We mentioned yesterday that Joe Sitt, founder of Thor Equities, locked the gates to the amusement park Dreamland on Friday, due to rent owed him by the park’s operator, Anthony Raffaelle. The move garnered the developer plenty of bad press, but, to be fair, it did turn out that Raffaelle did owe Sitt around $500,000 in rent, and Sitt’s spokesman, Stefan Friedman, defended the move with the following explanation: Dreamland has been locked out because it has not come close to meeting its financial obligations in many months. We are hopeful that Dreamland will soon pay its rent so it can quickly reopen the rides and allow Coney Islanders and visitors to continue enjoying what has been a spectacular summer so far. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Raffaelle acknowledged that he owes Sitt the half million dollars, but called the lock-out illegal nonetheless, because Sitt locked the site without a court order. He plans to return today with a court order to reopen the site. Meanwhile, other die hard Coney Islanders (like the person behind Kinetic Carnival, which is responsible for the image above) are still calling for Sitt’s head on a stick.
Coney Carney Vows to Reopen on Tuesday [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Shuts Down His Coney Amusement Park [Brooklyn Paper]
Joe Sitt Is No Dream Operator [Brownstoner]