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Author Astroland is safe... For a while
Scott
Posts: 2766
Registered: 11/7/2004

Rank: Platinum Critic
6/22/2007 12:40:13 AM
Good news everyone.

"This won't be the final summer after all for Coney Island's fabled Astroland Park, The Post has learned.

Councilman Domenic Recchia Jr. (D-Brooklyn) brokered a deal to keep the rides in business in 2008, sources close to the deal said.

The park's longtime operator, Carol Hill Albert, had been expected to close Astroland after Labor Day so that Thor Equities, which purchased the park for $50 million last year, could clear the site for its planned $1.5 billion Vegas-glitz entertainment complex.

Albert and Thor will be working out the details of the extension in the days ahead, including compensation to Thor for allowing Astroland to use the site next year.

The city is trying to find a new site for Astroland somewhere near KeySpan Park, the Brooklyn Cyclones' minor-league baseball home.

The historic Cyclone roller coaster wasn't affected by Thor's purchase and Albert will continue operating it through a city lease. "
Message updated 6/22/2007 12:43:33 AM by Scott
larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002

Rank: Platinum Critic
6/22/2007 9:42:38 AM
This whole situation just reaks of something bad. Something is just not right.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
6/22/2007 11:03:35 AM
I have to agree. Watch Thor back out now that they can't get there condos.

But it is good news none the less.
adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003

Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
6/25/2007 12:07:03 PM
I heard something about Thor agreeing to allow Astroland to continue operating into 2008 - if they are granted their desired zoning change. Just in the grapevine, but the word is circulating throughout Coney.

I was talking with Cyclonic about it at the Mermaid Parade, and the real worry that we, among many others, have is that Thor, upon given their zoning change, will immediately flip the property. I am terribly worried that all of their architectural concept drawings and park designs are simply a smoke-screen, for a much more sinister plan. Thor Equities is not known for building - their past projects have focused almost entirely upon prospective investments, and property flips. Look at the property flanking Steve's Grill House, along Coney's boardwalk - they bought it for 13 million, got their zoning change, and sold it for 90 million to a seperate investing company. This is just what I fear for the rest of Coney.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
6/25/2007 11:24:28 PM
I hope that wasn't the case. I share the same fears. lets all hope the city sticks to there guns and that Thor backs out.
BobFunland
Posts: 7962
Registered: 8/9/2001

Rank: Site Moderator
6/27/2007 6:26:15 PM
Quote:
larrygator said:
This whole situation just reaks of something bad. Something is just not right.


well, duh, there is a clear sign of conspiracy or corruption...

Quote:
(D-Brooklyn)




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Message updated 6/27/2007 6:26:24 PM by BobFunland
adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003

Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
6/27/2007 6:38:51 PM
Outside of political affiliation, most of the folks I talked with last night (there was a Thor-hosted "town meeting", which was, of course, a totally ridiculous joke) feel exactly that - that Dominic Recchia sold the hell out. He originally professed "oh, I'm all for the preservation of Coney", but has turned coat, it seems. Like I said, this was the majority opinion of the Coney folks I was talking with - I personally know very little about the guy, only recently setting up digs in Brooklyn.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
6/29/2007 8:23:29 PM
i read a report form that town meeting. He sounded like an Elixir Sales man. Something for everyone and nothing wrong with the idea. Gold would soon be puring out of Coney Island.
adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003

Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
6/30/2007 9:33:20 PM
^ The meeting seemed exactly like the Simpsons "Monorail" episode, with Lyle Lanley pitching his product, a la "The Music Man". Just a total joke.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
7/3/2007 1:08:09 PM
After thinking about it it dose sound allot like that. What I loved was the Borderline racist comments regarding Entertainment and shopping.
Horizons12
Posts: 4860
Registered: 8/16/2002

Rank: Extragalactic Invader
7/19/2007 6:37:28 PM
Just a little heads up, I see that Astrolands Breakdance and Top Spin up for sale on italintl.com. $499,000 for the Top Spin and $299,000 for the Breakdance.

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adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003

Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
7/20/2007 8:22:21 AM
Sadly, Carol Albert, who sold Astroland to Thor, has stated that she is unaware of any deal that will keep Astroland open in 2008. Basically, it comes down to a false story that the media ran with. So... if you want to catch Astroland, do it this year.

