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http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/20...ey-island.html http://static.flickr.com/79/206198547_bd0b51ea8c_o.jpg? http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/4...be87e70d_o.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/4...f205053d_o.jpg |
I hope they get built. The big tower seems interesting.
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The City wants the towers moved about a block away. I don't see that it makes much difference, but we'll see what's worked out. |
Daily News
Parks set on Coney ad-venture Asks bids on rock-climb wall, trapeze BY JIMMY VIELKIND March 19th 2007 The Parks Department is taking a second crack at spicing up the Coney Island beachfront with action-packed activities after similar plans fizzled last season. The agency is looking for contractors to operate "rock-climbing walls, rappelling walls, trampolines, ropes courses and trapeze," according to a request for bids released recently. "Parks may also consider proposals for the operation of water sports activities, such as 'banana boat' rides or parasailing, as part of this concession," the document said. "The rental or operation of Jet Skis or any other personal watercraft, however, will not be permitted." Bids are due in mid-April, but agency officials couldn't say whether things would be up and running by summer. A similar request last year drew no respondents, but the agency has increased advertising and outreach efforts. "We're not sure why we didn't get responses the last time around - it might have been a question of people seeing the ads too late," said Parks Department spokesman Eric Abramson, noting that the agency is also "talking it up" to current Coney Island business owners. The hope is that what is currently a lightly used parcel in Steeplechase Plaza near KeySpan Park just off W. 19th St. will become an extension of the amusements east of Stillwell Ave. - some of which have been cleared by developer Thor Equities as it bids to develop housing and rides in the area. But there may be a deeper problem. Despite ongoing efforts to revitalize the neighborhood's amusement district and convert it to year-round operations, business is still very seasonal. That could make it hard for an operator to recoup the initial investment required for a business - which one veteran operator estimated at roughly $1 million. "It sounds like they would want a fortune just to go in there," said Rich Welter, a former Long Islander who now owns Sunset Watersports in Key West, Fla. "At 50 bucks for a parasail ride, you've got to do a lot of rides to make it happen." Parks Department officials remain optimistic and have expanded last year's request to include Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Several bidders showed up for a site tour in Coney Island last week. "People like all different kinds of recreation, and while Coney Island already has many offerings, this is just another avenue to increase the variety of our recreational offerings," Abramson said. |
NY Sun
Astroland Is Prepared To Ride Into the Sunset http://www.nysun.com/pics/51181_main_large.jpg Coney Island's Astroland prepares to open for its last season this year. By ELIOT BROWN March 26, 2007 Workers at Coney Island's Astroland did over the weekend what they do every spring: clean up the ticket booths and prepare the rides for the April 1 opening. This year was different in that the opening will be the last of the annual rituals at Coney Island's only remaining true amusement park. A developer, Thor Equities, founded by Joseph Sitt, intends to shut it down in the fall to make room for a total overhaul of the area. The owner of Astroland, Carol Hill Albert, who also owns the Cyclone roller coaster, sold the site to Thor in the fall for $30 million, property records indicate, a deal she said she was reluctant to make. "I couldn't risk going out of business," she said, contending that years of anticipated construction on Thor's property presented a large obstacle. Ms. Albert, whose family has owned Astroland for all 40 years of its existence, said there were too many bureaucratic obstacles to year-round amusements on her site. "I think Joe Sitt has been taking all the city's attention and energy," she said. A spokesman for the city's Economic Development Corporation, Andrew Brent, denied that preferential treatment was given to any developer and said the city was surprised when Ms. Albert sold the Astroland site to Thor last fall. While the final season at Astroland may not signify the last chapter in the tale of Coney Island, it represents the end of a volume in the amusement hub's storied anthology. In place of the usual small-scale rides and game booths common in Coney Island history, there likely will be large parcels of amusements owned by a single operator, the executive director of the Coney Island History Project, Charles Denson, said. The president of the nonprofit Coney Island USA, Richard Zigun, said that while he was disappointed with Astroland's closing, a large developer could be very beneficial for the area's revitalization efforts. "The idea of assembling a 10-acre package for one developer to do lots of rides is a good thing," he said. But, like a growing chorus of area opponents, he is displeased with Thor's insistence on building residential units in the heart of the amusement district. When Thor started buying land to develop new amusements a few years ago, the community, long awaiting a rebirth, reacted with excitement, Ms. Albert said. As it became clear that Thor wanted nearly 1,000 residential units inside the district, opposition mounted, Ms. Albert said, adding that her financial analyses show that amusements are viable without condos. "You could make money year-round in the amusement business in Coney Island by building a hotel or hotels instead of condos," she said. Opponents of Thor's apartment proposal will conduct a protest at City Hall Friday. A spokesman for Thor, Lee Silberstein, said the company is still discussing the plan with the city. |
NY Post
CYCLONE SWIRLS AROUND CONEY ISLAND BUILDER By RICH CALDER March 26, 2007 City officials have come out swinging against the developer promising a Vegas-glitz makeover for Coney Island's prime real estate - saying he's nothing but a huckster with a history of flipping properties for a fast buck. Several officials told The Post they're concerned that Joseph Sitt's next selling spree could involve the massive assemblage of beachfront land his Thor Equities has bought up in Coney Island - especially if City Hall doesn't allow his planned $2 billion entertainment complex to include luxury housing. "The guy has a track record of flipping land for big bucks," said one source close to the project. "He's done it already in Coney Island and other Brooklyn projects like [Downtown Brooklyn's] Albee Square Mall, and who's to say he won't play the city again?" Chuck Reichenthal, a member of the city's Coney Island Development Corp., is worried Thor will hold up the plan either by selling out or by holding out to see if the next mayor is willing to allow the housing. "I look out my [Surf Avenue] office window, and what I see now is very sad," he said. "They're beginning to create a ghost town." The war over Coney Island's future came to a boil last month when City Planning Chairwoman Amanda Burden said at a Crain's breakfast presentation that there was no room for housing in the seaside plan. "Amusements are incompatible with immediate adjacent residential use," Burden said. Lynn Kelly, president of the CIDC, was more cautious about criticizing Sitt. "Is there a concern? Sure. But we're moving forward with our rezoning plan, and we're hopeful that, once it's complete, the developer will create something great for Coney Island," she said. Other officials were more skeptical. They note that when Sitt bought the Albee Square Mall on Fulton Street five years ago for $24 million, he talked about giving the gritty site the same type of Vegas-style makeover he's now pitching for Coney Island. Instead, Sitt spent $10 million rehabbing the mall - which he renamed The Gallery at Fulton Street - but never followed through on his grand plan. Then after the city rezoned to allow for larger development there, Sitt sat on the mall before finally agreeing last January to sell it for $125 million. "It's a great deal for him and it's going to bring larger-scale development there by the new buyer, but it's not going to be the 'Bellagio of malls' that Sitt said he was going to turn it into," a source said. In Coney Island, Sitt last year sold one of the properties he bought for $90 million - a 168,000-square-foot tract known as the Washington Bath House site - after the city said it would allow residential development there. A spokesman for Thor Equities, Lee Silberstein, insisted that the company isn't planning to back out of Coney Island. Thor is "confident that working [with the Bloomberg administration], it will be able to rebuild Coney Island as a place worthy of its great legacy," he said. http://www.nypost.com/seven/03262007/photos/news002.jpg |
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'FREAK'-OUT OVER CONEY CONDO PLAN By RICH CALDER March 27, 2007 Get ready for a Coney Island freak show on the steps of City Hall. A group upset over a developer's push to build luxury housing in the heart of the famed amusement district has organized a "No Condos in Coney" rally for Friday at City Hall - featuring burlesque performers and other quirky characters dressed in mermaid outfits, face paint and wild attire. The hundreds expected to show support for the city's plan to make over the seaside amusement district without any residential buildings are then planning a march up Broadway that could rival the annual Mermaid Parade. "This is going to be a celebration of the true spirit of Coney Island, which I believe [developer Thor Equities] can't comprehend," event organizer Diana Carlin, 33, said. Asked about the rally, Thor issued a statement saying it "shares the view that Coney Island needs to be saved, which is why . . . Thor's plan calls for the largest investment ever made in new amusements." |
NY Post
CONEY IS. CONDO PULLBACK By RICH CALDER March 28, 2007 A developer proposing a $2 billion, Vegas-style entertainment complex for Coney Island is desperately trying to convince City Hall to back it by shifting more than 900 planned luxury condo units away from the boardwalk and into one 40-story tower. Project spokesman Lee Silberstein revealed at a recent community meeting that Thor Equities is considering confining the project's controversial residential housing to Stillwell Avenue's west side near Surf Avenue. That's a change from the previous proposal, which called for spreading the housing out in four Stillwell locations within the proposed 425,000-square-foot amusement complex. The new plan would dramatically reduce a 515-foot-high tower slated for the Stillwell boardwalk to a height similar to the nearby 262-foot Parachute Jump; that tower would contain time-share residences. The revisions would allow riders of the nearby Cyclone roller coaster to retain Parachute Jump views. |
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that looks bad ass |
damn. i thought having a 500 foot glassy looking tower overlooking the ocean would have been fantastic. I don't see an issue in building that there. coney Island was on its last legs. Its become entirely ghetto and rundown. It has only 2 rides worthy of its history. It needs a massive transfusion and this is it. the aquarium is better than i thought they were going to settle for. Because im such a fan of superlatives, ofcourse I wanted to have to have the biggest and best aquarium in the world but space is limited. (unless they want to build southwards onto a pier over the water. how cool would that be!!) The whole plan, the blimp, the giant ferris wheel on a pier, the tower, the cobbled stone street with the year round nightlife, this is all things that are needed and will bring in a new demographic that the park needs to maintain itself in the years to come. Status quo would be a disaster in less than a decade.
