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After years of pursuing one, Niagara Falls is landing a new university.

It is being announced Monday morning at the Hatch building on Queen Street. The downtown core will welcome the University of Niagara Falls, backed by private company Global University Systems, which owns and operates higher-education institutions around the world, providing a variety of programs and courses to approximately 85,000 students.

We officially got the licence for a new university in Niagara Falls. This is big and it's historic," said Mayor Jim Diodati.

Several dignitaries are expected to be present during Monday's announcement, including Diodati, officials from Global University, Jill Dunlop, the minister of colleges and university, and Sean Kennedy, president of Niagara College.

They've (Global University) got medical schools in the Caribbean. They've got one of the oldest law schools in England," said Diodati.

This will be the jewel in their crown and what an advantage for attracting international students, being the name Niagara Falls, which is as famous as any city in the world."

He said the university will initially operate out of rented space at the Hatch building until a specific facility is built, as well as residences, downtown.

Diodati said students will be taught by tenured" professors in several courses, one being bio-medical, which will perfectly tie in with our new (planned) hospital."

There's going to be a lot of things that they've done deliberately that will be a natural fit for Niagara Falls for what we're doing - they studied Niagara Falls every which way to centre, they wanted to make sure that everything they do was perfectly symbiotic with where we are and where we want to take the city," he said.

While there's a post-secondary presence already downtown by way of a Niagara Falls Ryerson Innovation Hub (an incubator that helps start-up businesses get off the ground), attracting a university downtown has been years in the making for Diodati.

I put this in my 10-year forecast 12 years ago - it took a little longer than expected, of course we had a few delays with COVID, but it took us to China, it took us to India," he said.

In the past, I cold-called almost every university president in Ontario whose strategic initiatives aligned with the city's. Several years ago, we toured Brantford, and we saw how Wilfrid Laurier transformed Brantford's downtown, which was a lot like ours, with bringing students because then you need grocery stores and the restaurants are busier, and the barbers are busier. I'm as excited about this as anything we've ever done in the city."

Diodati said attracting major projects to the city, such as hospitals and universities, take time, crediting municipal staff for its work on the initiative.

You don't build them in one term of office, it takes several terms, sometimes several governments. This is going to be, possibly, the biggest thing we've ever done in this city."

(Story in development. Check back for updates).

Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond.spiteri@niagaradailies.com