A transportation project nearly a decade in the making finally launched on Friday as state and local officials broke ground on a new $29.7 million terminal at Niagara Falls International Airport.
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Audio by James Neiss
Backed by a new marketing strategy and confident in the recent success enjoyed by the facility’s primary passenger carrier, airport operators and long-time advocates are as enthusiastic as ever about the future of air transportation along Niagara Falls Boulevard.
“Fourteen months from now, I’m confident we’ll be in the new terminal, welcoming new airlines, new charters and new life,” said Lawrence Meckler, executive director of the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, the entity in charge of airport operations.
The process of turning the place around experienced a number of stops and starts dating back to the late 1990s, including an ill-fated bid by the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency to wrest control of the facility away from the NFTA and a proposal to allow the Spanish firm, Cintra, to operate the airport as part of a 99-year lease agreement.
Several of the main players involved in the often contentious airport debates were recalled again on Friday, including controversial former NFTA Chairman and Cintra supporter, the late Luiz Kahl as well as outspoken NFTA critic, local hotelier John Prozerelik, a man whose input helped spur development efforts to where they are today.
The new terminal concept really started to take shape in the wake of the approval of tribal gaming in Niagara Falls, an event that created a pot of slot machine revenue, $14 million of which will ultimately be used to support the construction project.
State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, recalled joining former state senator Anthony Nanula in a planning session to get a sense of what it was the community thought should happen with the moribund airport. The date was March 11, 1999.
“There were many different approaches,” said Maziarz, a staunch advocate of using casino funds for airport development. “Some with good intentions, but many proving to be fruitless and counterproductive to making something real happen here. But, we perservered and refused to let any naysayers with other agendas get in the way.”
Maziarz and his colleague in the state Assembly, Francine DelMonte, each secured an additional $2 million that will be used to support the construction project. In addition, the pair also wil deliver a total of $200,000 in state aid that will be used by the Niagara County Office of Economic Development to help market the new facility.
Those marketing efforts are expected to build upon those offerings as well as the momentum experienced by Myrtle Beach Direct.
The new terminal is scheduled to open in July of 2009. At 69,430 square feet, it will be three times the size of the existing facility and will include a second story that will allow for a common airport feature the old terminal did not — passenger jet bridges. NFTA officials say the new facility also will bring NFIA in line with current standards for security and processing operations as it will include updated inspection facilities as well as in-line baggage screening areas, eight stationery ticket counters, added room for concessions and car rental operations and a multi-model Metro transit center.
NFTA officials are confident the new terminal will draw more interest, in part, due to its inexpensive landing fees — at 90 cents per 1,000 pounds of takeoff weight — and its relatively low terminal use fee, which is $75 per flight or 75 cents per passenger, whichever is greater.
The two-gate terminal has been designed by Stantec Consulting around a theme intended to invoke the imagery of the Niagara rapids. It will accommodate both 747-400 annd 757-300 aircraft and has holdrooms large enough to accommodate 280 people.
Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster likened the new terminal to another step in the ongoing process of improving the region and its transportation system. He said pulling off a project with so many players at so many levels of government is a positive sign for the future.
“It’s time to put away the old way of thinking and get on with the new way of thinking about how we are going to prosper,” Dyster said.
Meckler said the NFTA plans to transfer air transportation services to the new terminal once construction is completed. He said the agency has not yet decided what will become of the existing terminal. The plan, he said, is to field proposals from private entities at some point later this year or early next year.
Construction is being handled by Walter S. Johnson Building Co. of Niagara Falls. NFTA officials predicted that the company will complete the project on time and on budget.
“When we promise July of ’09, you are going to have your new terminal in July of ‘09,” said Gregory Stamm, chairman of the NFTA’s Board of Commissioners.
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