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I read in the New York Post today that even though everything else may be on the chopping block, the Cyclone Roller Coaster will remain intact and will open yearly has it has done in the past 44 years.
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but i guess its cool:) |
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NY Post
ASTROLAND MAY GET 1 MORE RIDE By RICH CALDER April 3, 2007 It's not quite game over for Coney Island's fabled Astroland Park. Developer Joe Sitt, who bought the 3.1-acre summer amusement park to incorporate into his planned, glitzy, Vegas-style complex, told The Post he's "willing to keep Astroland open" - or some form of it - for at least the 2008 summer season if his project is delayed. "The last thing I want is for Coney Island to go dark," said Sitt. On Sunday, Astroland opened for what was expected to be its final season, with Sept. 8 as its scheduled last day. The developer and City Hall remain at odds over whether Sitt's firm, Thor Equities, should get the green light to include luxury condos in its proposed $2 billion, 10-acre, year-round entertainment project. Without the condos, the developer says the project doesn't make fiscal sense. The Astroland sale has no effect on the park's most popular ride - the landmarke Cyclone roller coaster. |
The only 3 things from current coney island that should be preserved are the cyclone, the wonder wheel, and the inactive parachute drop. everything else is expendable and i include in that the white up/ down observation tower with the scratched up windows.
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The parachute jump is staying. I believe it's a city landmark now... http://www.newyorkdailyphoto.com/ima...huteJump2.jpg? newyorkdailyphoto.com http://www.citynoise.org/upload/13428.jpg citynoise.org http://www.brooklynrecord.com/archives/27jump.jpg brooklynrecord.com |
Huge Coney Island pan from:
newenergyoptions.com http://www.newenergyoptions.com/menu.../image001.jpg? |
Unless the whackos in face-paint are going to be dropping millions to buy that land back, they're SOL. It's the united states, and money talks not clowns. The phrase isn't "clowns talk". Bring on the highrises, coney island is a cluster fuck of apartments as-is, whats the big deal?
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great photo. i love the new coney island station soo much!!
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http://www.nysun.com/article/56790
Coney Developer Drops Condo Plan June 18, 2007 Facing stiff opposition from the city and residents, a developer and major landholder at Coney Island has dropped his plans to build condominiums within the amusement district. Development company Thor Equities is planning to revamp and modernize the storied amusement destination. Its principal, Joseph Sitt, has said he needed a large condominium tower to make the investment financially viable. The plan for apartments near the boardwalk prompted a harsh response from the director of the Department of City Planning, Amanda Burden, who vowed to block residential development in the heart of the amusement district. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/ny...on&oref=slogin
Coney Island Plan Is Scaled Back, but Critics Are Skeptical http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...8coney-600.jpg An artist’s rendering of an aerial view of Surf Avenue at Coney Island under a new plan for a renovated amusement complex there. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...n/coney650.jpg The developer Joseph J. Sitt’s $1.5 billion plan for Coney Island includes a pulsating amusement area and three hotels, with architecture that invokes the old Luna Park and Dreamland. By CHARLES V. BAGLI June 18, 2007 The developer who wants to remake Coney Island’s amusement district has a new plan and says that you’re going to love it. Joseph J. Sitt, who says his company has spent $120 million buying up land underneath and around the rides, said on Friday that he had “rolled over” in response to the criticism of his earlier plans for an entertainment and residential complex. So the looming 40-story tower planned for the Boardwalk at Stillwell Avenue is gone. So are the hundreds of rental apartments and luxury condominiums in the old plan. The new proposal is less dense, he said, but has more of “the new, the edgy, and the outlandish” rides and attractions that America’s first resort was once known for. “This is our way of showing the New York community that we’re responsive to what they want,” said Mr. Sitt, the founder and chief executive of Thor Equities, which buys and develops commercial, residential and retail properties nationwide. “Our design, in all its greatness, is a way of showing the world what Coney Island can be.” Who could complain? Well. Robert Lieber, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, described Mr. Sitt’s new plan as a “wolf dressed up as a sheep.” Mr. Lieber, along with neighborhood leaders and other city officials, had expressed fears that residents of new apartment buildings would not fit comfortably with the noisy, all-hours amusement district that would be preserved between West Eighth Street and the Aquarium and the minor league baseball stadium at West 16th Street. The new plan keeps the concept of a new glass-enclosed water park, but instead of apartments calls for three hotels, including more than 400 time-share units, along with restaurants, shops, movie theaters and high-tech arcades. The latest renderings depict a pulsating entertainment complex with an Elephant Colossus statue and architecture that evokes the old Luna Park and Dreamland amusement parks. Mr. Lieber and others say that the time-share units look an awful lot like apartments and that the complex looks more like a mall than Coney Island. “He came in last week and presented a plan that had essentially the same density, but dressed it up with hotels and time shares,” Mr. Lieber said on Friday. “The building heights still exceed the 271-foot Parachute Jump,” a Coney Island landmark. “And he’s looking for a huge subsidy from the city. North of $100 million.” The city has been working with local residents and property owners for nearly three years on a master plan for what everyone agrees is a dowdy area. The idea, they say, is to preserve the democratic, open-air quality of Coney Island’s culture and amusement district on the south side of Surf Avenue, while allowing for high-rise residential and retail development set apart from the rides, on the north side of Surf. The Economic Development Corporation, along with the City Planning Department and the Coney Island Development Corporation, have been devising a rezoning proposal for Coney Island that will go through a public review process later this year. “The community and the Coney Island Development Corporation have all indicated that residential and amusements don’t go together,” said Chuck Reichenthal, district manager of Community Board 13. But Mr. Sitt says he believes the changes being proposed are too restrictive and would undercut his ability to redevelop the area. Everyone agrees that the shrunken hulk of the amusement district is worth preserving, at the edge of a beach that still draws tens of thousands of people on the summer weekends. The question is how to turn it into a year-round attraction. “Coney Island has changed its faces many times,” Mr. Reichenthal said. “The last Luna Park was in the mid-1940s. Steeplechase came down in the ’60s. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t remained a magnet. There’s a lot to do when people come down here. It’s still the place for people who don’t have a huge amount of money in their pocket to come and have a good time.” Mr. Sitt, who is equal parts real estate entrepreneur and supersalesman, has been engaged in a game of chicken with the city over the future of Coney Island. Earlier this year, his team claimed that his project “isn’t a financially feasible investment” without high-rise housing. Over the winter, he knocked down the batting cages and the go-kart park in a move that harked back to the bad old days of empty lots. Now he has taken the housing, at least all the units labeled apartments, out of his proposal, and he is betting that his new $1.5 billion plan will win the overwhelming support of local residents, if not all the officials at City Hall. The hotels, which range from 25 to 32 stories, have been moved to midblock, away from the Boardwalk. Mr. Sitt has already spent a large sum buying up 10 acres behind the Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand from 30 different families, including the descendants of George C. Tilyou, founder of Steeplechase Park, and the owners of Astroland, an amusement park that embraces the 270-foot Astro Tower. Astroland is scheduled to close in September. The Cyclone roller coaster, which is a city landmark, will remain open. Hear his pitch: The hotels, Mr. Sitt said, would offer black residents not only jobs, but careers. The Russian immigrants, who enjoy a “quality of life and activity by the water,” would flock to the hotels and nightclubs. Jewish and Italian-American residents would get the “quality retail, bookstores and entertainment venues” that they want. As for everyone else, “what’s better than having fabulous restaurants, catering halls, shows and concerts?” “Tell me, what issue any one of these constituencies would have with our plan,” he said. “We’re asking for motherhood, motherhood. Apple pie, Chevrolet and Coney