NEW YORK | Coney Island Redevelopment

[PhillyToNYC]

http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/asset...ro-Fighter.pdf

The Gerslauer brochure for the Eurofighter says about 1000 riders per hour. When I visited SFOG Dare Devil Dive was rolling through people incredibly fast. It looks as though this new coaster is a bit of a Gerstlauer-esque ride. It will be interesting to see how zamperla handles it.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by PhillyToNYC

http://www.greatcoasters.com/?p=projects&id=42
Great Coasters International is doing to re-tracking.
CAI just owns the coaster. They hired GCI to do the re-tracking.

CAI doesn't really own the coaster, the City owns it. Zamperla just has a lease to operate it as well as other sites in the amusement district. And yes, they hired someone to do the re-tracking, which also means they are responsible for the retracking, not the City.



As for the Astrotower, it is no more.
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stori...-is-dismantled

View from the webcam...

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But all else is well at Coney...


rjdibella





ByteForByte





Animcolate





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jason's_planet





shinya

























And finally, work begins on the Childs building...

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NYguy

And finally, work begins on the Childs building...

This is coming together quickly...


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...#ixzz2YbXujP6L

City clears way for seaside park, amphitheater at historic Coney Island boardwalk site
Landmarks Preservation Commission approves $53 million plan for city to acquire Childs Restaurant and adjoining lot.
Plan will be funded largely by Borough President Marty Markowitz, who has long coveted a concert venue for 'America's Playground'





By Reuven Blau
July 9, 2013

A historic Coney Island restaurant site will be converted into a public park that includes an amphitheater with a removable mesh roof.

The city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously in support of the $53 million plan to transform the landmarked Childs Restaurant building at W. 21st St. into a sprawling Seaside Park and Community Arts Center.

“The (Commission) has taken a major step towards ensuring that rain or shine, the show will go on in Coney Island,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who has long dreamed of adding a theater to the beloved boardwalk playground. Markowitz says he is providing the bulk of the money for the project through his taxpayer-funded capital budget.

The plans call for the city to buy the building by the boardwalk, along with an adjoining lot between W. 21st and W. 22nd Sts., from iStar Financial, the real estate investment company that acquired the historic structure from a developer after the economy tanked in 2008.

The amphitheater will seat 5,000 people with room for another 2,000 on the lawn behind it, according to the plans. The performance space will play host to as many as 40 concerts between May and October.

Space will also be leased year-round to a yet-to-be-selected proprietor to operate a restaurant inside the building. The food is expected to be similar to the pancakes and other breakfast fare served by the old Childs Restaurant, one of the country’s first restaurant chains, which flourished in the 1920s and 1930s.

The plan calls for the restoration of much of the building’s exterior terra cotta ornamentation, which includes wriggling fish, sailing ships and other unique maritime motifs. It will also entail a rooftop addition, new lighting, signs and the demolition of a portion of the building's west side to make room for the amphitheater.

“It’s really a very creative, clever solution,” Landmarks Commissioner Fredrick Bland said at the meeting Tuesday in lower Manhattan.

The building went up in 1924 and has a storied history. In July 1932, its fireproof construction blocked a massive fire at Coney Island from spreading. But nearly 1,000 people were left homeless by the blaze, which damaged the restaurant inside. The restaurant closed in 1947.

More recently, the building was home to the Tell Chocolate Company and served as a staging site for the annual Mermaid Parade. The building, which was landmarked in January 2011, has been vacant for the past few years.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Army Corps Of Engineers Awards $7.3 Million Contract To Restore Beaches Of Coney Island
by Willie Simpson on Jul 24th, 2013

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $7.3 million contract to the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company for its plan to replenish the shores of Brighton Beach and Coney Island following Superstorm Sandy. According to a press release, the company will be charged with replacing 600,000 cubic yards of displaced sand, preparing the beaches for future storms and reducing the risk of flooding in the communities around them..

The Army Corps billed the construction work in a press release as restoring Coney Island, but the agency confirmed to Sheepshead Bites that this project includes Brighton Beach. It does not include the private, gated community of Seagate, which is seeking its own lump of federal dollars for repairs and storm mitigation. The scope of the project is from Corbin Place on the eastern end to the beach’s western end at West 37th Street.

New York District Commander Colonel Paul E. Owen elaborated on the project in the release.

“This engineered beach helped reduce impacts from the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Sandy and we look forward to restoring it back to its design profile so it can continue to mitigate the impacts of future storms,” Owen said.

