By Mark Scheer
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
A new city parking arrangement isn’t sitting well with a pair of downtown businessmen.
Tony Soluri and Rick DiGregorio, managers of Visitor Services, a souvenir shop and welcoming center inside the old Niagara Club on Buffalo Avenue, fear a new deal for parking spaces at a city owned lot across the street from their location will drive business away from them in favor of the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp., which operates a new visitor center right next door.
“Their bad decision making is costing the small business people in Niagara Falls an opportunity to stay alive,” DiGregorio said.
During a special meeting earlier this week, city lawmakers unanimously approved a formal deal with the NTCC, granting the tourism organization 25 parking spaces at the city owned lot located at 105 Rainbow Blvd., across the street from both the old Niagara Club and the new downtown visitor center. The NTCC says plans are to use the spaces for employees and visitors. The deal calls for the agency to pay the city $40 per space for a total of $1,000 per month from Aug. 25 through March 31.
Lawmakers approved the agreement during a special meeting which was called by Council Chairman Sam Fruscione to consider authorization of a funding agreement with the Niagara Falls Veterans Commission, a non-profit group that is looking to build a veterans memorial at Hyde Park. The parking agreement with NTCC was added as a walk-on item with approval from the council.
Soluri and DiGregorio opened their combination souvenir shop and visitor center on July 1 under a lease agreement with the Niagara Club’s current owner, downtown hotelier B.F. Patel. They moved in after the NTCC moved out. In the months leading up to the completion of the tourism agency’s new welcome center, the organization used the site as a temporary place of business. Through the end of October, Soluri and DiGregorio are using the space to sell hats, sunglasses, $5 Niagara Falls T-shirts and other items. They also provide visitors with information about local points of interest, focusing mainly on locally owned restaurants and shops in areas like Pine Avenue and Niagara Street.
Both businessmen said they were not aware that a formal parking arrangement with NTCC was in the works and would have liked a chance to express their opinions about it before it came to a vote. They feel as though every spot taken by customers visiting the NTCC facility is another customer they lose in their establishment.
“They end up, for the lousy $1,000 a month they are giving the city, controlling the lot,” Soluri said.
Both Soluri and DiGregorio said city workers placed signs on the perimeter of the lot last week before the formal agreement was in place. They said the signs advertised the “Niagara Falls, USA visitor welcome center” and had arrows pointing people in the direction of the NTCC facility. The signs were removed Monday following complaints to City Hall by Soluri and DiGregorio.
Soluri said he asked the city in July about the prospects of entering into an agreement to allow him and his partner to manage the parking lot and split the profits with the city. Soluri said he was told the city was not interested.
“They already had a deal with them next door,” he said. “Who are they kidding?”
City workers put the signs back up on Thursday after the formal deal with NTCC was in place.
Mayor Paul Dyster described the sign situation as a misunderstanding and said NTCC had the signs made and delivered them to the Department of Public Works for placement at the lot prior to the approval of the parking agreement and they were installed prematurely.
“DPW workers put it up not knowing that the agreement hadn’t been completed,” Dyster said.
As for the parking agreement itself, Dyster noted that the deal is not long term because, at this time, the city is looking to maintain some flexibility at the lot as it is with others in the downtown area. He said the Rainbow Boulevard lot is in a place where spaces are desirable for a number of operations and said the interest could grow if new developers are found for the mothballed Hotel Niagara across the street.
“We have a recognition that we need to, at the very least, provide some parking so that people can come and go from the NTCC visitor center,” Dyster said.
As for the Niagara Club, Dyster said it was his understanding that over the long term Patel intended to turn the building into a new restaurant venue and the city knows, if that happens, parking will be an issue that will need to be addressed with the developer.
“We’re willing to try to accommodate people as long as we don’t enter into an entanglement that would inhibit any future development,” Dyster said.
NTCC President and Chief Executive Officer John Percy said he entered into a verbal agreement with Dyster and other city officials in June that allowed his agency to use spaces inside the lot for employee and visitor parking. He said the city and NTCC later agreed to the formal arrangement which grants NTCC 20 spaces for employees and five for visitors. Percy noted that there are still 75 spaces available in the lot beyond those that have been set aside for the NTCC.
“Customers can park there regardless,” Percy said. “We are not impeding on their business.”
Soluri and DiGregorio disagree.
“They control the lot and they divert everybody into their building,” DiGregorio said. “They send everybody to the state park, not the city.”
Percy characterized any claims that his organization diverts visitors to specific areas like the state park as “simply not true.”
“The Convention corporation staff supports the entire region,” Percy said. “We’re not sending people just to state parks. We are here to promote everything in the downtown area and in Niagara Falls and Niagara County.”
Contact Mark Scheer at 282-2311, ext. 2250.
