Sep. 30—Niagara Falls Redevelopment — the company that has pitched a $1.5 billion data center proposal for the City of Niagara Falls — has so far this year put the bulk of its campaign donations behind local Republican candidates and committees, including GOP mayoral challenger Carl Cain.
Records on file with the New York State Board of Elections show the company making seven campaign donations totaling $12,126 through the first nine months of 2023.
With the exception of a $2,500 donation made to state Sen. Tim Kennedy, a Democrat from Buffalo, the funds have gone exclusively to Republicans in Niagara County, including Cain whose campaign committee — Friends of Carl Cain — received a $1,000 donation from the company in June.
The state records show Cain's campaign committee also received a total of $375 in donations from Roger Trevino, NFR's long-time executive vice president. The donations included two contributions totaling $125 in May and a $250 contribution in July.
State election board records show Niagara Falls Redevelopment also donated $1,350 in June to the Niagara Falls Republican City Committee.
In addition, the state elections board shows Niagara Falls Redevelopment, LLC donated $500, also in June, to Friends of Christopher McKimmie. The Niagara Falls Police Department lieutenant is the endorsed Republican in this year's race for the Niagara County Legislature's Third District seat. He is facing endorsed Democrat Noelle Citarella in the race to replace outgoing Third District representative Mark Grozio, a Democrat who decided against seeking re-election.
Cain, the endorsed Republican in this year's race for Falls mayor, is one of two challengers looking to defeat incumbent Robert Restaino. Local contractor Demetreus Nix will also be on the November ballot as a mayoral candidate on the independent We All We Got line.
Cain's campaign committee raised $5,572 through the end of September compared to Restaino's 2023 fundraising efforts which showed his campaign committee has taken in $16,898 so far this year.
The donations to Cain's campaign committee from Niagara Falls Redevelopment and Trevino come as the company continues an ongoing legal battle involving efforts by Restaino and his administration to secure, through the city's power of eminent domain, 10 acres of land the company owns for the purposes of developing Centennial Park, a $150 million "events campus" concept endorsed by the incumbent mayor.
In prior years, including during his initial run for mayor in 2019, Niagara Falls Redevelopment and its owners, New York City real estate developers Howard and Edward Milstein, supported Restaino's campaign efforts both in spirit and with donations to his campaign committee.
Cain, incumbent Republican city Councilman Vincent Cauley and Mike Gawel, a Republican who is running with the party's endorsement in an effort to secure a council seat this year, have all previously expressed support for NFR's alternative proposal for the same 10-acre site, a $1.5 billion data center that the company says would be entirely privately financed.
In response to questions about the company's campaign donations, company spokesperson Jim Haggerty said: "NFR supports candidates who are serious about bringing jobs and economic opportunity to the residents of Niagara Falls. We had hoped Robert Restaino would be that kind of mayor. We now see that is not the case."
Cain said, as it has been presented by the company, he is inclined to support NFR's Niagara Digital Campus, a project the company said it intends to undertake in partnership with Inducon, a Toronto-based firm that has been involved in similar projects in Canada in the past.
He notes that, in light of Restaino's insistence that the city pursue Centennial Park on the same property where NFR said it intends to start building, the digital campus and its promise of at least 500 new jobs won't happen under the current administration.
Cain opposes the ongoing eminent domain fight, which he has said is already costing Falls taxpayers money in terms of legal fees. He believes attempting to build another convention center in a community where the old Niagara Falls Convention and Visitor Center failed years ago would represent another misstep for the city.
I just think that the city trying to take this property or any property for another convention center is a failed methd that has been done with urban renewal," he said.
As for NFR's 20-plus-year presence in the Falls, which has been marked by several promises of development with no visible progress, Cain said he blames that situation on the failure of prior city leaders to impose deadlines for completing specific projects not on the company which he believes has followed the rules that have been in place since it entered into a Master Redevelopment agreement with the city in the late 1990s.
If elected mayor, Cain said he would have an "open mind" when it came to dealing with NFR, saying he'd like to have an open dialogue with company officials about their plans and to discuss how both parties can make Niagara Falls better.
"I've heard several people complain that they haven't done anything," Cain said. "I don't blame the baby. I blame the babysitter. If they paid their taxes and cut the grass and we don't have any stipulations on them to do anything else, what have they done wrong?"
Other recipients of 2023 campaign donations from Niagara Falls Redevelopment include:
—Republican Niagara County Clerk Joe Jastrzemski whose campaign committee received a $2,500 donation in January;
—The Niagara County Republican Committee, which received a $1,776 donation in March and State Sen. Robert Ortt, the state senate's Republican minority leader from North Tonawanda, whose campaign committee received $2,500, also in March.
Two more donations from another entity with nearly the same name and the same Niagara Falls address were also made to elected officials in Niagara County this year.
The donations, made by Niagara Fall Redevelopment — without the "s" on Falls — included a $1,000 contribution in April to Republican Eighth District Niagara County Legislator and current County GOP Chairman Richard Andres and a second $1,000 donation to state Assemblyman Mike Norris, R-Lockport. Both donations were made in April.
Like Niagara Falls Redevelopment's donations, four of the contributions made by Niagara Fall Redevelopment were made from the same Niagara Falls address — 800 Main St., Suite 3D. Two others made by Niagara Falls Redevelopment were made out of the company's former Falls address, 1625 Buffalo Ave. The donation made to Ortt's campaign showed an address of 360 Rainbow Blvd., which is the address of the One Niagara welcome center in downtown Niagara Falls.