Island.” Pause for breath. “Maybe I sound like a salesman,” Mr. Sitt said, “but I’m passionate about this.” Jeff Persily, who has worked in the amusement district since 1960 and owns a penny arcade and other property on Bowery Street, agrees with the notion that the amusement area must be turned into a year-round attraction to survive. The city needs to change the zoning to allow for larger buildings, hotels, apartments, parking and retail, he said. “They have a vision of open-air amusements,” Mr. Persily said. “We can’t afford to spend millions on new rides and only be open three months of the year.” Would he sell out to Mr. Sitt? “At the end of the day, combining all the properties and building amusements, hotels and residential would be a wonderful thing for New York,” he said. “We’re talking about creating not hundreds of jobs but many thousands of jobs. I love Coney Island. I’d love to see it become what it once was when I was a kid.” But not everyone trusts Mr. Sitt to deliver. They are concerned that he would convert his time-share units to apartments or flip the property to another developer who would change the plans. Charles Denson, who grew up in Coney Island and now heads the Coney Island History Project, is fond of saying that Mr. Sitt could be a hero by saving the amusement district. But he said residential towers would overwhelm the amusements and “a big shopping mall is not Coney Island.” The history project is running a show in the museum underneath the Cyclone roller coaster titled “Land Grab.” It depicts the development of Coney Island since the 1800s through aerial photographs. “It’s the last ungentrified place in New York,” Mr. Denson said. “It’s still a poor man’s paradise. There’s something magical about it, the name, the reputation and the history.” |
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http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/...ondos.php#more |
curbed.com
Coney Island #2: Meet the 'Freakenspiele' & 'Bizarre Bazaar' http://www.curbed.com/2007_06_BoardwalkRendering.jpg Some flesh was added to the bones of those Coney Island v 2.2 renderings last night, with Thor Equities theme park consultant bringing out a lot of previously unseen renderings and an overall description. Highlights include a big tower near the boardwalk called the Freakenspiele (we're not sure of the spelling and Google comes up bone dry) with 40 foot LED screens and a free-fall ride in the middle. Then, there's the Bizarre Bazaar, described as a "subculture souk" that is designed for an area that will be "the subculture suburb" and the home address of "the freaks." There's a giant elephant fountain. An overhead "Steeplechase" roller coaster (not to be confused with the Leviathan that would go in and out of all the buildings). And, that indoor water park, which will be six stories up. "It's street front, it's urban, it's New York," developer Joe Sitt said of the package. As for Astroland, the developer said "we're trying to keep things open" but noted that "Astroland did sell the business." He said "our goal is to make sure there is a similar concept there" rather than empty land next summer. We have to say we like the word 'freakenspiele.' http://www.curbed.com/2007_06_Entert...0Rendering.jpg |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/ny...ml?ref=thecity
The Call of the Wild Ride http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...coney01600.jpg By MARK CALDWELL July 1, 2007 LEVIK, an 8-year-old on the loose at Coney Island, was ecstatic. He had come to the amusement park this late spring day with his classmates at the Lubavitcher Oholei Torah school in Crown Heights, which had rented Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park for the morning. One contingent careered around the track on the miniature Big Wheel truck ride, each child excitedly swerving his own mercifully nonfunctional steering wheel. Another group headed to the Wonder Wheel, a terrifying attraction that has towered above the Boardwalk since 1920. Levik considered his options. He praised the Sea Serpent, a gentle, child-sized roller coaster. But the Wonder Wheel? “No!” he replied firmly. “Too scary.” That sentiment has been repeated frequently ever since the Wonder Wheel began not only spinning its passengers up and down as other Ferris wheels do, but also flinging them back and forth in sliding cars that convey the illusion that they’re going to slam into each other. (In fact, they miss each other by mere inches.) Along with the 1926-vintage Cyclone, its roller-coaster companion at the neighboring Astroland Amusement Park, the Wonder Wheel represents about all that’s left of early 20th-century Coney Island — the populist Elysium that made Nathan’s famous. Once, Coney Island was an immense, chaotic, overpowering extravaganza of rides, shooting galleries, hot-dog stands, a six-story hotel shaped like an elephant, and three amusement parks that became the stuff of myth: Luna, Steeplechase, Dreamland. By 1966, all of them had vanished, victims of fire, the wrecker’s ball and a long-term decline in the fortunes of Coney Island. Gone, also, were the fun-seeking hordes who had devoured them, driven out by decades of decay that culminated in a bloody riot in 1968. The amusement area, which once sprawled from West 37th Street all the way to what is now the New York Aquarium, shrank to its present size, from Surf Avenue to the beach, between West 10th and 16th Streets. Huge tracts even of that stretch are vacant now, a landscape of weeds, fractured concrete and plywood fencing. Nobody is happy with this situation. Local residents grieve over the neighborhood’s tattered state. The city wants to make Coney Island a magnet again, hoping, in the way of the Bloomberg era, to encourage private investment that will restore it to the roughneck glory of its midway and freak-show days. In 2005, a prospective developer did indeed appear on the scene. Thor Equities, under its principal, Joseph Sitt, has bought up about half of the entertainment district in the critical blocks between KeySpan Park and the Cyclone, envisioning an investment of up to $2 billion. Late last year, Thor made its most monumental (and controversial) purchase when it bought up the land beneath Astroland, Coney’s largest surviving amusement area, and proposed to redevelop it with a bigger and brighter array of indoor and outdoor amusements stretching from Surf Avenue to the Boardwalk. Mr. Sitt’s earlier plans called for some large apartment sites in the amusement district, including a 50-story tower on the Boardwalk. City officials and community activists, however, have been unbending in their commitment to keep apartments out. They recall a dark day in September 1966 when the developer Fred Trump, accompanied by six bikini-clad models and a bulldozer, began dismantling the famed 69-year-old Steeplechase Park for a never-built apartment complex. Amanda Burden, chairwoman of the New York City Planning Commission, is adamant that the surviving amusement area not succumb to a beachfront residential enclave. “There is no way that will happen under this administration,” she said. And in fact, current zoning restricts the critical area to amusements; not even restaurants with table service are permitted, only food stands like Nathan’s. But Mr. Sitt paid $30 million just for the 3.3 acres underneath Astroland. How could a collection of kiddie rides flanked by an 80-year-old roller coaster justify such a price without some other, plummier revenue stream? Over the last several weeks, Thor and the city have conducted intensive discussions in the effort to reach an accommodation that will preserve the amusement district but also repay the investment. Two weeks ago, in the most recent twist in the complicated plot, Thor offered to replace the residential elements of its plan with three hotels, including more than 400 time-share units, along with restaurants, shops, movie theaters and high-tech arcades. Thus far, no agreement has been reached, and Coney Island seems caught in an up-and-down ride as wild as the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel. Time may well be running out. Deno’s appears safe for now: Levik and his classmates will probably be able to savor it next season. But Astroland, barring a last-minute reprieve, is entering its last summer. By next year it could be gone. And in the eyes of many, that would mark a final tailspin and smash-up for New York’s most beloved tatty playground. Paradoxically, even as Coney Island’s infrastructure disappears, its long-absent crowds have been returning en masse. KeySpan Park opened at Surf Avenue and West 16th Street in 2001, bringing professional baseball back to Brooklyn in the guise of the Cyclones. A city-financed cleanup improved the beach and the surrounding streetscape. Then, in May 2005, a spectacular new Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station opened, replacing the grim original with a soaring arch that evokes grand European railway terminals. The city’s Parks Department estimates that last year more than 15 million people visited the beach and the Boardwalk, an increase of more than five million in three years. The same morning that Levik was carefully choosing his next ride at Deno’s, the human landscape did look heartening. Despite the still-frigid surf, bathers were beginning to fill the beach. Young men did sit-ups on workout equipment in the sand. Children gathered under the metal palm trees that drenched them with a cooling spray. A hundred yards down the Boardwalk, milling around the picnic