I heard a while ago that someone bought Coney Island and were going to totally redo it. I haven't heard anything about it since -- does anyone know what's going on? Are they definitely going to destroy it in favour of something modern? What's it going to be like if/when it gets modernised? I feel modernisation would totally destroy its charm...
Thank you very much.
2007-09-01 02:01:17 · 5 answers · asked by Legate Tatiana 3 in Travel ➔ United States ➔ New York City
Nobody knows for sure what's happening - Thor Equities, the development company that bought most of the Coney Island property, keeps changing its story. There are very few rides and stands left today. From the Aquarium, to Nathan's, on the opposite side of Surf Avenue, all rides are gone and have been replaced by cheap furniture stores, most with Russian signs. There is a car dealership and a karaoke space. Astroland has been bought and they are supposed to close at the end of next month. Somebody is fighting to keep them open one more season. The Cyclone owners refused to sell - they are not closing. Nathan's has not sold and will remain open. There are two new bars/restaurants near Keystone Park.
The Mayor said a tremendous shopping mall and several theatres are planned. There will be new rides,including a double decker carousel. Expensive condos will be built. The Mayor said that in order to attract tourists and make this a destination point, they plan to run a ferry from Manhattan to Sheepshead Bay - you would then take a bus - a short ride to Coney Island; you can't run a ferry into Coney Island. Thor said they've scrapped the condo idea and will build a huge hotel instead.
Many houses have already been torn down - there are many empty lots on Surf Avenue - several near Keyspan Park are being used as parking lots now - more are just vacant lots.
There is a lot of public housing in Coney Island - housing for the poor and housing for the elderly - more than half a dozen different projects. Our Mayor has never said what he intends to do about these buildings and the thousands of people who live in them. It would be wonderful to see Coney Island restored (it's a completely devastated area now - poverty and high crime) - but, not at the expense of the people who live there. The Mayor never mentioned putting up new housing for these people.
Does the Mayor intend to leave the public housing and build luxury condos around them? Does he intend to "gate" the condos like Sea Gate - the private homes at the end of Surf Avenue - its been a gated community for many years. So, nobody really knows what's going to happen to Coney Island.
2007-09-01 03:18:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Clarification to the above -- the City has purchased the site of the Cyclone and dedicated it as a park. The ride is operated by a private company under license to NYC. So it is very unlikely the Cyclone will close even if the horrific Thor project goes through.
2007-09-01 15:51:48 · answer #2 · answered by Amanda 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Rumors started that Thor was interested in building a retail mall in the heart of the amusement area. In September 2005, Thor's founder, Joe Sitt, went public with his new plans, which he claimed was going to be a large Bellagio-style hotel resort surrounded by rides and amusements. He also claimed that the interior of the resort would have an indoor mall that would allow local amusement owners to relocate their rides and operate them indoors year round and made promises that he had no intention of driving out any local amusement owners and wanted them all to be part of his new resort. Sitt released renderings of a hotel that would take up the entire amusement area from the Aquarium to beyond Keyspan Park and would most likely need to involve the demolition of The Wonder Wheel, Cyclone, and Nathan's original hot dog stand, as well as the new Keyspan Park.
But things changed in June 2006 when Eek, an architectural design firm working for Thor, released detailed renderings of Thor's planned resort area that now showed luxury high-rise condo towers in place of the hotel with retail on the ground floor. Since the area has both zoning restrictions only allowing amusements and no buildings taller than 260 feet, Thor initially denied any inclusion of condo towers in their plans, and Eek quickly removed the renderings from their site. But not before blogs everywhere published copies of the renderings. Thor quickly released renderings of rides they proposed for their resort, including a steel coaster that would run above the boardwalk, a two-tiered carousel, and a fountain at the foot of Stillwell Av. that would project images of whales and mermaids. Thor then admitted that condos would be part of their resort but claimed that the resort was not economically feasible without the addition of condos. At a public meeting, Thor representatives continued to downplay the condos by claiming that they only wanted to build hundreds of condo units, not thousands. However, while Thor initially said they only wanted to build 575 condos, the number crept up to 975, which was very close to the 1000 units they claimed they were not building. Late in 2006, Thor announced that they had just purchased Coney Island's last remaining amusement park, Astroland, and would be closing it after the 2007 season. Immediately, plans were announced to build a Nickelodeon-themed hotel on the site. Then in January 2007, Thor released renderings for a new amusement park to be built on the Astroland site called Coney Island Park.
The new plan keeps the concept of a new glass-enclosed water park, but instead of apartments call 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.
2007-09-01 02:09:25 · answer #3 · answered by plant a tree 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
it will might be destroyed but the city comitee said that the new plan is "dead on the water". It might stay up for 1 more year or the plan is thrown off. Thor Ent want to buy C.I to convert to a new year round enternaiment.
2007-09-01 21:36:16 · answer #4 · answered by simpson3303 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Every so often this surfaces. They did build a minor league balll park some years back in the redevelopment. It seems to have slowed with the economy. It is a great place and could use a Donald Trump type of renovation.
2007-09-01 02:27:19 · answer #5 · answered by Michael M 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