Construction on the beach is likely to begin in August and the work is expected to be completed in the fall. In the release, the Army Corps estimated the impact that the work will have on recreational activities:

While restoration work is going on, there will likely be rolling closures of roughly 1000 foot wide sections of the beach where construction work is active, but the Corps of Engineers will make efforts to limit the impacts of the ongoing work on recreation without compromising public safety. Closures will be closely coordinated with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

“While the beach at Coney Island still looks full and robust, this repair work is important to ensuring the engineered beach continues to provide coastal storm risk reduction to the communities behind it,” Owen said. “This sort of work is ultimately a construction project and as such we must be mindful of safety in the areas where work is ongoing. We will work with our partners in New York City Parks to coordinate the beach closures and limit the impacts to recreation, but we need to balance that with the importance of providing increased coastal storm risk reduction to the community to help reduce the risk from future storms.”

http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/2013/...-coney-island/


http://www.sheepsheadbites.com/wp-co...ch-585x390.jpg

[NYguy]

Couple of weeks ago....


(August 31, 2013)



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[NYC GUY]

35. Holy Crap Alduin the World Eater!!!! We need the dragon born to go to Coney Island!

[MolsonExport]

This is the best. Zoltar, the great fortuneteller.

[Hypothalamus]

Looks like work is finally proceeding...

Curbed NY:

City Razes Community Garden in Coney Island
Sunday, December 29, 2013, by Rowley Amato


[Via CUNY Graduate School of Journalism]

Yesterday in Coney Island, a developer bulldozed a decades-old community garden in order to make way for Marty Markowitz's long-heralded amphitheater. According to the Post, construction workers entered the Boardwalk Community Garden at West 22nd Street at 4am and proceeded to dismantle the garden, uprooting plants, corralling chickens, and evicting a colony of feral cats.
...

The 5,000-seat amphitheater that will replace the garden has been an ongoing subject of controversy for Borough President Marty Markowitz. As his pet project, the $53 million project was previously slated to replace the crumbling bandshell in Asser Levy Park, but activity stalled following a vociferous community outcry. The razing of the garden comes a week after the City Council approved the amphitheater plans.

Renders:

Originally Posted by NYguy

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3353

Coney's New Big Top
Grimshaw-designed amphitheater to become latest Coney Island icon


Grimshaw has designed a new amphitheater as part of the Coney Center.
Courtesy Grimshaw

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by tubeworm

Looks like work is finally proceeding...

Renders:

Those renders are from a plan a few years ago on the opposite side of Coney. The plans for the new amphitheater will be based out of the landmark Childs building. Work has been ongoing since the summer there. The official name is the Seaside Park and Community Arts Center



ny.curbed.com



Current plans for the amphitheater and Childs buiding...

[Hypothalamus]

^^^Curbed was wrong! I, as well, stand corrected. Thanks for the correction and the very welcomed images, NYGuy. Sorry about that mishap!

[Hypothalamus]

NY Daily News:

Coney Island's New York Aquarium breaks ground on new $157M shark exhibit on Friday
The massive 57,000-square-foot "Ocean Wonders: Sharks!" exhibit will feature a coral reef tunnel that will give guests a 360-degree-view of the new plethora of ocean life when it officially opens to the public in 2016.

BY NATALIE MUSUMECI THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 2014, 5:27 PM


A rendering of the 'Ocean Wonders: Sharks!' exhibit at the New York Aquarium. It's scheduled to open in 2016.

Coney Island is set for a shark attack.

After years of planning, New York Aquarium is finally set to break ground on a jaw-dropping new shark exhibit Friday.

The massive 57,000-square-foot "Ocean Wonders: Sharks!" exhibit will feature a coral reef tunnel that will give guests a 360-degree-view of the new plethora of ocean life when it officially opens to the public in 2016.

“You will be surrounded on all sides by not only sharks, but by schools of bright colored bony fish and the sort of beauty of the tropics that we all associate with diving,” said Jon Forrest Dohlin, aquarium director and vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the aquarium.

The $157-million exhibit will feature more than 100 species of marine animals, both local and from around the world, including sharks, rays, sea turtles, thousands of schooling fish and other crustaceans.

The New York Aquarium will be home to even more sand tiger sharks once the brand new shark exhibit opens.

More than 45 sharks, including sand tigers, nurse sharks, blackttip reef sharks and bamboo sharks will swim around inside the three main 500,000-gallon tanks.
.....

The three-story facility will also boast a roof-deck overlooking the ocean, classroom space and a cafe.

Officials were supposed to break ground on the exhibit a year ago, but Hurricane Sandy devastated the aging aquarium and delayed the project, which has been in the works for several years.
.....

Aquarium trustees plan to reopen the damaged parts of the Coney Island institution in conjunction with the grand opening of the new shark exhibit in 2016.

“It will have new exhibits and certainly updated and renovated exhibits throughout the entire facility,” said Dohlin.
...

NICHOLAS FEVELO /FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

[NYguy]

A few more renders of the Aquarium...

http://www.nyaquarium.com/transform/...FeFlOgodYwYA0g


http://archleague.org/2013/04/andrew...-architecture/










Polar Bears...

agent j loves nyc













Brooklyn Cyclist





JSonnabend

[N830MH]

Do you know what happened the old roller coaster? Did they washed it away? They got a badly damage during Hurricane Sandy. I just wondered if they will rebuild again?

