20-05-2025
NFR: Data center tax payment plan could aide arena project
Backers of an announced plan to build a $1.5 billion data center in downtown Niagara Falls on Monday floated the idea of using a portion of tax-related payments from the project to cover costs associated with another big idea in the same area — Mayor Robert Restaino's proposed arena and events campus known as Centennial Park.
During a Zoom call organized by the data center's lead advocate, Niagara Falls Redevelopment, company representatives suggested they're open to using a specialized payment program that would allow tax payments from their project to be placed into a fund the city could use for a designated purpose such as paying for Centennial Park, which is expected to cost at least $150 million.
NFR representatives, joined by the company's economic consultant, Michael N'Dolo of the MRB Group, said municipal governments that would derive tax revenue from the data center could authorize what's called Pilot Increment Financing, or PIF, for the project. The tax payment structure allows local governments to enter into payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with the owners of specific redevelopment sites, with a portion of the proceeds from those projects being set aside to cover capital improvements.
Restaino and some city lawmakers have previously said they may borrow funds through the bond market to cover costs associated with building Centennial Park.
During Monday's Zoom session, NFR's long-time Executive Vice President Roger Trevino suggested authorizing the so-called 'PIF' to be created for the company's Falls data center could help the city cover the cost of any such bond.
'This is the revenue stream that would be used to pay down a bond,' Trevino said. 'At present, all the discussions have not involved a mechanism to pay down the bond.'
Monday's review of the project and its potential benefits included guests invited by NFR, including what Trevino said were developers, attorneys, political activists, tour operators and school officials.
City Council Chairman Jim Perry did not attend the session but said on Monday he had no faith in the possibility of the data center supporting the city's arena efforts, suggesting it's a 'waste of time' to discuss another 'false story' being put out by NFR.
Perry said he's convinced, based on the company's track record in the Falls, which has included decades of promising developments that have never materialized, that the data center is 'just another publicity stunt.'
'I will tell you with no hesitation, there is no data center going to be built,' Perry said.
Restaino, with support from Perry and some other council members, has aggressively sought to use the city's power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire 10 acres of NFR's land off John B. Daly Boulevard near the intersection of 10th and Falls streets for the purposes of developing Centennial Park.
NFR insists its consultants have determined that the same exact 10 acres must be the starting point for the first phase of its data center, which the company publicly announced in 2022 with its partner in the project, the Toronto firm Urbacon. The companies claim the first building would be part of a larger nine-building complex to be developed on part of the 140 acres of land NFR owns to the east of Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino.
The city and the company have for years been at odds over which of the so-called two projects for the Falls has more merit.
Restaino, like Perry, has consistently held that the company's data center and its lofty revenue, tax and jobs numbers are not real, while NFR has frequently questioned the cost of Centennial Park, the chances of the city obtaining the money needed to build it from the state and the project's ability to offer any real return on investment for taxpayers.
On Monday, Trevino suggested his company is not opposed to the city having an arena, despite what some officials have viewed as the company's opposition to Restaino's idea.
'We are not against an events center, never have been,' Trevino said. 'In fact, we actually believe in the two-project solution.'
Some critics view NFR's plan as a ruse designed to inflate the value of the 10-acre site in court. As part of the eminent domain process, final value will be determined by a local judge based, in part, on the property's 'highest and best use.'
Restaino's administration, in documents filed in 2022 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, estimated it would cost $10 million for land acquisition, which would be about $1 million per acre.
Data center advocates, including the Niagara Reporter, have suggested that the site, due to its proximity to the old Niagara Splash Park property across John B. Daly Boulevard, has a true value closer to $20 million.
NFR and its partners previously sought $75 million for the Splash Park site, which was forcibly acquired by the state using its power of eminent domain to support the development of Seneca Niagara Casino. In a 2010 decision, former Niagara County State Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch determined the Splash Park land had a final value of $17.17 million, or about $1 million per acre.
NFR spokesperson James Haggerty previously called suggestions that the company introduced its data center proposal in an effort to drive up the value of its 10 acres 'utter nonsense.' He also noted that NFR and Urbacon first inquired about the possibility of building a data center on land in the Falls eight months before Restaino first publicly discussed his plans for Centennial Park in October 2021 and more than a year before the city formally commenced eminent domain proceedings involving the company's 10 acres.
NFR officials continue to insist the data center proposal is genuine and have hired MRG Group to reinforce the point by conducting a study of the project's potential economic benefits.
The Rochester-based firm's study claims NFR and Urbacon's Niagara Digital campus could result in 'more than $414 million in additional tax revenues' for the city, county, state and local school district over a 20-year period. It also claims the data center development would create 'almost 1,000 jobs per year on average' with estimated earnings of '$1.66 billion over 20 years.'
On Monday, N'Dolo spent about a half hour reviewing his company's findings including MRB group's suggestion that tax revenues resulting from the development of the data center over 20 years would equal more than $400 million in total, including $298 million for the city and Falls school district, $54 million for Niagara County and $62 million for the state.
The MRB study calculates what it calls a 'property tax savings to a 'typical' owner of an average-priced single-family home,' concluding that the homeowner would 'save approximately $14,603 over 20 years' or 'an average of approximately $730 per year.' The consultant defines the 'savings' as 'revenues that the city and school district otherwise would have to collect via their respective tax levies.'
'If the project moves forward, you get this; if the project doesn't move forward, you don't get this,' N'Dolo said.
Data center advocates did not directly answer a question from the Niagara Gazette about what the city may be doing, or not doing, to prevent NFR and Urbacon from moving forward with the data center.
Haggerty did say that the firm submitted updated documents for the data center to the city's planning board last week. Those documents include an updated application to establish a Negotiated Planned Development District, also known as a Planned Unit District, for the purposes of developing the data center in the city's South End. The updated planning documents, which would require approval from the city before the project can move forward, will be made available on NFR's digital campus website on Tuesday, according to Haggerty.
'All we need is cooperation to put shovels in the ground and move this forward,' Haggerty said.
Trevino said there are still many 'moving parts' to this type of development and with a project of the size and magnitude of the data center. He said his company remains open to answering questions and doing its part to make the plan happen.
'At the end of the day, what we need here are jobs and we need high-tech, not low-paying jobs. We need good-paying jobs,' he said.
