In 2022, New York State named North Tonawanda as the Round 5 winner of its Western New York Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) award -- a $10 million state investment designed to catalyze construction, economic activity, and quality-of-life improvements in a concentrated downtown area. Three years later, the canal-side city is seeing the results: multiple projects have reached completion, others are in final construction phases, and the physical transformation of Webster Street and the Niagara River waterfront is becoming visible to anyone who walks through downtown.

The city sits at the confluence of the Niagara River and the Erie Canal -- one of the most historically significant industrial waterways in North America -- and its DRI strategy leaned heavily into that identity. The December 2022 announcement from the Governor's office detailed 14 construction and development projects spread across four strategic goals: waterfront access, streetscape improvements, arts and culture, and business and housing development.

The Two Completed Landmark Projects

The most visible DRI completions to date are two historic adaptive reuse projects celebrated during North Tonawanda's hosting of the 2024 World Canals Conference -- a fitting setting for a city reinventing itself through its industrial heritage.

The Riviera Theatre Expansion: The historic Riviera Theatre, built in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, received a $1.2 million DRI award plus $500,000 in State Legislature funding to expand into an adjacent commercial building. The completed project added more than 6,000 square feet of new space, including ADA-compliant restrooms, a renovated concession area, a new box office, and an artist merchandise area. The theater hosts over 175 events per year and attracts approximately 100,000 annual visitors, making it the cultural anchor of Webster Street.

The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum Music Hall: Receiving $210,000 from the DRI along with $446,000 from Empire State Development and additional grants from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, NYS Parks, and the New York Power Authority, this project restored the Museum's Music Hall -- a portion of the historic complex that had partially collapsed in 1995. The restored space provides temperature and humidity-controlled exhibit space for the museum's rare band organ collection and houses the Wurlitzer Perforation Department exhibit. It is the only place in the world where band organ rolls are still produced using historically correct equipment.

The Broader Construction Wave

Beyond the two completed landmarks, North Tonawanda's DRI portfolio includes 12 additional funded projects. The full project list encompasses a wide range of construction types:

Waterfront and Public Space: A $156,000 project to construct a 300-foot public walkway along the Niagara River at 624 River Road, connecting to the existing bike trail. A $1 million placemaking improvement program covering Charles R. Fleischmann Park improvements, Webster and Main Street streetscape enhancements, electric vehicle charging station installation, and Manhattan Street parking lot upgrades.

Oliver Street Streetscape ($1.5 million): Sidewalk and crosswalk enhancements, pedestrian bump-outs, green space installation, increased pedestrian-scale lighting, and connectivity improvements along Oliver Street -- the city's secondary commercial corridor.

78 Bridge Street Waterfront Access ($750,000): This DRI line item supports the development of public waterfront access on Tonawanda Island -- the same site now moving forward as Bridge Street Landing, the $21.9 million mixed-use residential development by VisoneCo expected to break ground in summer 2026.

Additional Arts and Business Projects: The remaining DRI awards support arts organizations, small business development spaces, and the activation of vacant properties along the Webster Street corridor.

Enterprise Lumber and Silo: A Regional Model for Adaptive Reuse

One of the DRI's most recognized results is the Enterprise Lumber and Silo building at 211 Main Street, which won the 2025 Implementation Award from the Western New York American Planning Association. The project transformed a crumbling industrial building using $300,000 from a Restore NY grant and a NYSERDA Carbon Neutral Economic Development Grant -- one of the first such grants awarded statewide -- enabling a net-zero energy system to be fully implemented in an adaptive reuse context. According to Lumber City Development Corporation, the project has sparked additional investment and demonstrated that brownfield adaptive reuse is achievable in smaller upstate cities.

What Is Still Under Construction

The DRI's construction activity is not finished. North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec's 2026 State of the City address described the city as experiencing record development, with the DRI projects serving as a foundation for private investment that has followed. The Riverfront Vista project -- a former Metzger Removal site being redeveloped with a $1 million Restore NY grant -- represents the next wave of construction moving toward groundbreaking.

For contractors in the Northern Erie County and Niagara County market, the North Tonawanda DRI has created a multi-year pipeline of varied construction work: historic theater renovation, museum restoration, streetscape reconstruction, public waterfront construction, ground-up mixed-use residential development, and brownfield adaptive reuse. That breadth makes it one of the more diverse construction markets in the Buffalo-Niagara region, even if individual project dollar amounts are modest compared to the megaprojects underway in Orchard Park or along the Buffalo waterfront.

Sources

Governor Hochul: North Tonawanda DRI Transformational Projects, December 2022
Governor Hochul: Completion of Two Downtown North Tonawanda DRI Projects, World Canals Conference 2024
Lumber City Development Corporation: Downtown NT Projects
City of North Tonawanda: 2026 State of the City Address (PDF)
WKBW: Historic North Tonawanda Landmarks Revitalized