[Blaze23]

You must be referring to the one in Seaside heights in NJ. No roller coaster got destroyed in Coney Island.

[NYguy]

This is back on...


http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/0...ing_in_nyc.php

Here's What Billionaire John Catsimatidis Is Building In NYC





Wednesday, February 19, 2014
by Jessica Dailey

After an unsuccessful mayoral bid, billionaire supermarket owner John Catsimatidis is throwing himself back into the real estate world and his development company Red Apple Real Estate. In a 30-minute interview with the Times, the developer reminds us of all the projects he has going on in the city and reveals some details about a new one. Let's dive in:

1) The Coney Island towers: Cats says they have "the zoning all ready to go" for three planned towers on the Coney Island boardwalk. The project has been in the works for about a decade, and a few renderings (pictured above) from Dattner Architects were released back in 2011. At that time, it was reported that there would be 400 condos, but Cats tells the Times there will now be 500 units, and they are building them as rentals "but if the market is very, very hot, [they] have the ability to change it." The first tower will be 22 stories and go up "maybe in September."

[NYguy]

http://www.amny.com/news/coney-islan...nday-1.7293577

Coney Island breaking ground on new Thunderbolt Monday





March 5, 2014

Expect a new joy ride at Luna Park this Memorial Day weekend -- its first-ever vertical-lift steel roller coaster, the new Thunderbolt.

Coney Island's first new custom roller coaster since 1927, the year the Cyclone was built, will reach speeds of 55 miles per hour and stand 115 feet tall. "The approximately two-minute ride begins with a jaw-dropping 90-degree vertical drop," according to a news release from Luna Park's parent company.

The amusement park will break ground on the roller coaster, being built by Zamperla S.p.A, on Monday where the original wooden Thunderbolt stood for more than 60 years.

[NYguy]

https://www.facebook.com/LunaParkNYC

This is the final assembly of the lift tower. Once completed it will have a completely different look. Can you believe it will look like this!?

Excited for the return of summer.

January snowfall...

[NYguy]

Clip of the new Thunderbolt...


• Video Link

[NYguy]

Coney’s Thunderbolt Roller Coaster Breaks Ground

[NYguy]

http://observer.com/2014/03/slip-sli...-coney-island/

Slip & Slide: Developers Hint at Plans for Water Park in Coney Island
City Council: Say what?


By Anna Perfecto Canlas
3/11/14

Something wetter than the mermaid parade might be coming to Coney Island.

Zamperla, the Italian company that operates the tilt-a-whirls and roller coasters of Luna Park, are looking to build a water park on five parcels of land from Surf Avenue to the Boardwalk, according to the Brooklyn Daily.

This stretch of land was once home to the Thunderbolt, a wooden roller coaster in the 1920s to the 1980s, reincarnated as a spanking new steel loop-dee-loop slated to open on May 22, also operated by Zamperla.

“It’s in the very primary stages, we don’t want to mention anything yet,” Valerio Ferrari, president of Zamperla’s Central Amusements International, told the paper.

CEO Alberto Zamperla said that he is negotiating with Jasmine Bullard, daughter of late Surf Avenue property owner Horace Bullard.

The caveat is whether the state won’t pour cold water on the project, as it has done in the past. In 2011, plans to install inflatable water slides fell through when its proponent, Party Magic USA, couldn’t get permits from the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Ian Fried of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which broke ground on the new Thunderbolt as part of its $150 million revitalization plan for Coney Island, told the Observer that they are not involved in the creation of the water park. He, however, clarified that ”the new Thunderbolt, not a water park, is being built on the site of the old Thunderbolt.”

http://www.brooklyndaily.com/stories...k_2014_11.html

Company seeks to bring splish-splashing fun to former Thunderbolt parcel


By Will Bredderman
March 11, 2014

Italian-born amusement tycoon Alberto Zamperla said that he is in negotiations with Jasmine Bullard, daughter of the late Sodom by the Sea land baron Horace Bullard, to construct a slippery funzone on five parcels stretching from Surf Avenue to the Boardwalk.

Zamperla said part of his excitement to develop the site comes from his admiration for Horace Bullard’s failed dream to resurrect Coney Island in the 1980s.

“I have great respect for their family,” said Zamperla, adding that he keeps a copy of Bullard’s old blueprints for a new Luna Park in his office.

Zamperla’s company is already working on a new Thunderbolt rollercoaster in the lot next door to where the old one stood from 1925 until 2000 — when the Giuliani administration ordered the derelict ride torn down in a pre-dawn demolition that a federal judge later declared illegal.

Details on the waterpark deal are still sketchy.

“It’s in the very primary stages, we don’t want to mention anything yet,” said Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusements International, the Zamperla subsidiary which operates its attractions in Coney.

But real estate experts pointed out that the Bullard property includes rights to build concessions and a grand entryway along the Boardwalk.