tables outside Gregory and Paul’s — the blocklong food stand attached to Astroland — a group of South Asian girls were taking rides on the Cyclone. The girls were students at New Utrecht High School, and there was some debate as to whether school was still in session. As a fresh carload of shrieking fun-seeking victims thundered down the track, a girl named Shezana emerged from the ride somewhat woozily. “I still feel like I’m falling down,” she said. Her friend Farwa replied: “But screaming is good for your health.” At least on the surface, much of Coney Island appears to be the thriving socially and ethnically diverse mosh pit it has always been, populated by bellowing teenagers and dignified elderly people, spenders and nonspenders, a maelstrom in which the Bermuda shorts and ankle socks of the American heartland mix with yarmulkes and Muslim veils, a place where carousel organ music and hip-hop amicably vie to drown each other out. The crowds exude an energy and a noisy verve rarely found anywhere in the city these days, an improbable but very real survival of the rough-and-ready, early-20th-century Coney Island. At Astroland, Armmeen Williams was rapping into his wireless microphone to lure people into a balloon-shooting gallery: “Don’t be shy! Give it a try! Don’t hesitate! Participate! Two bucks! Try your luck!” Nearby, an even earthier attraction beckoned: “Shoot the Freak: Live Human Target!” The Freak, green-eyed Enoz Gonzalez, darted around a littered vacant lot clad in Darth Vaderish armor, while his partner, Tommy Conwell, lured passers-by to an array of paint guns on the Boardwalk railing, with which they try to win prizes by splattering Mr. Gonzalez’s body. He has been playing the Freak for three summers, and he likes the job. “There’s plenty of girls to talk to on the Boardwalk,” he explained. Another amusement park stalwart is Dick Zigun, founder and artistic director of Coney Island USA, a group eager to incorporate in Coney Island’s future as many elements as possible of its past. Mr. Zigun spent his early years as a performance artist who strolled the Boardwalk in an antique bathing suit as the “Mayor of Coney Island.” He notes that Coney Island has managed to survive the bad times, and he expresses confidence that nothing will destroy its spirit. “Because of New York, our customers will always be multicultural, urban and half-naked,” Mr. Zigun said. But will they keep coming if the amusements keep dwindling? The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone still draw crowds; the 262-foot-high Parachute Jump, though closed, remains a striking sight, illuminated at night. All three are protected as city landmarks. Yet as demolition progresses, they’re surrounded by growing emptiness against a backdrop of Soviet-style high-rises in Bensonhurst. Mr. Sitt promises free-access indoor and outdoor amusements with the same pay-per-ride arrangement now in effect at Deno’s and Astroland. He also voices the hope that displaced rental business tenants will return to the site. “We’d like to have them back for local ‘flava,’ ” he said. But he added a warning. “Coney Island needs salvation,” he said. “And the longer we wait to begin, the harder it’s going to be.” With Astroland now under the control of Thor, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park is almost the last vestige of what Ms. Burden of the City Planning Commission wants to preserve. Its founder, a Greek immigrant named Denos Vourderis, came to Coney Island in 1970 as a food service worker at Ward’s Kiddie Park, which had occupied the site since the 1940s. He learned the business and bought it in 1980, adding the Wonder Wheel in 1983. When Mr. Vourderis died in 1994, his son Dennis took over and remains in control, at least for now. "So far, our plans are to stay open,” Dennis Vourderis said the other day, sitting at a picnic table next to the pizza counter, surrounded by the boys from Oholei Torah. “A lot of the people who come here can’t afford $20 a person just for admission. Twenty dollars a family for everything is more like it.” Deno’s shuns the scripted, laundered atmosphere of corporate theme parks of the Disney and Six Flags ilk. “Here,” Mr. Vourderis said, “I put a teen from Brooklyn out in the sun for eight hours, and it’s hard to keep him cheerful. That’s the grumpy guy at the ride who yells ‘Siddown!’ at you.” Mr. Vourderis revels equally in Coney Island’s eclectic, unpredictable palette of aromas. “Maria’s popping corn at the snack bar right now; you’ll smell it in a minute,” he said. “Later you’ll smell shish kebabs. We put the Sweet Shop in the middle of the park: we could sell 25 percent more on the Boardwalk, but the candy apple smell pulls people in. Occasionally it mixes in with a machine oil smell from the rides. But the best part is the fresh sea smell, the ocean breeze in the morning.” On a Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago, Astroland was even more crowded than Deno’s as Carol Albert, the park’s owner, patrolled her kiddie rides, shooting galleries and Ski-Ball games. “What happened to my werewolf?” Ms. Albert asked a park worker, pointing to the fanged but comatose mechanical monster that sagged from a window above Dante’s Inferno, a mild scare ride. “He’s supposed to go off with a scream every 90 seconds,” she added, “but he seems to have been asleep the last couple of days.” Earlier there had been a thunderstorm, but now people were streaming in, and rides were lighting up with a popping and glaring incandescence long vanished even from 42nd Street. Astroland’s painted signs, many of which are the work of local artists commissioned by the Alberts to preserve the park’s carny atmosphere, are deliberately louche, their lettering wobbly. “Turn up the music!” Ms. Albert ordered an attendant at the carousel. Then she noticed a little boy of about 3 who was seated on a miniature antique fire engine ride and looked as if he was about to burst into tears. Ms. Albert pointed to the brass bell. “Ring the bell!” she sang out. “Go ahead, ring the bell!” As soon as he did so, his face lit up. His father began snapping pictures. But the probable closing of Astroland after this summer adds a rueful undercurrent to Ms. Albert’s attachment. “We sold the real estate to Thor last fall,” she said. “And for us to stay open, they’d have to agree to lease the property back to us.” Unless Thor agrees to such an arrangement, or unless the city succeeds in finding a new location for the park — and at this point there’s no firm prospect for either — Ms. Albert will have to sell off her rides and abandon the site, leaving patrons of the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel to stare at yet another gaping wasteland. Deno’s will stand nearly alone, save for a dwindling array of forlorn small concessions dotting the emptiness around it. The city remains adamant that it will approve no plan that dilutes Coney’s character. “That area between KeySpan Park and the Cyclone has to remain a totally democratic amusement park,” said Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corporation, a city- and state-financed entity. “We want people to be a part of it even if they don’t spend a dime.” Ms. Burden agrees. “I was out there yesterday,” she said of the amusement area. “It was teeming with every race, age and demographic. It’s the most populist, communal, democratic place on earth. That has to remain. It has to be affordable to all New Yorkers.” Mr. Sitt continues to affirm his desire that, whatever shape it eventually takes, Coney Island’s shrunken but so-far surviving amusement complex will roar back with a 21st-century vigor, gaudier, with more harrowing rides, and crowds just as diverse but bigger than ever. Nothing, however, has been settled. Will the amusement- and conference-oriented hotels that Mr. Sitt recently suggested satisfy everyone, including the developer, the community and the city, perhaps by bringing a critical mass of patrons to the area 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? Possibly. But how big might these hotels be, and where, exactly, would they be? At this point, no one will venture an opinion. Community activists, surviving small-business owners and Coney Island freaks of all descriptions are queasy. This feels like the moment when the Cyclone cars approach the 86-foot-high apex of the ride. Breathing is taut; anticipation is building. Everyone aboard wants the thrill; everybody wants fun, including, perhaps, a good cathartic scream. But everybody also hopes the ride will stay on the rails. Mark Caldwell is the author of “New York Night: The Mystique and Its History.” http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...coneylarge.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...coney02450.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/.../coney3650.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...coney04650.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...coney05650.jpg |
damn. looks the idea to put a mammoth ferris wheel on a pier is gone. that would have been such a huge attraction. curses
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It seems like if you're going to do it, then DO it. I'm not sure about this, but I imagine vintage Coney Island was just as over-the-top and audacious during its initial development in the late 19th Century as these glitzy renderings envision it for the 21st. Some of the more aggressive renderings really make it look like a psychedelic dreamscape. Isn't this the best way to preserve the spirit of the place?
