I stayed at a falls view hotel in a jacuzzi suite for about $85 USD a couple of years ago. I doubt very much you're ever going to find something like that with that kind of view in Manhattan.
$85 US? That's great. When I tried booking for a weekend in 2000, travelocity.com didn't have anything with a view for less than $200 CDN. A youth hostel was the only way we could afford to stay within easy walking distance of the falls.
As someone who used to live in Niagara Falls, that city is going down hill faster than Top Thrill Dragster ;) but anyways, any development for the area would be nice, but I hope that they learn from other endeavors in the area, including the many uninhabited industrial parks of Wheatfield, the practically abandoned Summit Park Mall, and not to mention the city of NF itself. The area needs something to jump start the economy to hopefully return to the prosperity of the 1950s.