Holiday Inn Renovations Part of Revamped Niagara Falls

The unveiling of the renovated Holiday Inn hotel in Niagara Falls could not have come at a better time.

The 189-room Buffalo Avenue hotel’s new look arrived as Niagara Falls is seeing a record number of tourists visit the city this summer. Besides seeing its rooms and lobby renovated, Canadian investor Faisal Merani, who owns the hotel, built a massive arcade and landed a Tony Roma’s restaurant.

Merani’s project is one of three his company, Merani Holdings LLC, is undertaking in Niagara Falls that collectively represent nearly $35 million in private-sector investment. It is also one of several hospitality-based developments that have either been completed or are underway in Niagara Falls.

“The growth that’s happening here (Niagara Falls) is not incremental but collective,” said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul at a ceremony Friday marking the occasion. “You have to build these things, so people want to come.”

Statistics show that Niagara Falls is seeing a major upswing is visitors this year, largely due to targeted promotional campaigns by the Niagara Tourism & Convention Corp.

Tourists using the NTCC’s visitor center are up 91 percent and the city’s hotels, in June, reported an 82.4 percent room occupancy rate.

“The believers and developers waited a long time for days like this to come,” Hochul said.

Merani has just completed a major renovation of the Four Points by Sheraton hotel he owns, in Niagara Fall’s LaSalle neighborhood, and is turning the former and long-vacant Fallside Inn, also on Buffalo Avenue, into a Doubletree by Hilton hotel that’s due to open next year. The Doubletree project alone carries a $25 million development price tag.

“Unless you have private-sector investment dollars, you can’t turn the corner,” said state Sen. Robert Ortt, R-North Tonawanda.

Source: Buffalo Business First