The architects should open their minds as much as possible and make this place as fantastical as their imaginations allow. And fantastical doesn't mean Vegas, which is more often than not derivative and uncreative. In fact, they shouldn't even think about Vegas when they're planning. The newest renderings are, I think, an unfortunate departure, too staid for a place that should be anything but. |
Great photo update! Now, imagine going there in January with a lot more activity...:yes: A year 'round Coney will be one of the City's best attractions...
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/07262007...ich_calder.htm
CONEY I. 'FERRY' PIER PLAN HARKS BACK TO GLORY DAYS OF 1911 By RICH CALDER July 26, 2007 Get set for a Coney Island flashback. Before burning down in 1911, Coney Island's Dreamland Park featured a grand iron pier with spectacular amusements, restaurants, a dance hall and ferry access. City officials will commission a study this fall on bringing ferry service back to the world-famous amusement district by building a new destination pier. The site is the beachfront off West Eighth Street - near the New York Aquarium - where the old Dreamland pier once stood. "I think a pier is an amazing idea," said Dick Zigun, a member of the city's Coney Island Development Corp. and founder of the Coney Island Circus Sideshow. "Ferry service would not only help alleviate traffic congestion but would become a cool attraction for new visitors and make traveling here as unique as Coney Island itself." The city's Economic Development Corp., which is overseeing the study, said its current plan is to study the feasibility of building a pier offering ferry service only. But Zigun and many other local leaders say the city should think bigger and consider making any new pier include amusements, too - like the Santa Monica Pier in California and Chicago's Steel Pier. "I'm glad they're going ahead with the study, but eventually I think they'll realize that creating an amusement pier makes more sense," said Gene Ritter, a Community Board 13 member. It was Ritter, a commercial diver, who started the push for a new pier 17 years ago after uncovering sand pilings from Dreamland's pier and hundreds of artifacts from the park itself while searching the ocean floor off the Coney Island shoreline. The study will be paid for with $3.2 million in federal transportation funding secured by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn). Tom Fox, president of New York Water Taxi, said the success of Coney Island ferry service will depend on whether the city and developers can turn Coney into a year-round attraction. He said Long Island, New Jersey, Staten Island, Queens, The Bronx and certain parts of Brooklyn's waterfront with poor mass transit - such as Williamsburg - could serve as good locations to provide service to and from Coney Island. Joe Sitt, the developer planning a Vegas-style, $1.5 billion entertainment complex for the center of the amusement district, said he strongly supports bringing ferry service back to Coney Island. |
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007...ey_island.html
Sands of time catch up to Coney Island http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/..._parachute.jpg Parachute Jump, 1952 BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM August 26th 2007 Thanks for the memories, Coney Island. As city officials and private developers embark on what may be the biggest change to hit Coney Island since the Dreamland inferno of 1911, beach bums and amusement park buffs are flocking to the seaside resort to bid farewell. When the season ends Sept. 9, the legendary Astroland amusement park will offer its final twirl on the Tilt-a-Whirl, its last dip on the Pirate Ship and a farewell plunge on the Water Flume. Boardwalk favorites like Ruby's, Lola Staar and Cha-cha's also will be shuttered. Critics worry that redevelopment plans will take years or fall through entirely, leaving the strip looking more like a ghost town than an amusement oasis. "Everyone is realizing what they love about Coney Island and coming down to embrace it before it changes and becomes something else," said Dianna Carlin, who owns the gift shop and clothing boutique Lola Staar. "It's sad, actually." Megadeveloper Thor Equities and its president Joe Sitt envision hotels, entertainment venues and amusement parks in a new Coney Island that draws crowds year-round. The success of that vision — as well as another plan to build mostly luxury housing by developer Taconic Investment Partners — hinges on a city zoning overhaul expected to be released in September. The city has never been thrilled with Thor's Las Vegas-style vision. Earlier this month, a high-ranking city official told The News, "Thor's proposal is dead in the water." Thor has scooped up property on the Boardwalk, Stillwell Ave. and elsewhere in Coney Island and claims it will bring in new businesses. Critics of the $1.5 billion plan believe the Boardwalk storefronts could stay vacant for years if city officials and Thor can't agree on how best to redevelop the beachfront area. "What's strange is Coney Island has always had this sense of anarchy and now here's somebody who's trying to sterilize and impose a vision of retail-tainment," said Coney Island historian Charles Denson. "Sitt's not an evil guy. But this is his vision and the worst thing to have in Coney Island is one person's singular vision." As the city and Thor negotiate the future of Coney Island, many beachgoers are busy looking to the past. Since 2004, Denson has been recording the memories of Coney Island fans young and old — and already he's collected the stories of nearly 300 people. "I think people revisit places where they've had unusual experiences," said Denson of the interest in his Coney Island History Project. "There's a Coney Island saying, ‘If you get sand in your shoes you can never get it out.' These people, I think, have sand in their shoes." Even with big changes in store for Coney Island, many business and civic leaders in the area insist the summer of 2007 won't be the neighborhood's last. Deno's Wonder Wheel owner Dennis Vourderis said attendance at his park is up this season, but might not be next year if people wrongly believe Coney Island is grinding to a halt. The New York Aquarium, minor-league baseball, the Cyclone, Nathan's Famous and Deno's all will be open next year, as will other Boardwalk attractions, Vourderis insisted. "We aren't going anywhere," said Vourderis, echoing others who intend to stay put for the foreseeable future. "It may be a different vision, but it will always be Coney Island." |
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gall...ey_island.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...l_coney_11.jpg 1916: Nathan's of Coney Island. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_2.jpg 1932: Thousands crowd police lines as they watch fire at Coney Island. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_1.jpg 1932: Page one of the July 14, 1932 edition of the New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_8.jpg 1936: The boardwalk and beaches at Coney Island were thronged with a million people who sought to escape the city's muggy heat. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...l_coney_10.jpg 1937: Mary Dolan, a beauty contest winner at Coney Island. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_6.jpg 1938: Daddy patiently smokes a cigarette as his daughter makes him a partner in her game. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_7.jpg 1946: Time stood still for this couple at Coney Island as a neighbor turns a completely indifferent back on the scene. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_4.jpg 1947: A couple looked down on part of the record crowd at Coney Island from the Ferris wheel. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_9.jpg 1947: The beach filled with people at Coney Island. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_5.jpg 1950: The freak show at Coney Island held the fascination of the crowds. Even folks who don't care to go inside often pause a moment to listen to the barker's spiel. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...l_coney_12.jpg 1959: Children from P.S. 80 are among the first to see the 80-foot Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile at W. Eighth St. and Surf Ave., Coney Island. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...al_coney_3.jpg 1960: Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Cabot Lodge and New York Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz gulp hot dogs at a Coney Island hotdog stand. |
http://www.observer.com/2007/bloombe...joe-sitts-land
Bloomberg Wants Joe Sitt's Coney Island Land http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/f...oaster_web.jpg by Matthew Schuerman November 8, 2007 Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to acquire the property that Joe Sitt has been buying up at Coney Island, throwing a wrench into one of the most aggressively marketed real estate ideas in recent history and putting the city into the unusual role of playing carnival barker. In a speech today before the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Bloomberg said that he wanted to turn the central amusement area into city-owned parkland that would “preserve the world’s most famous urban amusement park in perpetuity,” according to his prepared remarks. The Bloomberg administration and Mr. Sitt, the chairman of Thor Equities, have been battling over just what should go in the 15 acres stretching from the Cyclone to Keyspan Park, a minor league baseball stadium. Mr. Sitt has wanted to rezone it to permit a phantasmagoria of rides, entertainment, retail, restaurants, hotels—and, most infamously, condos. “The city will work with existing landowners to acquire many of the properties in Coney East," the mayor said. "We hope to achieve a win-win outcome with each of them. That’s what we want for all the people of Coney Island, and Brooklyn.” Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. You are in for a ride. |
More from Curbed...
