Niagara County Community College’s new Culinary Arts Institute could hold the key to development in the Cataract City.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer was in Niagara Falls Monday to pledge support for efforts to locate the institute in the long-abandoned Rainbow Centre Mall. The senator said NCCC officials told him they have raised $17.5 million of the project’s projected $20 million price tag.

“I am pledging to do everything I can to get federal support for (the remaining $2.5 million),” the senator said.

Surrounded by construction activity on the site of the former Wintergarden, Schumer said the culinary institute could help spur South End revitalization. The senator also said the facility could be a catalyst that would bring thousands of people to the city and make Niagara Falls a landmark culinary destination in the state.

“It brings things to a downtown area,” Schumer said. “It brings people and tourism and restaurants. It will be a creme de la creme of cooking schools.”

Hope for development of the city’s South End also relies on one man who controls large amounts of that neighborhood’s real estate.

Yet Howard Milstein, the money man behind Niagara Falls Redevelopment has done little to actually develop that land and has battled with a succession of Falls mayors.

In an effort to change the situation, Schumer said he and Falls Mayor Paul Dyster will meet with Milstein soon to discuss his future investment in the Falls. Schumer said the meeting was agreed upon in a phone conversation he had with Milstein on Friday.

“(Milstein) said in the past, his dealings with prior administrations were not good,” Schumer said. “So I suggested we should discuss getting him involved again and moving all those properties forward.”

The billionaire New York City-based real estate mogul owns hundreds of acres of South End property, most of it open fields or vacant buildings.

Dyster said he had asked Schumer to reach out to Milstein.

“With development beginning to break loose (in the Falls), we thought it was important to bring Mr. Milstein back,” Dyster said.

The mayor hopes meeting Milstein will raise the city’s profile with him.

“He’s a billionaire developer who owns property all around the world,” Dyster said. “We’ve often been told Niagara Falls is not a high priority for him. If (Schumer) indicates to him development is on the rise, that’s good.”

Neither Schumer nor the mayor were making any predictions about what they hope to achieve in a meeting with Milstein.

“There is no promise he is going to do anything,” Schumer said. “Just the promise that he will listen and maybe, when we get our heads together, we’ll be able to come up with something very good for Niagara Falls.”

Contact reporter Rick Pfeiffer at 282-2311, ext. 2252.