Joe Anderson may be down, but he's not out when it comes to the Falls

   Joseph M. Anderson may face the prospect of federal prison time when he is sentenced next year to giving former Mayor Vince Anello $40,000 worth of no-interest loans the mayor was never asked to pay back.

   Federal prosecutors say the "loans" violated the public's right to honest government because neither he nor Anello told City Council members about them when Anderson had business before the city.

   That hasn't been the case since word of the loans first surfaced in the spring of May 2005. City and state leaders have continued to work with Anderson on tourism-related deals since, and Anderson tells The News Niagara Bureau he aims to continue his business pursuits despite his recent plea bargain.

   "No matter what happens to me or in the court or anything, I'm still pro-Niagara Falls," the entrepreneur behind the Smokin' Joe's gasoline and cigarette outlets said. "I still want to build a Native American city. I still want a major, major attraction year-round, and a successful city, bring it back to being a thriving city."

   City records show that companies registered to Anderson's Saunders Settlement Road business address on the Tuscarora Indian Nation own more than 20 properties in the downtown commercial area. Many of the properties are vacant, but the real estate holdings also include two hotels, a nightclub and a Third Street office building.

   Anderson also is rapidly moving forward with a plan to build a synthetic ice rink and snow tubing hill on a prime Falls property two blocks from the Rainbow Bridge.

   He also owns the former Wintergarden arboretum and is in the process of selling the glass-and-metal building and a lease for the adjacent East Pedestrian Mall to a state agency, USA Niagara Development Corp., for $1.6 million.

   Anderson has had limited success in the city, but he also has built a reputation as one of only a few downtown landowners willing to invest in projects in a landscape of empty buildings and vacant properties.

   It ought to be interesting to see how he newest deals pan out.