09-05-2025
Restaino cites court decision on lending practices in latest knock on NFR
Mayor Robert Restaino continued to ramp up his criticism of Niagara Falls Redevelopment last week, noting that a federal appeals court recently upheld a lower court's findings that a bank and lending institution operated by NFR's owners engaged in 'predatory' lending practices that targeted people of color and individuals with low incomes.
During his weekly YouTube address on May 2, Restaino referenced a Feb. 19 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to enter into a final judgment awarding four homeowners $722,044 in compensatory damages and four others nominal damages from Emigrant Savings Bank and Emigrant Mortgage Co. for discriminatory mortgage lending.
The bank and mortgage companyare owned and operated by the Milstein family of real estate developers in NYC. The brother tandem of Howard and Edward Milstein is the principal investors in Niagara Falls Redevelopment, a company that owns more than 140 acres of land in the Falls, including 10 acres currently at the center of an ongoing eminent domain claim initiated by Restaino's administration.
In a video broadcast on his YouTube channel, Restaino pointed out the appeals court decision upheld a jury determination that Emigrant officials engaged in 'improper loan practices to low-income communities and people of color in New York state.' Restaino said the ruling shows the bank and mortgage company management — the same people who own and operate NFR — had a 'genuine disdain' for 'people trying to improve themselves.'
'The information is public,' Restaino said of the court decision. 'It's all available. There's no secret to it. I don't know how much more information people in the community of Niagara Falls and public officials throughout the region need for them to say enough is enough with this group. This group has done nothing but continue to be a stumbling block and impediment to the growth of the region.'
The law firm Relman Colfax represented eight Black and Latino borrowers who had done business with Emigrant, which they claim ended in grossly unfavorable loans. In June 2016, a jury found that the bank owned by the Milstein family should be held accountable for lending practices that contributed to the 2008 financial collapse. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the defendants' practices of 'unfair and deceptive loans' served as a 'textbook example of reverse redlining,' a practice in which minority communities are targeted with loans destined to fail, leaving borrowers and their families without homes or facing foreclosure proceedings in deals that were financially beneficial to the lender.
Emigrant appealed the jury verdict and the district court's post-trial order. In its February decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed all aspects of the judgment of the district court.
Emigrant representatives released a statement expressing disappointment in the appeals court's 2-1 decision, while noting that the matter remains under appeal. Emigrant representatives noted that the case included a strongly worded dissent by one of the appellate judges, Micheal Park, who wrote: 'In this case the district court sent untimely claims to an improperly instructed jury two separate times. To affirm the resulting judgment, the majority bless significant legal errors and upends established doctrine.' Emigrant noted that the judge also noted that the jury in the case was given faulty instructions that allowed it to find liability without any evidence of discrimination. They also noted that the second trial, which was held solely on the question of damages, awarded less compensation than the first, lowering the damages by one-third, resulting in four of the eight plaintiffs receiving only $1 each in damages.
'Emigrant stands by its commitment to ensure the availability of lending in communities long ignored by other banks, and we believe we will, ultimately, be vindicated here,' the statement from Emigrant reads.
Restaino's comments on the appeal court's decision in the Emigrant case represent just the latest salvo he has fired against NFR as he continues to attempt to justify his administration's contention that the city has the legal right, under its power of eminent domain, to seize part of the company's property for the purposes of building the mayor's proposed $165 million events campus and arena known as Centennial Park.
The city has successfully argued in court that it has legal right to 10 acres of NFR's land needed for the arena project, however, Restaino and the city's private attorneys from the law firm Hodgson Russ have recently argued that 5 of those acres — an area previously described publicly as 10th Street 'park' — already belong to the city due to NFR's failure to properly acquire it from the state years ago.
On May 2, Restaino again insisted that while NFR contends no such approval was needed because the land was not parkland, the city has presented photographic evidence of on-site baseball diamonds, affidavits, maps and engineering designs dating back to 1942 that he claims support the administration's position.
'It's just a question of trying to interfere and be difficult with the City of Niagara Falls as the Milstein group has done for nearly 30 years,' Restaino said, referring to NFR's stand against the city's parkland claim on the 5-acre parcel.
NFR spokesperson James Haggerty described Restaino's arguments regarding the company's private property as 'inane,' saying the mayor is 'basically suggesting a property owner give up their legal rights without due process because he says so.'
Haggerty suggested Restaino continues to wrongfully assert that the 5 acres on 10th Street belong to the city, even though his predecessor, former Mayor Vince Anello, determined 20 years ago that the public trust doctrine did not apply to the city's conveyance of the land to NFR.
'Mayor Restaino apparently wishes to rewrite history, cause the city to try to renege on a lawful transaction, and expend more public money on fruitless litigation, all to try to acquire property for an event center it has no money to build,' Haggerty said. 'There is still a constitutionally protected rule of law in this country. It seems politicians of all stripes are more than willing to forget that these days.'
Haggerty also questioned what he described as Restaino's 'unhinged rants' about a case that went to trial nine years ago, involving a loan program that ended in 2008 where half of the plaintiffs received a single dollar in damages.
He suggested the newspaper reminds its readers and Falls residents that Howard Milstein alone has donated millions of dollars to important community causes over the years, including helping first responders in the wake of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy in New York, the victims of Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, the victims of the Maui wildfires.
Haggerty noted that Milstein also provided funding for the New York City Police Department's global counterterrorism efforts through the NYPD Police Foundation and, in the early days of COVID, tracked down and purchased more than one million N95 masks from China that were given to New York hospitals. Haggerty also credited Milstein with helping to support improvements in the nation's infrastructure and in 'groundbreaking' medical research that has helped combat some of the most devastating diseases of our time, including antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases, blood disease, skin cancers and infertility. He also noted that the Milstein family has helped support hundreds of start-up technology companies through their Grand Central Tech program and other technology initiatives and donated $20 million to Cornell for the university's Roosevelt Island technology campus.
'This is what Howard Milstein and the Milstein family has done for communities across the nation and globally, and what they would do for Niagara Falls if only city leaders would work with us,' Haggerty said.
Haggerty also said that, despite disagreements with Restaino and the mayor's persistent criticisms, NFR remains committed to carrying out a proposed $1.5 billion data center with its partner in the project, Urbacon. That project, according to NFR's plans, would begin with a first phase targeted for the same 10-acre plot Restaino wants for Centennial Park.
'Despite the mayor's rants, and despite the nasty personal attacks, NFR is still willing to work cooperatively with the City of Niagara Falls for the benefit of its residents — more than four years after Urbacon first approached the City with the idea for the $1.5 billion Niagara Digital Campus data center, which would bring technology jobs, unprecedented tax revenue, and opportunity to city residents.'