Coney Details: Amusements in Middle, Tall on Edges Thursday, November 8, 2007, by Robert http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_Co...hoto%20One.jpg After more than a year of speculation, the city weighed in with its own vision of Coney Island redevelopment today. It boils down to a new 15-acre city-owned amusement area that would be surrounded by land rezoned for high density developments. Mayor Bloomberg delivered the news himself, but put a positive spin on things, saying "We hope to achieve a win-win outcome for all." He said that the city will "work with existing land owners to acquire land." Developer Joe Sitt, who owns a significant amount of land the city wants to rezone as parkland and lease to a "world-class" developer of amusements, released a statement saying he was "disappointed" in the plan, but "optimistic" a deal can be cut. http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_ConeyRenderingOne.jpg A spokesperson for Wonder Wheel Park, which still owns most of its land said, "leave the Wonder Wheel out of this." The other major landowner that owns a big empty parcel next to KeySpan Park has been involved with on-and-off litigation with the city for years. A post-speech press conference was full of jabs at Mr. Sitt, who has feuded publicly with city officials. Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff said Mr. Sitt "doesn't have the expertise" to build an amusement park. He said he expects Mr. Sitt "to play a major part" in the redevelopment "but not in the amusement area." The Mayor refused to use the eminent domain word, saying "We think we will not need eminent domain. We think we will be able to structure deals." The city also looks like it's rejecting the idea of having a number of small operators in the amusement area. The Mayor said the city is "seeking to have one overall expert in managing and running the whole thing" because "you can't have a bunch of little things and have them survive." As for Mr. Sitt, the city appears that it will make an offer that he can't refuse. "One assumes that Mr. Sitt is rational and trying to do what's best for his bottom line," the Mayor said. Whereas Mr. Sitt has had bulldozers parked on his land since last winter, the new plan--after a long land use review process--is to have development start before the Mayor's term ends. The new amusement operator will probably get a subsidy in the "tens of millions" of dollars. Copyright © 2007 Curbed |
Some pics taken last month:
OCTOBER 21, 2007 1. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805459/large.jpg 2. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805486/large.jpg 3. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805491/large.jpg 4. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805494/large.jpg 5. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805497/large.jpg 6. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805502/large.jpg 7. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805518/large.jpg 8. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805535/large.jpg 9. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805558/large.jpg 10. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805592/large.jpg 11. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805607/large.jpg 12. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805617/large.jpg 13. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805637/large.jpg 14. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805649/large.jpg 15. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805651/large.jpg 16. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805676/large.jpg 17. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805715/large.jpg 18. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805745/large.jpg 19. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805755/large.jpg 20. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805798/large.jpg 21. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805807/large.jpg 22. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805816/large.jpg 23. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805839/large.jpg 24. http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/87805824/large.jpg |
http://www.nysun.com/article/66158
Coney Island Rezoning Sought To Add Amusement By SARAH PORTLOCK November 9, 2007 The city will seek to rezone 47 acres at Coney Island with the idea of creating a modern, year-round amusement district surrounded by thousands of units of new housing, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. "When people around the nation hear the words 'Coney Island,' they think of fun in the sun, of beaches, boardwalks, and bumper cars on the Brooklyn shoreline," Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday morning in front of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. "But we all recognize that Coney Island just isn't what it could be," he added. The mayor's plan, which he said could bring in $2.5 billion in private investment over the next decade, includes rezoning the area for 4,500 residential units, some slated to be "affordable" housing, and 460,000 square feet of retail space. Mr. Bloomberg said the city would remap 15 acres to create new city parkland along Coney East, which would expand the amusement area and allow new rides, restaurants, and attractions, with the goal of bringing visitors to the area year-round. The management of the amusement park would be leased to an outside developer, Mr. Bloomberg said. The city will begin the public review and approval process of the rezoning plan early next year. Mr. Bloomberg's plan could stymie the ambitions of developer Joseph Sitt, who had planned to erect a hotel and retail stores on land now designated as an amusement district. Mr. Sitt, the chairman of Thor Equities, said in a statement that he was disappointed by the mayor's announcement but would continue to work with the city and community to do what they agree would be best for the neighborhood. "We're disappointed by the mayor's presentation, but are optimistic that a deal can be reached between the city, the landowners, and the community to make Coney Island an even greater place to live and visit," Mr. Sitt said. Mr. Sitt spent $100 million to acquire 10 acres of Coney Island property, and aims to develop hotel, amusement, and retail spaces. |
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11092007...aby_700167.htm
MIKE'S CONEY ISLAND BABY RIDING HIGH ON HIS PLANS FOR A MEGA FUN PARK By RICH CALDER November 9, 2007 Coney Island's fabled beachfront would become home to America's largest urban amusement park, about 4,500 new apartments and many major stores under a grand redevelopment plan unveiled yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg. Hizzoner said his 47-acre rezoning plan "builds on Coney Island's fabulous location and historic legacy and preserves and invigorates its iconic landmarks," such as the Parachute Jump and Cyclone roller coaster, without totally compromising its famous freakishness. City renderings show a glittering new 15-acre amusement park incorporating the landmark Cyclone and Wonder Wheel with new indoor and outdoor attractions - including a new looping roller coaster winding around the park and a ride rivaling the size and shape of the 262-foot-high Parachute Jump. Property at the base of the Wonder Wheel would be set aside for an ice and roller rink. The mayor's plan for a new, 21st century Coney Island is a death knell for developer Joe Sitt's controversial, $1.5 billion proposal to build a glitzy, Vegas-style entertainment complex in the heart of the amusement district. Sitt wouldn't get the zoning changes needed for that project to break ground, but Bloomberg left the door open for Sitt to take part in the redevelopment. Bloomberg's proposed rezoning sets aside 15 acres for an amusement park running from Stillwell Avenue east to the New York Aquarium on West Eighth Street - much of which is part of the existing Astroland Park site and other Sitt-owned land. Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said the city believes Sitt isn't qualified to create a park, and he expected the developer to make a substantial profit by either selling his land to the city or agreeing to a potential land swap. The swap, first reported by The Post in August, calls for Sitt trading his 11 acres for city-owned land west of KeySpan Park. That would pave the way for Sitt to strike it rich by building high-rise housing. Sitt - who bought a table's worth of tickets to yesterday's Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce event but gave them away - issued a statement saying his company is "disappointed by the mayor's presentation," but is "optimistic that a deal can be reached." Bloomberg said he envisioned Coney Island having a "year-round water park and hotel with slides, rides and awesome year-round aquatic attractions, or an open-air performance area for live music and theater, flowing onto the boardwalk and Coney Island's magnificent beach." The city also would need to acquire other privately owned parcels, including Deno's Wonder Wheel Park, before choosing a partner to develop the urban amusement park. "I feel like I no longer live in a democracy; we might be victims of eminent domain" after hearing the mayor's remarks, said Dennis Vourderis, Deno's co-owner. But city officials said eminent domain isn't an option. Bloomberg's long-anticipated plan calls for rezoning 19 blocks of prime real estate running along the boardwalk from West 24th Street east to the Aquarium on West 8th Street, and roughly north to Mermaid Avenue - with the exception of KeySpan Park. Land near Surf Avenue directly above the proposed amusement park - some of which is also owned by Sitt - is expected someday to house hotels totaling 500 to 600 units, indoor and outdoor performance venues, retail space, restaurants and a movie theater. About 20 percent - or 900 - of the 4,500 units of new housing expected to be built would be set aside for low- and middle-income families. The entire plan must go through the city's land-use review process. City officials said that they hope to break ground in 2009 and that the overall project would take at least 10 years to complete. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/ny...on&oref=slogin
