Plans for long-abandoned Ontario construction site keep disintegrating

An enormous hotel and residential complex that was primed to replace a long-abandoned construction site and become the tallest in Niagara Falls appears to have been put on ice, and you might not want to hold your breath for the tourist hotspot's promised skyline transformation.

The site of a future 72-storey tower first proposed for the Southern Ontario city in 2019 and approved by the local council that November has sat idle for over five years – and that soaring skyscraper concept that made headlines around the country looks like it may have to spend much longer on the back burner.

A new development application for the long-abandoned site at 6609 Stanley Avenue reveals that the developer behind the enormous project has heavily scaled back its ambitions amid tough economic times.

Plans to develop the roughly triangular site have started and stopped multiple times for over a quarter century now. Initially conceived as a new Crowne Plaza hotel property, construction was halted in 2000 and then again nine years later, with just a partial parking structure built. That structure has sat abandoned since 2009.

Google Street View

In new paperwork filed with Niagara Falls' Committee of Adjustment, the site owners have applied to rezone the property to allow "commercial parking structure" as a permitted use, and to repurpose the long-abandoned structure into a new paid parking facility.

Documents state that "at this time, the applicant is not pursuing the construction of the 72-storey mixed-use building. Instead, the applicant is requesting that use of the existing structure as a commercial parking garage be permitted in the interim."

The wording of this statement all but confirms that the approved tower plans remain a future possibility, and Niagara Falls could one day see this new landmark actually constructed as first envisioned.

The Hariri Pontarini Architects-designed tower approved for the site in 2019 would have added an iconic "bottle opener" shape to the local skyline, evocative of the 2008-built Shanghai World Financial Center, soaring almost 254 metres above the Falls.

City of Niagara Falls

For now, at least, locals can instead look forward to more paid parking options and wait on literally any of the many tall buildings planned for the city to actually come to fruition.