A Baltimore developer is donating his rights to the Rainbow Centre mall for Niagara County Community College's culinary institute, a bequest that would bring back life to the long-shuttered mall and could serve as a catalyst for more Niagara Falls development.

The donation from David S. Cordish, who owns a long-term lease on the mall, came as a surprise on Saturday, and is estimated to be worth millions -- easily the largest gift the college has received in its 23-year history.

"In the opinion of experts with whom we have consulted, this is likely the most valuable property in Niagara Falls and perhaps even the entire Western New York area," said NCCC President James P. Klyczek. "The proximity of the land to the Niagara Falls State Park, the Falls and the Rainbow Bridge to Canada is unequalled."

Cordish also is donating a one-acre parcel of land at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Old Falls Street to the college's foundation, the school's fundraising arm.

The announcement about Cordish's plan was made Saturday night during the NCCC foundation's annual scholarship gala at the campus in Sanborn.

"We are overwhelmed by the generosity of David Cordish and the Cordish Group in the awarding of the Rainbow Centre and the neighboring lot to the NCCC Foundation," said Foundation Chairperson Deborah Brewer. "This is the largest single donation ever made to our foundation and I cannot overstate the significance of the impact a donation such as this has on all our board members who work tirelessly to raise funds for student scholarships."

Officials were quick to point out Saturday that the donation does not mean the institute is a done deal. The plan still needs the approval of myriad a variety of government agencies, including the Niagara Falls City Council and the Niagara County Legislature.

The mall was built as part of a complex, public-private venture, with the city owning the shell of the building and Cordish holding a lease on the interior mall space until 2056.

"This is the first step in what I think will be a very long journey," said State Sen. George Maziarz, who was joined at the news conference by Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte and Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster, "but having control over the Rainbow Centre mall ... is very important."

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Related: Rainbow Centre mall at a glance

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The two-year college long has been interested in using about a third of the mall to house its Hospitality and Tourism Center and Culinary Arts Institute, and has been negotiating a price with Cordish for more than a year.

Negotiations had broken down, so the Saturday's announcement came as a surprise.

Cordish, the Baltimore developer who opened the Rainbow Centre in 1982 and is credited with building successful shopping centers in other markets, has not been able to match that success in Western New York.

For his part, Cordish had reiterated several times that he hasn't given up on Niagara Falls and said he liked what he heard about the culinary school.

He told The Buffalo News this year that the NCCC proposal was a "grand slam home run" for Niagara Falls that would bring retail tenants and hundreds of students downtown. But discussions between his company and the public entities needed to forge a deal had not yielded a workable figure to buy out Cordish's interest in the property.

Klyczek described how the developer called him late one evening and asked if the college really wanted to move forward with the project at the Rainbow Centre, which closed in 2000.

Of course, Klyczek told him.

"Well, I've decided to give you the property," Cordish told him. "You can have it."

Cordish was not in attendance for the announcement Saturday.

Privately, local officials said the property would be a huge tax write off for the developer. The company has said it pays about $107,000 each year to the city for its lease, and another $400,000 annually to maintain the empty building.

But officials said that Cordish is genuinely interested in Niagara Falls turning the corner and is 100 percent behind the NCCC project.

"I think he has come under criticism for inactivity at the Rainbow mall," Dyster said. "His desire to show that he's a good citizen and cares about Niagara Falls and Niagara County I think were all factors into his motivation."

Klyczek said the donation was priceless, but when pressed he said the property was worth multi-millions.

The college would use only 70,000 square feet of the roughly quarter-million square feet of mall space. It would include the college's hospitality, tourism and culinary institute and its restaurant, wine store and bakery, a project that totals about $17 million, Klyczek said.

The rest of the mall, and the one-acre parcel, would then be turned over to the city and its state development agency for redevelopment.

"It really puts the culinary institute in a global spotlight," Dyster added. "This project is likely a tipping point in terms of the redevelopment downtown. I think it creates a massive impetus for redevelopment, not just for the rest of the mall, but other areas of downtown."

jrey@buffnews.comnull