PAU | Downtown Niagara Falls Development Strategy

Downtown Niagara Falls Development Strategy

Niagara Falls, NY

Program

Mixed-Use

Client

USA Niagara
Empire State Development

Collaborators

Economic Analysis:
Forsyth Street Advisors

Cost Estimating:
Trophy Point Construction
Services & Consulting

Market Analysis:
CBRE

Public Engagement:
Highland Planning

Size

16.75 Acres

Status

Development Strategy
Completed June 2021

In 2020, PAU was engaged by USA Niagara, a subsidiary of Empire State Development (New York State’s economic development entity), to establish a development strategy for 25 parcels, grouped into six clusters, that the State had recently acquired in the heart of Downtown Niagara Falls. In happy alignment with PAU’s ethos of working on projects from their earliest planning though to architectural development, USA Niagara subsequently selected PAU through a competitive RFP process to design the first targeted, state-funded investments that our initial plan recommended.

In the planning phase, our recommendations were founded in market analysis and economic research and built upon numerous previous studies, delivering both short-term site strategies and a long-term plan for the sites, to be pursued under more favorable economic conditions at a future date. As part of the framework’s short-term solutions to activate this region, PAU incorporated a Heritage Path, which will highlight key physical landmarks throughout the city that help visitors and locals rediscover the extraordinary history of the community. The checkpoints along the Heritage Path will double as outdoor space for programs that provide more opportunities for year-round activities. Not only will the Heritage Path connect historical landmarks with the state park, but it will allow visitors to navigate Downtown Niagara Falls in a 30-minute loop. The Heritage Path will remain as the long-term projects are phased in which may include new community, residential, hotel, retail, and office uses. By honoring the region’s land and staying true to the area’s rich history, the strategy leverages what’s best about Niagara, bringing it to life through unique design solutions that tap into the city’s heritage. In creating an activated downtown, Niagara hopes to reverse rustbelt demographic trends, retaining its existing population while attracting new residents through programming that highlights the city’s beautiful landscape and its history. Downtown Niagara Falls has the chance to be a leader among its peers, defining the future of the small, post-industrial American City.

The initial designs for the first three heritage checkpoints puts meat on the bones of the plan. A new scenic overlook will tie a historic district of downtown to an under-used portion of the state park along the river while providing information and context to Frederic Law Olmsted’s canonical design. A vacant lot will be transformed into a new public space that highlights Niagara Falls’ industrial past, making visible the path of the long-buried hydraulic canal that used to power mills and refineries that were the beating heart of the city’s 19th and 20th century economies; with a new platform for public performances anchoring its most visible corner to frame the gateway into the downtown. Most impactfully, PAU is designing a memorial adjacent to the site of the long-forgotten Cataract Hotel—formerly the city’s most exclusive lodging, hosting presidents and other visiting dignitaries, all while serving as the busiest terminus on the Underground Railroad. The new memorial will pay homage to the thousands of Freedom Seekers who passed through the Cataract Hotel in the years leading up to the Civil War, as well as the longer history of Niagara Falls in the context of Civil Rights. At the same time, as a checkpoint on the Heritage Path, the memorial will be a new fulcrum that ties the most highly trafficked parts of the State Park into the downtown, fulfilling the development plan’s mandate to bring more of the Park’s eight million annual visitors in to the downtown.