe in it
None of this suggests anyone has done something wrong. The officials involved have been open about their hopes. “Getting this complicated, $58.8 million restoration project off the ground is a huge win for downtown Niagara Falls,” USA Niagara Chairperson Francine Delmonte said in the 2025 release. Developer Ed Riley of Brine Wells Development said that “without the cooperation and close working relationship with USA Niagara and Empire State Development, and commitment from the community, this project would not have been possible.”
In January, USA Niagara President Anthony Vilardo told WBEN that Mr. Riley’s crews were already removing asbestos and fixing plumbing. “They are in there and spending money,” he said. “To me, that’s a very good sign.” IDA Executive Director Andrea Klyczek told the station, “It is going to take a lot of private capital to bring the hotel back to its glory days.”
She is right, and that is the point. When the private capital needed grows by tens of millions of dollars, the public’s share of the risk changes too, and the public should be able to see how.
The strongest objection
The best argument for discretion is that this is a live deal. Historic hotels are expensive to restore, financing terms move, and announcing every revised estimate could spook lenders or weaken the state’s hand with the developer. Earlier attempts to restore the building after it closed fell through. Officials might reasonably fear that a public fight over numbers would make this one fail too.
That concern deserves weight, but it argues for careful disclosure, not none. The state already published the $58.8 million figure in the middle of the deal, and nothing fell apart. A current cost range, a schedule with milestones and a plain summary of what the developer owes in return, including the 67 jobs promised in the IDA application, would not expose anyone’s negotiating position. The development agreement that USA Niagara said “will provide the detailed terms and conditions for the project” is a public contract over a public building. Its key terms should be public, too.
What should happen now
USA Niagara’s board and Mr. Vilardo should state the current total cost and target opening date at the agency’s next board meeting, update the ESD website, and post the revised Land Disposition and Development Agreement or a summary of its terms.
The Niagara County IDA and Ms. Klyczek should say whether the developer has filed an updated cost, whether a higher cost changes the value of the sales and mortgage tax breaks, and why the worksheet shows $16 million. If the analysis is out of date, the board should rerun it in public.
The Niagara County Legislature and the Niagara Falls City Council should invite both agencies to give a public briefing, since county, city and school taxes are all affected by the 15-year PILOT.
Mayor Robert Restaino said in 2025 that it had been “disheartening to see the building shuttered.” Everyone wants that chapter to end. A project of this importance can survive a little sunlight, and as the Chronicle argued about Main Street last month, Niagara Falls is better served by scorecards than by surprises.
What you can do
If you live in Niagara County, contact your county legislator and the Niagara County IDA before their next meetings and ask two questions: What does the Hotel Niagara cost today, and when will the public see the agreement that governs it? Ask for the answers in writing, and ask that they be posted where everyone can read them.
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