As well, a section of Deno's is currently under threat of sale to Thor - something of a red-tape squabble situation is allowing the Vourderis family a little time to raise the funds for the $11 million purchase price, so we'll see. Meantime, more property on Surf Avenue has been snapped up within the last month - a concession near the Eldorado bumper cars. Things aren't getting better... unless you consider Thor's rather pathetic attempt at amusements (an inflatable slide along Stillwell, as well as a brief stint by the slightly notorious Cole Brothers circus) a good thing.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
7/21/2007 2:02:50 AM
Thanks for the bad news!

I was hoping this was true. Thor giving them another year. It gave me at least some hope that he was beginning to realize he's not going to get his houses and that his little scheme didn't work.
Canobie Coaster
Posts: 2694
Registered: 7/26/2005

Rank: Platinum Critic
7/24/2007 7:58:21 AM
There's a chance I might be able to hit Astroland and Deno's before it closes this year. It's a shame to see what Thor has for Coney Island.
mrceagle
Posts: 13804
Registered: 6/9/2001

Rank: TPC News Minister
7/25/2007 12:35:46 AM
Ya I might take a day trip out there and catch the parks before they close.

Even if this dose turn into a park. Prices are going to be worse then they already are.
adriahna
Posts: 4692
Registered: 6/4/2003

Rank: Site Moderator
Skooter Junkie
7/25/2007 11:27:55 PM
The latest from local paper AM New York...

*****

Coney Island history may get razed

By Ryan Chatelain, amNewYork Associate Editor
ryan.chatelain@am-ny.com

July 25, 2007

Coney Island's oldest standing structure and the building where Harpo Marx made his stage debut in 1908 are among the historic sites endangered by a controversial makeover planned for the storied peninsula.

The Grasshorn building, built in the early 1880s, and the Henderson building, once the home of a popular Vaudeville theater, are expected to be razed as developer Thor Equities makes way for a glitzy $1.5 billion development that will include an amusement park, water theme park, hotels, time-share units and retail shops on 10 acres between West 10th and West 15th streets.

Dick Zigun, founder of the arts organization Coney Island USA, which runs Sideshows by the Seashore and the annual Mermaid Parade, said his group reached a preliminary agreement last year with Thor chief executive Joseph Sitt to purchase the Grasshorn building using $2 million in city-awarded grant money.

Zigun hoped to move the Coney Island Museum into the building that was best known as the home of Henry Grasshorn's hardware store, which provided amusement owners with the parts they needed to keep their rides running. But Sitt broke off talks with Coney Island USA last month, saying the building was no longer for sale and that he planned to build a new structure there, Zigun said.

"In a place where so little has survived, it would be a shame to lose that building," Coney Island historian Charles Denson said.

Instead of the Grasshorn building's place, Coney Island USA later suggested it would be interested in acquiring the 108-year-old Henderson building, as well as several other "architecturally distinct" structures owned by Thor.

"He will not sell me any of those buildings because he intends to knock down every old building that Thor owns and only develop new buildings and not really be involved with any type of preservation efforts," Zigun said.

Thor officials declined to comment.

The Grasshorn and Henderson buildings are among six structures in the neighborhood that Coney Island USA has nominated for landmark protection, but the organization has received unofficial feedback saying the two buildings have been altered too significantly over the years to qualify, leaving their fate solely in Sitt's hands.

"I thought we were over this, where developers and architects realize that, in a place like New York, a mix of rehabbed old buildings together with new buildings speaks a lot more to the history and culture of New York City than a suburban attitude, where everything is new and sort of uniformed," said Zigun, who added that because Sitt led him on for a year and a half into believing he would sell the Grasshorn building, Coney Island USA faces forfeiting its grant money if it does not spend it before the end of the Bloomberg administration next year.

Thor still needs city zoning approval before it can move forward with construction on its development.

*****

In my humble opinion... absolutely disgusting. As this season has dragged along, Joe Sitt has proven himself to be nothing less than a bait-and-switch artist, with gag order power play methods and a total lack of concern for the people who have been keeping Coney alive over the last decades. He claims that he has the best of intentions for this amazing, oddball, completely unique place... as they say in South Park, quoted in large part to maintain a clean tongue... I call shenanigans.

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