City Offers Coney Island Plan That Conflicts With a Developer’s http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...9coney-600.jpg By CHARLES V. BAGLI November 9, 2007 Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled his administration’s long-awaited proposal for revitalizing Coney Island yesterday with a zoning plan that he said would create the nation’s largest urban amusement park, promote the development of stores and 4,500 apartments along Surf Avenue and preserve historic attractions like the Parachute Jump. The proposed rezoning, which covers 19 blocks and 47 acres from the New York Aquarium west along the oceanfront to Highland View Park, would transform an area pockmarked with empty lots and seedy buildings that still manages to attract millions of visitors every summer to the beaches, a ballpark and assorted attractions from roller coasters to sword swallowers. “It really could be spectacular,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday after a speech outlining the plan to the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “But it’s fallen on hard times.” The city’s plan could create a standoff with Joseph J. Sitt, a shopping center developer who said he had spent more than $120 million buying 10 acres in the heart of Coney Island’s frayed amusement district. Mr. Sitt, chief executive of Thor Equities, has promoted his own $1.5 billion plan for a new amusement district, which bears some similarities to the city’s vision. But it diverges from the city’s plan by including hotels, time-shares and an enormous indoor water park. City officials contend that housing in the proposed 15-acre amusement district would lead to an inevitable clash over noise, late hours and swirling lights. Mr. Sitt, who has until recently been very vocal about his differences with the city, released a statement yesterday expressing disappointment with the mayor’s presentation. The statement said he was still optimistic that a deal could be reached among landowners, the city and the community. Mr. Sitt, who has insisted that hotels and time-share units are required to make the project economically viable, vowed to continue working with the Bloomberg administration and other elected officials “to do what’s best for the people of Coney.” But his conciliatory tone belies the rising tension between him and City Hall. Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff has sought since June to get Mr. Sitt to agree to a land swap, in which he would trade his property for a city-owned parcel on the north side of the nearby baseball stadium, KeySpan Park. Mr. Sitt has refused, saying the properties are not comparable in value. Mr. Doctoroff said yesterday that the city wanted to find an experienced, world-class amusement park operator to run the district, which is “a very different business than building a shopping center.” “He doesn’t have the experience to do it,” Mr. Doctoroff said, adding that the city expected Mr. Sitt to play a role in building housing or retail just outside the amusement park. But some officials and community groups fear that Mr. Sitt could initiate a lawsuit, or let his land sit idle until Mayor Bloomberg leaves office and, presumably, a more amenable replacement succeeds him. City Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr. said he had been working with city officials and the City Council to resolve the dispute; he has been supportive of Mr. Sitt. The city’s proposed zoning plan, which was devised in consultation with the Coney Island Development Corporation and community leaders, would ultimately establish a nearly 50-acre park, from the site of the Steeplechase ride to Asser Levy Park. The plan divides the 19 blocks into three distinct areas. The first, on the north side of Surf Avenue, from Stillwell Avenue to West 20th Street, would be zoned for up to 1,800 apartments and retail space. A second residential district would be created between West 19th and West 24th Streets, from the south side of Surf Avenue to the Boardwalk. Building heights would step down to the water. “Coney East,” the third district, would range from the east side of the ballpark to the Cyclone roller coaster and include a 15-acre amusement district. New streets would help improve the flow of traffic and pedestrians from Surf Avenue and the subway to the Boardwalk. The zoning there would allow for a hotel, a water park, enclosed amusements, catering halls, movie theaters, restaurants and bowling alleys along Surf Avenue, in an effort to make the area a year-round destination. Amanda Burden, the city’s planning director, said the amusement park would be “open, accessible and affordable,” in keeping with Coney Island’s populist history as the country’s first resort. Charles Reichenthal, the longtime district manager of Community Board 13 in Coney Island, said the city’s plan was “on the right track,” with a few things that have to be straightened out, including the fate of landowners like the Vourderis family, which runs Deno’s Amusement Park and the Wonder Wheel, and Mr. Sitt of Thor Equities. “If Thor Equities has done everything, it’s put Coney Island back on the map,” he said. “We now get calls from people interested in doing all kinds of things out here. This plan’s certainly on the right track, with some snags that have to be figured out.” |
http://curbed.com/archives/2007/11/0...edges.php#more
http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_Co...hoto%20One.jpg http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_Coney%20Coaster.jpg http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_ConeyRenderingOne.jpg http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_ConeyZoningMap.jpg http://curbed.com/uploads/2007_11_coneypark.jpg |
Not really all that different from Sitt's proposal...
Quote:
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This may one day be as much Bloomberg's legacy as the west side...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007...e_coney-2.html City officals lay out grand 47-acre Coney Island plan By JOTHAM SEDERSTROM November 9th 2007, 4:00 AM The Coney Island of the future will be a kaleidoscope of thrill rides, soaring apartment towers and plenty of places to shop, Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday. "We all recognize that Coney Island just isn't what it could be," Bloomberg said at a Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday at Gargiulo's restaurant. "Its amusements haven't kept pace with changing times and tastes, and for much of the year, activity in the area lags badly." In the most comprehensive look at the Brooklyn beachfront area since 1964, city officials laid out plans for a 15-acre, year-round amusement park, 4,500 new apartments and condos, and blocks of glitzy stores along Surf Ave. The 47-acre plan also would include a grassy 65,000-square-foot park near W. 23rd St., a refurbished Parachute Jump, the return of the B&B Carousell, water parks, Boardwalk shops and new benches and lighting. http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/..._coney-map.gif http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/...and_aerial.jpg http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/..._boardwalk.jpg |
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082008...lan_236590.htm
CITY TO DO THE LIGHT THING FOR CONEY LANDMARK By RICH CALDER February 8, 2008 Coney's Island's iconic Parachute Jump is getting a new lease on light. Less than dazzled by a lighting system installed on the 262-foot boardwalk landmark two years ago, the city yesterday began soliciting proposals from companies interested in creating a brighter, more dramatic illumination of Brooklyn's version of the Eiffel Tower. The project is being pushed by Borough President Marty Markowitz, who says the old lighting system needs some "blinging up" and hopes to revive the classic thrill ride. "Hey, if the Giants can beat the Patriots, there's no reason we can't ride the Parachute Jump in this new century," he said. Markowitz, according to sources, considered the system installed in 2006 by renowned lighting artist Leni Schwendinger too "artsy," failing to capture Coney Island's flash. The new $1.5 million project also includes refurbishing the bottom panel of the Parachute Jump, which was moved to Coney Island shortly after the 1939 World's Fair in Queens. The ride ceased operations in 1968. It was declared a city landmark in 1989 and is part of a revamped Steeplechase Plaza that the city is hoping to create. Charles Denson, a Coney Island historian, called the lighting project "symbolic to Coney Island's survival." |
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Not the only Coney news of the day... http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082008...rium_64396.htm MARTY MAKES WAVES OVER NY AQUARIUM By RICH CALDER February 8, 2008 Charging that the New York Aquarium doesn't live up to its potential because it's saddled with a "guppy" budget, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz yesterday called on the city to seize control of the Coney Island site, which has been long run by a nonprofit. "It always pains me to think that more New Yorkers go to Mystic, Conn., than to our own aquarium in Brooklyn," he said during his annual State of the Borough Address at the Cruise Ship Terminal in Red Hook. Markowitz added that the city needs to rethink a 1902 deal that put the aquarium under the control of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which also runs the Bronx Zoo. He said he'd ask Mayor Bloomberg to work with his office on creating an independent Brooklyn-based board of directors to oversee the aquarium. "Because [the society's] expertise is in the zoo area, the aquarium remains a perennial afterthought in terms of funding upkeep and program- ming," Markowitz said. "[The aquarium] needs a whale-size investment - not a budget the size of a guppy." The aquarium has an annual budget of $14.3 million. Its buildings and land are city owned - but its fish and other animals belong to the society. "We have a written agreement with the city and have no expectations that either side would part ways," a society spokesperson said last night. |
Wow I do NOT like that proposal, talk about a tourist trap that would scare away the natives. Its way too six flagsish for me. Just my opinion, never been to Coney Island, for all I know, it may need this development to give it a boost.
