<<Home Niagara Falls Reporter Archive>> QUESTIONS REMAIN IN UNIFRAX DEAL

By Ron Churchill

Were public funds used to effectively bump Unifrax world corporate headquarters from Niagara Falls to Erie County to make extra room for the city's $44 million North End train station project?

If not, then things are certainly falling into place for the project.

Time will tell, but don't be surprised if TM Montante Development, the new owner of the Whirlpool Street Unifrax property, strikes a deal that will allow a portion or all of the property to be used as a parking lot for the proposed inter-modal train station, the site of which is adjacent to the Unifrax building.

State Assemblyman John Ceretto and City Council Chairman Sam Fruscione are still looking for answers to why Empire State Development Corp. gave $700,000 in tax dollars to help foot the bill for the Unifrax move out of Niagara County to Tonawanda in Erie County, and why local lawmakers weren't informed until it was a done deal.

"At the end of the day, I am going to get to the bottom of this," Ceretto said. "It really pisses me off."

"For a city that's losing jobs, I hope that our mayor didn't trade away 100-plus jobs and $8 million in annual payroll for use as a parking lot," Fruscione said.

"They were in these negotiations since May 24, 2011," Ceretto said of the talks between ESD and Unifrax.

"I, like many in the community, was disgusted to see that public dollars were being used to relocate a local job creator over the county line," Ceretto said.

Unifrax has insisted on confidentiality and has demanded that no other economic development agencies be involved in the deal.

Mayor Paul Dyster said during his re-election campaign that Unifrax was being "wooed very heavily by the state of Indiana" and called a connection between the train station and the relocation of Unifrax "ludicrous."

Dyster held a secret meeting last week with an ESD official and Thomas Montante, sources have confirmed. Ceretto said he was not invited. "It's entirely possible that Unifrax could have relocated to Indiana, or to the moon," one source remarked.

The Reporter filed a Freedom of Information Law request with ESD to obtain a copy of Unifrax's statement of need and requested other documents pertaining to the $700,000 grant. The requests had not been processed as of press time.

Ceretto filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the state of Indiana, the results of which "showed no proof that Indiana was trying to entice the company to move."

Ceretto wrote a letter Dec. 27 to ESD President Kenneth Adams requesting a meeting to discuss the Unifrax deal. No reply had been received as of press time, Ceretto said.

"Losing Unifrax was a blow to our city," Fruscione said. "These were good-paying jobs that will now benefit the tax rolls of Erie County and the Town of Tonawanda. For a city that's losing jobs, I hope ... that Empire State Development truly did their due diligence here. I'm thankful that Assemblyman Ceretto is asking tough questions."

Unifrax approached the city for help as far back as the Anello administration, according to published reports.

It's likely that Unifrax was lured into its posh new quarters by TM Montante Development.

Unifrax is in the process of moving this month to the Montante-owned Riverview Solar Technology Park in Tonawanda, where it will enjoy reduced energy costs, along with public funding, to develop its new 44,000-square-foot headquarters at 600 Riverwalk Parkway. The company will also add a research and development lab at the facility.

The news that Unifrax was moving was announced in an Oct. 4 news release by TM Montante Development and was picked up by the mainstream media about a week later.

In the press release, company President Thomas M. Montante credited the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise for their work on the deal to move Unifrax out of Niagara Falls.

"The collaboration with (BNE President and CEO) Thomas Kurcharksi and (BNE Business Development Manager) Tony Kurdziel ... was crucial to bringing this deal together. We also credit the Empire State Development team who worked side-by-side with us to advance this project," Montante said.

TM Montante Development is a BNE investor.

Virginia Cantera, spokesperson for TM Montante, did not return multiple calls to her office.

Dyster received the political endorsement of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP) and donations from its Political Action Committee. The BNP and the BNE that worked on the Unifrax deal are affiliate organizations and share office space on the same floor. Its officers serve on each other's boards.

The BNP says it includes nearly 2,500 employer members, working for improved business competitiveness and expanded economic activity in the region. The BNP advocates -- locally, and in Albany and Washington, D.C. -- for policies and resources to increase private sector investment and jobs. The BNP also offers programs and services to its members to increase their chances for business success.

"The public record from Indiana calls into question Empire State Development's assertion and begs the question of what exactly happened," Ceretto said of his FOIL request. "The people of Niagara Falls deserve answers. They deserve better than to read in the paper, after it's a done deal, about another corporation leaving the city, and they certainly deserve to know why New York state footed the $700,000 bill."

The Niagara County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution in November calling on Albany to pass an "anti-piracy" law to prevent Empire State Development from using its incentives to move companies within New York.

Former Niagara County legislator Renae Kimble was the lead sponsor of the resolution that calls on the State Legislature to rein in the ESD and place restrictions on the raiding of businesses in one community to relocate to another by the taxpayer-funded state agency.

The "pirate," in this case, appears to be TM Montante Development.

Sam Hoyt, regional president for ESD, said at the time that ESD would oppose such a bill.

Hoyt did not return a phone call to his office.

The Niagara County Legislature passed a resolution that accused ESD of having "a history of transferring jobs from Niagara County." It specifically mentioned a $1.3 million grant to First Niagara Bank to assist in relocation efforts of its corporate headquarters from Niagara County to the Larkin Building in Buffalo.

Copies of the resolution were sent to Kucharksi at the BNE, and Sam Hoyt at ESD, along with state and federal officials.

A $44 million train station at the city's North End?

"You must be out of your mind," Councilman Robert Anderson said. "What do the taxpayers get for their $40 million? To see three or four or five people get off from New York City? Can you use your welfare card to come up to the Falls? This is something some brain surgeon in Hooterville came up with."

State Sen. George Maziarz agreed the train station project was a "stupid idea."

"How many private sector jobs is that going to create?" Maziarz asked.

The big winner in the deal is Montante, which gets a high-end tenant for its Solar Park, along with the Whirlpool Street Unifrax building and parking lot. Coming in second is Unifrax, which gets a new state-of-the-art headquarters and $700,000 for the move.

In third place is Mayor Paul A. Dyster, who gets his train station parking lot. Sixteen-and-a-half million dollars in federal funds have already been allocated for the train station project.

And again, it looks like the losers are the taxpayers.

E-mail Ron Churchill at ronchurchill@yahoo.com.