NORTH END: Focusing on a positive future

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Deborah Hicks, vice president of the Highland Community Revitalization Committee, speaks to a crowd during a community meeting held at the Doris Jones Community Resource Center Tuesday night. DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH

September 23, 2008

By Mark Scheer<br><a href="mailto:scheerm@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Mark</a> The Niagara Gazette Tue Sep 23, 2008, 10:48 PM EDT

North End residents were given a few reasons for optimism on Tuesday.

During a community forum on the future of the city’s Highland Avenue community, more than 100 residents were told to be prepared for a lot of positive changes in their neighborhood, including the arrival of more than 100 well-paying jobs, several new housing projects and a neighborhood clinic.

“I’m extremely excited about the future of this area,” said Skip Davis, whose company Globe Metallurgical is in the process of re-opening a Highland Avenue silicon production facility that was shuttered in 2003.

The $20 million investment deal is expected to produce around 100 jobs by March and, provided all goes well with a related company on site, could employ more than 500 by 2010.

Davis, Globe’s vice president of operations, told those attending Tuesday’s forum that his company hopes to hire as many staff members as it can from the city itself. Davis said he believes his project and others that are also in the works in the area will signal a rebirth of a section of the city that has been in desperate need of one for years.

“The trains at the station,” Davis said. “It’s getting ready to leave. If you don’t want to get left behind, you better get moving.”

Across the street on College Avenue, another development is in the works courtesy of Santarosa Holdings, Inc., which plans to invest $9 million to renovate 13 acres of land on the old Union Carbide Co. as part of an expansion of rubber recycling business. The company’s president, Sam Santarosa, said his company plans to begin renovating the site by the end of the year. The business is expected to create between 35 and 70 jobs during its first phase, but Santarosa said those estimates are conservative and the number could be substantially higher if the expansion goes as well as expected. Santarosa said he too is excited about the Highland Avenue community’s future prospects.

“You are going to do nothing but bring the property values up,” Santarosa said of his development and Globe’s plan.

Residents also received an update on new housing developments, including Cornerstone Village and the proposed HOPE VI redevelopment effort, a $72 million project at Center Court. Officials from Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston also discussed their partnership with the Niagara Falls Housing Authority which is expected to result in the construction of a new neighborhood health center near the Doris Jones Community Resources Center on Ninth Street.

Moving forward, city and state officials said the area is now being targeted for additional brownfields redevelopment, a key step in creating an making the area more inviting to potential investors.

“I think we are just starting to turn the corner here,” said Mayor Paul Dyster.

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