Sale clears way to raze Falls glass landmark
Wintergarden deal is for $1.2 million
NIAGARA FALLS — The $1.2 million sale of the glass Wintergarden on Rainbow Boulevard to a state development agency Thursday cleared the way for its demolition this summer.
USA Niagara Development Corp. closed a deal with businessman Joseph M. Anderson to buy the former arboretum and terminate a controversial vending agreement for a block between the Wintergarden and the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel.
Representatives for both sides described the closure of the Wintergarden sale as a key step toward ending development deadlock on the block where the Wintergarden and the Rainbow Centre mall now sit vacant.
“His feeling,” attorney David G. Boniello said of Anderson, “is the city has to move forward, and this is a starting point to open up Falls Street again. We’ve been devastated by Urban Renewal for 30-plus years.”
USA Niagara’s board of directors had approved paying up to $1.6 million for the building, but the purchase price was lowered to adjust for the cost of removing glass that is covered with an asbestos-filled glaze and repairing an adjacent wall, USA Niagara President Christopher J. Schoepflin said.
The sale of the Wintergarden also gave Anderson exclusive rights for five years to expand his nearby hotel, Quality Hotel and Suites, or to build a new hotel on a 56- foot wide parcel on the southern end of the Wintergarden footprint.
USA Niagara’s board has approved a $7.9 million plan to demolish the Wintergarden and replace it with a landscaped, cobblestone street that would connect to Old Falls Street and create a path between the casino and the entrance to Niagara Falls State Park.
The Wintergarden, a glass-and- steel structure designed by architect Cesar Pelli, opened in 1977 as a free public tropical garden. But the expense of heating and operating the building became too much for the city, which sold it in 2003 for $1 million to a group of investors.
Anderson, who operates the Smokin’ Joe’s gasoline and cigarette chain, purchased the building in August 2005 for an undisclosed price.
Anderson turned the building into an indoor arcade and playground, known as Smokin’ Joe’s Family Fun Center. The fun center operated until late 2007, when Anderson began to pursue a plan to demolish it.
USA Niagara later announced it would buy the building and tear it down.
“The architectural integrity of the building’s interior is gone,” Schoepflin said Thursday after the Wintergarden sale closed. “I was in there the last couple of days. Not only is it not the Wintergarden, it’s not the fun center. It was just stripped to the bone.”
Schoepflin said USA Niagara is working with Cordish Co. of Baltimore, which holds a long-term lease on the adjacent Rainbow Centre mall, as it moves forward with demolishing the Wintergarden and extending Old Falls Street.
Two ongoing lawsuits filed in August against the City of Niagara Falls by attorney John P. Bartolomei claim rights to two parcels on Old Falls Street based on a 1982 lease he contends is still in effect. Similar suits were thrown out by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. in 2006, and city attorneys argue the 1982 lease has been long terminated.
Schoepflin declined to comment on whether those lawsuits could impact the state’s project for Old Falls Street.
Anderson’s 2004 no-bid concession license for the East Pedestrian Mall, which was officially terminated Thursday, helped spark a federal investigation into a $40,000, no-interest loan Anderson gave former Mayor Vince V. Anello before Anello took office.
Anderson pleaded guilty in November to a federal charge of devising a scheme to deprive citizens of “the intangible right of the honest services of a public official.” He has yet to be sentenced. A similar case against Anello is still pending, and he denies any wrongdoing.
Anderson also plans to open an outdoor snow park and synthetic skating rink on First Street this summer.
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