Maid of the Mist lease deal questioned
Controversy in Canada casts spotlight on no-bid, 40-year arrangement on U. S. side
NIAGARA FALLS — Boats have chugged through the waters below the American and Horseshoe falls as far back as 1846, but unusual lease arrangements as old as the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Co. have gone largely unnoticed — until now.
Today’s Maid of the Mist Corp. holds one of only two 40-year leases for a state parks concession, a $39 million deal that was renewed in 2002 — without public bidding — and runs through 2043.
But the recent renewal process for a lease on the Canadian side became mired in controversy after a general manager for Ripley Entertainment, which owns several Falls, Ont., attractions, complained that the company had been shut out of the bidding.
The chairman of the committee that helps review the lease resigned in protest.
“Maybe the decision was the right one, but the process stunk,” said Bob Gale, a Niagara Parks commissioner and, until recently, chairman of the marketing and events committee. “My letter to everyone said we’re not representing the taxpayers of Ontario fairly.”
Renewal of the Maid of the Mist’s Ontario lease, which will expire next year, still needs the provincial government’s approval.
Gale, who said he believes negotiations have not been open and fair, said he has met with officials from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and wants it re-examined.
The Niagara Parks Commission has not released terms of the lease allowing Maid of the Mist boats to use public land, and a Ripley executive who requested a copy said he received the 34-page document with nearly all details — including the date it was signed and when it will expire — blacked out.
“Really, the Maid of the Mist’s lease since its inception back in 1846 — or whatever the date was — has just really never been public,” said Tim Parker, general manager of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! “It just always seems to have fallen under somebody’s radar screen.”
Boats operating under the Maid of the Mist name started running as a ferry service across the Niagara River in 1846.
In 1885, the same year the Niagara Reservation, now called Niagara Falls State Park, and the Ontario parks system was formed, the current company began taking tourists into the falls’ mist in an oak steamboat.
Its position as the first and only boat excursion in the river pool below the falls has helped the Maid of the Mist renew its exclusive contracts for more than a century.
The Maid of the Mist first signed a lease to use public land in Canada to dock its boats in 1898.
Its current lease with the Niagara Parks Commission in Ontario was signed in 1988 and will expire in November 2009, said Jill Skorochod, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Tourism.
Skorochod referred additional questions about the Maid of the Mist lease to John Kernahan, Niagara Parks Commission general manager, who did not return three messages last week.
On this side of the border, the Maid of the Mist’s Canadian contract helped pave the way for the renewal of its 40-year contract with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in 2002.
No bids were taken and no public hearing was held because the Canadian agreement gives the company exclusive access to the river below the falls, making it a “sole source” provider, said Angela Berti, a spokeswoman for Niagara Falls State Park.
The boats are stored on Canadian land.
The Maid of the Mist lease in this state describes the company as the “sole commercial entity with rights of access to provide scenic boat excursions from landings both on the American and Canadian sides of the lower Niagara pool.”
The state parks have only one other 40-year concession agreement: a controversial lease negotiated last year with Donald Trump’s Trump on the Ocean to build and operate a boardwalk restaurant in Jones Beach.
The Maid of the Mist pays the state a percentage of its receipts — a deal the comptroller’s office estimates will be worth $39 million through the end of the lease.
It also paid $5 million toward a $25 million project to upgrade the Prospect Point Observation Tower, the launching point for the Maid boats on the American shore.
The Maid of the Mist Corp. declined to discuss its leases or how they are negotiated.
“That’s a corporate commercial matter that we can’t discuss,” Tim Ruddy, vice president of marketing for the company, told The Buffalo News.
Gale said he has nothing against either the Maid of the Mist Corp. or Ripley’s but wants the renegotiating process to become more transparent.
“This is the biggest lease the Niagara Parks has,” Gale said.
“Niagara Parks has to be more transparent. We operate behind closed doors there, and no one knows what we do.”