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Can't wait to see how they're gonna light the jump to continue to draw those comparisons. :cheers: |
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/03/1...kating.php?o=0
Historic Coney Child's Building Going Roller Skating http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...13a333fc_o.jpg The Childs Building during last year's Mermaid Ball, the first time it had been open to the public since the 1950s. Monday, March 10, 2008, by Robert The historic Child's Building in Coney Island will be the site of a roller rink this summer. The 1923 era building, which housed a Childs Restaurant, has only been open to the public a handful of times since it closed in 1950. Taconic Investment, which is a big player in Coney Island development but has kept a much lower profile than the other big Coney developer, holds a long-term lease on the property and eventually plans to turn it into a restaurant and entertainment venue and surround it with highrises. For now, however, it will be hosting a temporary roller rink operated by boardwalk entrepreneur Lola Staar who got money for the enterprise by Tommy Hilfiger and Glamour magazine after she won a competition that asked entrants to write about their "dream come true." They'll be shooting a reality show about transformation from 1920s terra cotta to 2000s hot pink showcase. They may also be hosting burlesque shows. http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...11f7a711_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...d76ec015_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...86a6f1d2_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...a67f5ae3_o.jpg |
http://curbed.com/archives/2008/03/2...r_rink.php?o=0
Coney's Childs Building Rocks Out with New Roller Rink http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...0d8eb0d4_o.jpg Monday, March 24, 2008, by Robert There is good news and bad news in Coney Island. We'll dispense with the bad news first: the flashy redo of the New York Aquarium is officially dead because money is needed for a shark exhibit and because it would "engulf" the facility. The good news: the historic Child's Building hosted its second public event in a half-century this weekend with the opening of the Lola Staar Dreamland Roller Rink. Taconic Investment, which has gotten little of the controversy of its other big would-be developer, is allowing the use of the landmarked building. Money for the enterprise came from Dreaming Tommy Hilfiger and Glamour Magazine after boardwalk entrepreneur Dianna Carlin won a competition. http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...1aabf9d7_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...51d2dd99_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...f0b81c11_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...fd4c6830_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...e7e804dd_o.jpg http://curbednetwork.com/cache/galle...9030b55a_o.jpg Dianna Carlin, aka Lola Staar, who created the new rink. |
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03282008...der_103857.htm
DE$PERATE CITY RECONSIDERS CONEY BUILDER By RICH CALDER March 28, 2008 With time running out on Mayor Bloomberg's dream of rebuilding Coney Island, the city is now looking to bring a controversial developer back into the plan to put up America's largest amusement park, sources told The Post. Only six months ago, when the term-limited mayor announced his 47-acre rezoning plan for Coney Island, city officials said developer Joe Sitt and other boardwalk property owners weren't qualified to build the 15-acre park Hizzoner envisions. But with the economy souring and deals to buy the 15 acres - including the 11 that Sitt controls - far from being reached, city officials are suddenly open to him playing some role in the park, even though the goal remains finding a world-class operator to run it, sources said. Even if Sitt is involved, the city won't let him build high-rise housing or time-share hotels in the amusement district, Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corp., vowed yesterday. |
curbed.com
Uncontroversial Coney Steeplechase Plaza Project Stirs Up Muck http://curbed.com/uploads/2008_04_St...se%20Plaza.jpg April 11, 2008 How much is too much for a plaza around an iconic waterfront Parachute Jump? Some people are complaining that the $4 million the city is spending on planning and designing Coney Island's Steeplechase Plaza is way too much and today's Daily News estimates that it's $42 per square foot design cost "triple the cost for the average city project." A team of eight firms that includes EDAW and the Rockwell Group is working on the plan for the 2.2 acre site of Steeplechase Plaza. One architect compares the design fee to "pigs at the city's trough" but the Coney Island Development Corp. says it's an investment in a key anchor for the boardwalk and new attraction. The team includes landscape artists, preservation experts, water specialists, entertainment-based developers and a lighting designer to overhaul the 2006 Parachute Jump lighting scheme. The new plaza, which has been relatively controversy-free for Coney Island will include a pavilion, restaurants, "water display," public space and other features the designers will propose. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/ny...l?ref=nyregion
City’s Coney Island Design Revised to Break Deadlock By CHARLES V. BAGLI April 17, 2008 The Bloomberg administration has revised its redevelopment plan for the Coney Island waterfront in an effort to break a deadlock with some landowners and elected officials while still preserving the area’s historic amusement district, which includes the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone roller coaster. The proposal, which would turn the area into a year-round attraction, still calls for a lot of stores and as many as 5,000 apartments along Surf Avenue, but it would reduce to 9 acres from 15 a city-owned open-air amusement park north of the Boardwalk between KeySpan Park and the New York Aquarium. The city would buy the land for a permanent amusement district from local property owners including Thor Equities and the Vourderis family, which owns Deno’s Amusement Park and the Wonder Wheel. But in a departure from the original plan unveiled in November by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, those owners would be able to develop the remaining parts of their property themselves as long as they followed the city’s master plan, which must still undergo an environmental review and a land-use review. The city’s plan for the area north of the amusement district calls for a series of buildings that could include a glass-enclosed water park, games and amusements, a bowling alley, restaurants and entertainment-oriented businesses like House of Blues, Dave & Busters, NikeTown and movie theaters. Finally, the new zoning would allow for hotel towers on the south side of Surf Avenue. “This is a plan that will preserve the iconic nature of Coney Island and enhance the amusement district, while generating economic opportunities and jobs for local residents,” Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber said. “We’re trying to bling it up.” The revised plan is the result of meetings with local property owners and others since November. “I’m guardedly optimistic,” said Jesse Masyr, a real estate lawyer for Thor Equities, which has been at loggerheads with the Bloomberg administration. “We have to look at the size of sites we have left and what we could build.” As the largest landowner in the area, Thor was in a position to block the city’s redevelopment plan, and appeared willing to wait out the Bloomberg administration. Thor’s chairman, Joseph J. Sitt, has spent more than $120 million in recent years buying about 10 acres in the heart of Coney Island’s traditional amusement district and developing his own $1.5 billion proposal for the area. Mr. Sitt proposed a glitzy amusement park, as well as stores, game rooms and condominium hotels. But the city and some urban planners opposed generic retailing and any housing near the Boardwalk, saying that it would inevitably crush a noisy, late-night amusement district. In recent months, the two sides have been discussing a mutually acceptable compromise. Mr. Sitt’s recent counterproposal called for a smaller, 6.5-acre amusement area and far more stores and hotels — 2.9 million square feet — spread over 24 acres. The city’s revised plan allows for 1.9 million square feet. Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr., a critic of the original plan who has supported Thor, said the city was headed in the right direction, as did Dennis Vourderis, of the family that owns the Wonder Wheel. “We’re optimistic,” Mr. Vourderis said. “We’re hoping that they’re going to let us develop our own properties.” The glory days of Coney Island’s amusement parks are long gone, and the area is speckled with empty lots and dingy buildings. But the old-fashioned rides, sword swallowers, go-carts, wide-open beaches and cool breezes still attract hundreds of thousands of visitors in the summer months. The “stars may finally be realigning,” said Brooklyn’s borough president, Marty Markowitz, a longtime advocate of revitalizing Coney Island. “Coney Island was always a working-class playground,” he said. “We should preserve the amusements for future generations. I welcome a water park, movie theaters, a bowling alley and House of Blues. I do not want to see another generic shopping mall.” The key issue for all sides is how to attract visitors to Coney Island in the winter, when the area is cold and windswept. Mr. Sitt had insisted on traditional retail space and housing to offset the cost of the amusements. But the redevelopment plan goes beyond the amusement district. There are plans for housing and retail businesses on the north side of Surf Avenue and west of the KeySpan ballpark. In recent months, the Bloomberg administration has sought to redesign and refurbish the historic 271-foot-tall Coney Island Parachute Jump, which sits on 2.2 acres west of the amusement district. The centerpiece of the new plaza would be the restored Bishoff & Brienstein carousel, and could include a glass pavilion, an observation deck and restaurants. Mr. Sitt is bringing the Reithoffer Shows traveling carnival to Coney Island from May 22 through June 1. The Astroland amusements, which Mr. Sitt bought and planned to close, will also reopen for one more season. Both sides need a victory. Many of the city and state’s development plans have been battered by a slowing economy and the credit crisis, which has effectively ended lending for large-scale real estate projects. So if Mr. Sitt fails to compromise on Coney Island, he risks alienating City Hall and jeopardizing two other projects he would like to build on the Brooklyn waterfront. He has proposed a $100 million shopping center at a former bus depot along Shore Parkway in Bensonhurst, where he lives. In Red Hook, Mr. Sitt bought the long dormant Revere sugar works, and would like to build a marina and luxury apartments there, next to the soon-to-open Ikea furniture store. |
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