NIAGARA FALLS —
The Buffalo-Niagara area has a rich repository of pipe dreams.
Navy Island was proposed as a home for the United Nations until John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the 16-acre site in New York City.
The Ghermezians talked about building their “Mall of America” on vacant land east of the former Convention and Civic Center (now the Seneca Niagara Casino). It ended up in West Minneapolis.
In the 1960s, Pendleton was billed on crude sign in a field as “The Future Home of the New Jet Airport.”
Mayor E. Dent Lackey suggested spending $100,000 to put a float in the California Rose Parade to boast about all the new developments in Niagara Falls. (To this day, some residents are convinced he got daffy after falling off his white horse.)
A high-rise ‘Rotel’ was proposed near the present site of the Red Coach Inn. (If it revolved as designed, guests on the upper floors would have a different view in the morning from what they had when they went to bed.)
It was all talk.
And who could forget the debate that Frank Stronach stirred when his giant company, the Toronto-based Magna Corporation, expressed an interest in building a racetrack and theme park in Porter? Magna snapped up some 600 acres along Lake Road — including the former Hooker-on-the-Lake, the chemical company’s picnic and recreational grounds. (Subsequently, the town bought the Dietz Road site and renamed it Porter on the Lake.)
No one, even town officials, seemed to ever have any clue exactly what Stronach had in mind. In his dealings with the town, he was about as visible as Howard Hughes in his last year. Suddenly, without any explanation, he sold all the land that he had bought in Porter.
So what’s up with Stronach these days?
He is poised to collect a payout of more than $1 billion as he steps down from his controlling interest in the auto parts manufacturer that he established some 50 years ago.
The deal that Stronach swung will give him $300 million, in addition to nine million common shares in return for his voting shares. Also, he will receive $120 million as a consultant for the next four years.
And, unlike other top executives who drift into retirement on their golden parachutes — never to be heard from again — Stronach will remain as the Magna chairman.
Porter is probably better off without a race track or theme park.
Still, Stronach reportedly had another project in mind — with the properties he purchased here. A hi-tech automotive parts facility that would have created good-paying jobs.
There’s little doubt that would have been quickly approved.
•••
QUOTE OF THE DAY: In addition to the overwhelming $9.2 billion budget deficit, Gov. David Paterson has a number of unresolved issues to settle before any agreement is reached.
Karen DeWitt, who covers Capitol Hill for National Public Radio, describes Paterson’s strategy for his special session agenda: “It could be likened to throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.”
•••
OUT OF THE PAST: A number of local residents reported they spotted that Liberty Belle B-17 bomber flying over the Buffalo-Niagara area Monday. The historic World War 11 aircraft dubbed the “Flying Fortress” was making a special media flight.
The public will be offered 45-minute flights ($430 per person) Saturday and Sunday.
A spokesman explained the B-17 operating cost is $2,500 per hour and the Liberty Foundation, the non-profit museum that owns the plane, spends more than $1 million a year to keep it airworthy.
After the weekend flights end at 3 p.m., free public tours of the plane will be provided at the Prior Aviation, 50 North Airport Drive, Cheektowaga.
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