There’s a run-down shopping mall with only two active businesses. Water drips from its skylights. A shabby covered walkway attached to the mall features graffiti, broken windows and escalators that don’t work…

Frank R. Parlato Jr. manages a nine-story glass office building that is one of the first sights tourists see when they enter the United States from the Rainbow Bridge. It is tangled in litigation.

The lawsuit is just the latest turbulence to emerge since Parlato stood on the top of the former Occidental Chemical headquarters in December 2004 and talked about his grand plans for the building.

At the time, Parlato was best known for real estate deals in low-income Buffalo neighborhoods that were investigated by federal regulators and led to an agreement he would stop selling federally insured housing for a year.

Parlato said he headed a limited liability company named One Niagara that had acquired the building through foreclosure from a group of investors who had dug a 40-foot hole on the site for a failed plan to build an underground aquarium.

What Parlato didn’t disclose at the time was that one of the aquarium investors, David Ho, retained financial interest in the building. Now, a legal battle over control of the building and a potentially lucrative cash parking business on the site has pitted Parlato and Ho against each other.

Meanwhile, the appearance of the building has been slow to turn around.

“We spent a lot of money enhancing the place, and it’s still not perfect, but this year, we’re going to beautify the place,” Parlato said. “It still has a long way to go. It’s not perfect, but it’s not horrible.”

Within a year after Parlato became involved, the building lost its sole remaining office tenant. Electronically controlled aluminum shutters on its windows were removed. Parlato hatched a plan to use cooking oil to power the building for a short time, and it took two years to fill the giant excavation left from the failed aquarium venture.

The businesses that Parlato soon opened on the site did little to ease the concerns of local tourism leaders. Vendors hawked sunglasses and T-shirts from card tables outside the building. Parlato began operating a paid parking lot in the excavation after filling half of the hole.

Last summer, giant fans circulated warm air through the first-floor lobby, where a food court, souvenir stands and a small bar catered to tourists. The building is now closed for the winter and is nearly a million dollars behind in taxes. Parlato said he is about to make a “substantial” payment toward the taxes.