Mayor Restaino’s YouTube Rants: From Eminent Domain to Imminent Disaster

By Nick Del Vecchio

Whatever you may think about Robert Restaino, the Niagara Falls mayor definitely likes the sound of his own voice. If you have any doubts about this, you might want to check out Restaino’s “Weekly Update” videos posted on YouTube. That is, of course, if the mayor’s voice is audible over the chirping of crickets, who appear to be the only witnesses to his weekly ponderings. Unfortunately, for Restaino, in addition to crickets, attorneys representing Niagara Falls Redevelopment have also discovered his videos, and are using the mayor’s own words against him in a recent petition filed in State Supreme Court.

The petition in question regards a previous eminent domain ruling by the court that awarded property owned by NFR, known legally as Parcel 0, to the city of Niagara Falls. The parcel is essential to the completion of NFR’s proposed digital data center to be located on prime property downtown. Restaino and his Hodgson Russ lawyers have selectively set their crosshairs on this parcel to prevent NFR’s Niagara Digital Campus from coming to fruition. But the mayor’s habit of putting his foot in his mouth may result in the city snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Seizures of property by the government via eminent domain require that the rightful owners receive compensation commensurate to the property’s value. NFR’s prime property downtown is estimated to be worth between $20-30 million, money the city doesn’t have. To avoid paying the statutorily required compensation, Restaino and his attorneys are now making the audacious claim that Parcel 0 was never actually owned by NFR because it had previously been a park. In his March 28, 2025 “Weekly Update” YouTube video, Restaino states the city’s new position regarding Parcel 0:

“In order to transfer a park, and the 10th Street playground was a park …the city would have had to gotten permission from the state, which they never did.”

In their petition to the court, NFR claims that this admission by Restaino nullifies the court’s previous eminent domain ruling in favor of the city. NFR is demanding that the Supreme Court vacate its previous decision because ownership of Parcel 0 was the necessary factual predicate for the court’s order. “This Court would not have, and could not have, authorized the City to take private property that is not, in fact, private property,” says NFR.

The petition cites public comments made by the City’s counsel that were made during two hearings held in June and September 2022.

“The [Properties are] privately owned, that’s why there’s an eminent domain proceeding….” states City’s counsel to the public.

And again: “The (Centennial Park) Project would utilize more or less all of the 9.8 +/- acres of the [Properties], which is owned by a private landowner in fee.”

NFR’s court document also quotes no less than half a dozen of Mayor Restaino’s YouTube “Weekly Updates.”

“…The City, through its Mayor, Robert Restaino, proclaimed in a public broadcast available on the Mayor’s YouTube channel that ‘…even though the highest court in the state of New York has said we
have the right to take [the Properties], we already own half of it.’ He was referring to the 4.2-acre Falls Street Property that the City previously represented to the public and in court filings was owned by NFR as a necessary condition to the eminent domain proceeding,” states the petition.

 “A week later, during his January 10, 2025 public broadcast, Mayor Restaino added: ‘I’ve shared with you the great news that we’ve received with regard to the eminent domain project: the fact that NFR
actually doesn’t own half of the property. They received a deed that was void from the moment it was delivered to them.’”

 “During his January 17, 2025 YouTube address, Mayor Restaino elaborated on the reasoning behind the City’s new position: ‘The problem is that before you can transfer a property that was once a park and playground, you need to get state approval. It’s something called a home rule request… When the deed was transferred, it wasn’t valid; it was void.’”

 “…So, what does that mean? That means that while this was the subject of the eminent domain proceeding, the City already actually owns half of this. So, we’re already in possession of this
(property),” says Restaino.

 “During his YouTube address, on February 28, 2025, Mayor Restaino affirmed the City’s position: ‘Our research has uncovered that the park at the corner of 10th and Falls Street [the Falls Street Property] was never properly transferred pursuant to state law, so as a consequence, the city of Niagara Falls still owns it,’” the petition reads.

 In his most recent YouTube video of May 15, 2025, Restaino does it again: “…Obvious information indicates that the transfer of the park, which is the portion of the property closest to 10th Street, was not properly transferred. …In fact, the city does still own the property.”

NFR counsel bases the conclusion of their petition on Mayor Restaino’s repeated admissions: “The Order (awarding the property to the City via eminent domain) should be vacated because, upon information and belief, if the City had disclosed its argument that NFR allegedly never owned the 4.2-acre Falls Street Property, the Court probably would have annulled the City’s factually inconsistent Determination and Findings.

“…The City’s allegation that it never lawfully conveyed the Falls Street Property to NFR 20 years ago… constitutes newly discovered evidence that probably would have produced a different determination by this Court. … Because the City has recently contradicted the facts on which the Order is based, NFR respectfully requests that the Court vacate the Order…”

And so, the legal chess match between the City and NFR goes on. Has Mayor Robert Restaino made one move too many is his quest for NFR’s coveted Queen on Falls Street? He’s been humming “We Are the Champions” weekly on YouTube as if victory for the city is a foregone conclusion. But if the Supreme Court reconsiders its previous eminent domain ruling based on the mayor’s public comments and awards the property back to NFR, Restaino will instead be singing a humiliating version of “Another One Bites the Dust.”