Niagara Falls Mega Mall

Niagara Falls New York was once considered as the site for a Mega-mega Mall as proposed by the Ghermezian brothers, known as world famous mall builders. The project was presented to the City of Niagara Falls New York in 1987 and for several months was seriously considered by elected officials.

The four Ghermezian brothers,  Eskandar, Nader, Raphael and Bahman were Iranian born and their father Jacob had built their fortune from selling Persian rugs in Montreal. The Ghermezian brothers had already built a successful mall project in Edmonton Canada and had just signed an agreement to build the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota.

The Niagara Falls Mall was projected to have a huge indoor water park, amusement rides and retail outlets from around the world. The construction alone would have created an influx of jobs similar to the Niagara Power project of the late 1950’s. Yet, despite wall-to-wall news coverage and media conferences the project never got beyond the discussion stage.

The Ghermezian project is one that would now be considered poor timing as the climate in Niagara Falls in the 1980’s for redevelopment was not as it is today. New York State at that time did manage to put together a financial incentive package, but it was far short of what the Ghermezian’s were looking for and they moved on.

Niagara Falls has been the bridesmaid for several other projects over the past seventy years missing out on the site for the United Nations in 1945 and Disney World in the 1960’s.