Thor Backs Away from Coney Condo Plan
After months of criticism from city officials and community members, Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities submitted a plan that replaces the controversial 40-story condominium tower and hundreds of other rental apartments along the Coney Island boardwalk with a lower-scale mix of hotels and timeshares. Does it represent enough of a change to satisfy critics or…
After months of criticism from city officials and community members, Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities submitted a plan that replaces the controversial 40-story condominium tower and hundreds of other rental apartments along the Coney Island boardwalk with a lower-scale mix of hotels and timeshares. Does it represent enough of a change to satisfy critics or is the plan just wolf dressed up as a sheep, as Robert Lieber, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, called it? It’s an important question for Thor, which needs the city on board to complete a rezoning and to cough up financing on the order of $100 million. The key to any plan for the area is finding a way to make Coney Island a year-round destination. Unfortunately, it’s hard to see how to accomplish that while maintaining the old-school vibe for which so many New Yorkers feel nostalgia. If you’re already going to turn it into Disney World, what’s the big deal is about having some condos in the mix?
Coney Island Plan Is Scaled Back [NY Times]
Condos Nixed from Coney Revamp Plan [NY Post]
Coney Developer Drops Condo Plan [NY Sun]
The city let this area rot for 50 years and now when a developer tries to turn it into SOMETHING, hell anything is better then whats there now they are fighting him all the way. When rappers rap about coney island and basketball players reminisce about how its “the worst place in the world to grow up” it’s just disgusting to see some upper class city officials who never been to coney in their life speaking against development..
its a disgrace
It needs a Colossus.
As someone who went to coney island with my flatbush family when I was a child, and as someone who watched the neighborhood and the perception of it decline, I would be excited to see it built up. In the 90s, when the hipsters started ‘discovering’ coney island for it’s grittiness and parade, I was happy that people were focusing on the neighborhood, but dismayed that it was being exploited for it’s ironic grossness. The fact that people want to preserve the decay is more than annoying. It’s counterproductive and twisted. There are so many other waterfront neighborhoods that remain decayed and underbuilt. Let someone make Coney Island nice (even if it ends up being overbuilt.) Let the hipsters go to Rockaway and hang out by the methadone clinics.
Brenda – it would be great to keep the old flair but they need to figure out how to make it a year round destinition to some extent. Restraurants and some retail shoping can probably be added without losing that old aspect.
Either way it is 40 years since those old parks have closed down and with Astroland closing soon (b/c of the developer) those parks are a thing of the past.
I’ve never been to CI, so I’m not quite sure what people mean by “gross”? Is it similar to boarded up buildings and XXX theatres of pre-90s 42nd st?
That’s what I, and the others, seem to be saying, Brenda.
Sadly, I’ve got to confess that there’s nothing at Coney I’d miss except the Wonder Wheel and Cyclone (landmarked) and the beach/boardwalk (not going anywhere either)…and, of course, the new stadium. (Oh, and Nathan’s.)Those gems are set in a family-unfriendly patchwork of scary rotting depressingness…the bathrooms alone say it all. Also sadly, Thor will probably turn it into a hyper-sanitized glitz thing that erases every trace of Coney’s raffish past. But I can understand that ‘raffish’ is very hard to preserve. The peeling “Shoot the Freak” sign that pushes our edgy/quaint appreciation button is one thing; the creepy dark places behind the chainlink and the hideous restrooms are quite another. Truth be told, a state-of-the-art high-tech ultraglitzy theme park would be the truest tribute to Coney’s past–wasn’t that what Luna Park et al were, in their time?
Here’s an idea: Amid the new turbocharged development, let’s do a Carny-Meets-Colonial-Williamsburg and meticulously recreate a chunk of Luna Park or Dreamland, right down to the vintage light bulbs, with costumed attendants etc. It would be a huge destination for weddings and film shoots, and keep the past alive as the future unfolds around it.
To answer Brownstoner’s question – inevitably the issue is that Condos are not compatible with amusements (who wants to live right next to Disney) and that ultimately big $ condos will force out seasonal seaside amusements. I think that argument has some merit. That being said – clearly no matter what Thor comes up with, it will be opposed – I just can’t figure out why the City seems to be fighting this – I think Bloomberg must be really pissed about the Albee Sq fiasco
Coney Island is a shit hole that bears no resemblance to itself in its heyday. It’s true that not many things would be worse but a nod to the glory days would be cool.