[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...%28NY+Local%29

Developer Joe Sitt has no plans for tattered Coney Island lots



BY Erin Durkin
April 29th 2010

It won't all be fun and games at Coney Island this summer.

Developer Joe Sitt's prime Stillwell Ave. lots are still filled with tattered tents neighbors call an eyesore - and so far, he's got no plans to put amusement attractions there this summer.

Sitt also said Wednesday he wants to tear down the four century-old buildings he owns along Surf Ave. to make way for new games and shops next year. Sitt said he'd spend $10 million to replace them with "family friendly games, food, shopping and other activities that visitors to, and residents of, Coney are clamoring for."

The sprawling lots along Stillwell Ave., which Sitt kept in his deal last year with the city and which housed a half-filled flea market, could sit empty this summer too.

"It looks like an abandoned place," said Buenos Aires tourist Lucas Bertelotti, 21, who got an eyeful of the torn tents Wednesday on his first visit to Coney Island. "It's not clean. ... It looks like this place had a past. And now, I don't know what happened."

Several amusement companies have been in talks with Sitt's Thor Equities about setting up carnival rides or go-karts on the Stillwell Ave. site, but ended up walking away without making a deal. Sources said the developer is looking for at least $300,000 up front for the summer - and the option to terminate the lease at the end of every year.

"They wanted to be be in control in every form and fashion," said one amusement operator who talked to Thor. "It just didn't make sense for us."

Jeff Brooks, who has negotiated with Thor on behalf of several amusement companies, said he doesn't think the developer has any real interest in finding a tenant.

"They really don't want to rent it, that's the bottom line," he said. "They want to keep it dark and dingy and ugly."

Freak show operator John Strong was set to rent the Grashorn building for his circus performers and many-headed animals this summer before Thor decided to tear it down instead. "It's really a shame. We did so well there last year," Strong said.

Coney Island USA president Dick Zigun ripped Sitt's plans, noting the four buildings - the Grashorn, Henderson, Shore Hotel, and Bank of Coney Island - while not protected by landmark status, are part of a proposed historic district.

"They are buildings of quality, with interesting architecture, with fascinating prior histories, and in a more enlightened environment would be rehabbed for 21st-century use rather than destroyed [so that] everything looks like it's off the highway in New Jersey," he said.

Sitt insisted the buildings are "structurally questionable and potentially dangerous and dilapidated."

An Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman said they were "eager to see the ideas [Sitt has] come up with," and that he would have to "go through the city [permitting] process."