The bottle opener is a go.

Niagara Falls councilors voted last month to approve zoning amendments to construct a 72-storey mixed-use residential development for construction at 6605 Stanley Avenue. At the vote, the building was variously called a “landmark” and “world-renowned”. It will be one of the tallest buildings in Canada, and by far the tallest hotel in Niagara Falls.

Once complete, the building will contain 456 hotel units, 275 residential units and more than 230 parking spaces. Its construction budget is estimated at $400 million.

David Falletta, a planning consultant representing the applicant, indicated that construction work on site will create as many as 500 full-time equivalent jobs, as well as $9 million in development charges and $5 million in property taxes. Around $2.7 million in community benefits were also negotiated to allow for the building’s height.

As if the height of the building weren’t enough to attract attention, the building’s shape certainly is. Lean and tall, the building’s upper 16 floors are designed in a configuration that could only be called a bottle opener. A sky garden sits above floor 56. Above it is a sky link that occupies some of the void in the opener’s hole, and at the building’s summit is a sky bridge.

Toronto-based Hariri Pontarini Architects are responsible for the design. The company is known for a number of important designs in the GTA, including The Well. It recently won the RAIC International Prize for architecture for its design of the Baha’i Temple of South America in Santiago, Chile.

It isn’t yet known when construction will start, or how a contractor for the project will be selected, but the developer wants to see the building go into the ground quickly.