Exiting Stillwell Terminal in the new Coney Island, the first sight one sees is Thor Equities generic looking new building. January 29, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
What’s the opposite of “Ta Da”? After seven years of real estate speculation and many grandiose renderings, the construction fencing came down from Thor Equities first-ever new construction in Coney Island (flea market tents don’t count) to reveal a sterile-looking building suited for a suburban mall. It’s located on the southeast corner of Surf and Stillwell, the gateway to Coney’s Beach and Boardwalk as well as Scream Zone’s roller coasters and thrill rides.
The generic new building is the first sight visitors see in Coney Island as they exit Stillwell Terminal. We’d be surprised if it contains any rides, arcades or carny games. During the construction, Thor Equities had a sign atop the fence touting “CONEY ISLAND – The RETAIL RIDE of a LIFETIME – for leasing contact…”
View from DNALSI YENOC of Thor Equities New Building. January 29, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
The building has yet to sport any signs of tenants, but the Coney Island Rumor Mill has been saying for months that a Johnny Rockets (“The Original Hamburger,” founded in 1986 in L.A.) is coming to the Surf Avenue side. Hat retailer Lids–too bad it’s not the quirky Susquehanna Hat Company that HBO’s Bored to Death brought to Jones Walk/Bagel Street–is rumored for one of the stores. If it’s true, we’ll find out soon enough: Coney Island’s opening day is just two months away. Memorial Day is in four months. What would you like to see on this corner across the street from the iconic Nathan’s Famous?
Thor's Coney Island: Stillwell Avenue side of Joe Sitt's sterile and suburban looking new building in the new Coney Island. January 29, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr
It’s not as if we expected a Freakenspiel carousel and water fountain topped by a pyrotechnic elephant. That concept was part of Joe Sitt’s grandiose pitch back in 2005. Just for fun, check out the “Coney Island Rendering Hit Parade Pop Quiz,” a 2007 post by Brooklyn’s Blogfather Bob Guskind on the real estate blog Curbed. A lot has changed in the seven years since the real estate speculator began buying up property in Coney Island’s amusement zone. Sitt’s new building was reportedly built with a foundation suitable for a much taller structure. The site was one of four on the south side of Surf rezoned by the City in 2009 for a 30-story hotel.
The Henderson Music Hall stood on this corner for more than a century until Sitt had it demolished along with two other buildings in 2010, putting an end to Save Coney Island’s efforts to create an historic district. The Henderson was the longtime home of Popeye’s Chicken, the Fascination video game arcade, Velocity Nightclub and amusement games like Shoot Out the Star (open year round!), Clown Water Race and Balloon Dart. All lost their leases or were evicted. The old tenants are not expected to return to the new building, where rents are said to be over $100 per square foot, according to the rumor mill. Popeye’s found a new space a few doors down in the Popper Building for one third the price of what Thor was said to have asked for the equivalent of their former space.
Thinkwell's rendering for Thor's Temporary One-Story Building in Coney Island. April 2010. Via The New York Observer
In April 2010, Thor Equities released this rendering of a cheesy looking temporary one-story building occupied by hamburger and taco food joints. And a statement: “With the work we are commencing today, by Memorial Day, 2011, all of our parcels along Surf Avenue are scheduled to be activated with family-friendly games, food, shopping and other activities that visitors to, and residents of, Coney are clamoring for….”
Related posts on ATZ…
May 16, 2011: Thor’s Coney Island: Aqueduct Flea Vendors Make Dismal Debut
September 9, 2010: Thor’s Coney Island: Faber’s Fascination Goes Dark After 50 Years
April 29, 2010: Photo of the Day: Interior of Coney Island’s Doomed Henderson Music Hall
March 3, 2010: Thor’s Coney Island: What Stillwell Looked Like Before Joe Sitt
Amusing the Zillion 
A disgrace.
The person who will not be named should hire “No Longer Empty”, the artist who painted the fences, to paint the facades and windows. “No Longer Empty”‘s art work is what I, a resident of Coney, am clamoring for. We don’t need no stinkin mall facades that turn your mind off.
I’ll have my crap on white bread, please…
What did you expect from Joe Sitt?? A sterile looking building in the middle of a amusement area most likely modular that can be taken apart like a erector set that sits on a much larger foundation. Hhmm? I wonder how long that building will remain before Sitt erects a much larger building? Can you spell HI-RISE HOTEL…CONDO/CO-OPS…??? Does anybody really believe that CONEY ISLAND JOE is going to be satisfied…….I doubt it!? Paul A. Toomey
Thor Equities — We Build The Blight Right In!
Welcome to ANYTOWN, USA.
Absolutely awful.
Blight for Spite
If you do not presently live in coney island you should have no opinion.
Well that’s not true. I have never lived in Coney but have been going there (all seasons) my whole life. I most DEFINITEY have an opinion! It’s ugly, it’s wretched and the whole thing stinks of corporate bullying. The ones who shouldn’t HAVE opinions are part time NY’ers who come here to go to school or live out some Jack Kerouac fantasy and in the meantime sway the votes and laws and elect crappy politicians who will have no effect on their lives in after they go running back to Ohio in a year.
The building is divided into two large spaces at present.
If it was me, I’d make an “Amusement Department Store” with a funhouse, pretzel ride, fascination games, shooting gallery and food. Also go with the idea on the original picture with the large creative signage on the roof, but do it all in LED spectacular signs.
Well, we can dream, right?
Mr. Hanson-Who are you to decide who or who should not have a opinion?? Do you Mr. Hanson live in Coney Island?
I can only hope that the blank canvas space will attract creative tenants with an appreciation for the Coney Island esthetic.
Coney Island is a national treasure and we are all entitled to our opinions and I think this design is pathetic. The rendering looks more like Times Square and not a slightly-off, quirky Coney Island reflecting it’s heritage and spirit. There is a company in Austin called Blue Genie that provides designs for architecture, signage and display that are more in line with traditional CI vs. that drawing above. Just a thought.
The rendering is disgusting, too.
“Coney Island is a national treasure” ? Replace the verb with the past tense.
Yes, the rendering is shameful. All the more so because it was created by Thinkwell, a well-known firm in the themed entertainment industry, which was hired by Thor in 2006 to “help drive the creative vision” of the project to remake Coney Island. I think they should change their company name to Thinkworst
Tricia- It’s as if you gave a kid a crayon & asked for them to draw a store. It looks like old Thom McAn that got lost. Wonder why it took so long to put it up? Because it takes more time to dig and put a reenforced concrete foundation. I doubt that building will remain as is for more time than it takes for Sitt to get the plans etc. together and build whatever it is that will bring in the most revenue. A location on the avenue, across from Nathans and it looks like it should be in a strip mall.
What a sin! When I saw the design on paper I commented that it would soon be leased for a Jiffy Lube and now it looks like it. Joe S had an opportunity to bring in my client who had vision and together we submitted designs for a magical Coney Island theme restaurant worthy of this great city family friendly treasure.
Michael, I don’t want you to open your personal business but did Sitt even give you a reasonable rent/lease quote? As long as he is holding title to the property, he can wait until somebody will meet his price. A high-rise hotel chain comes to mind.
Its been years since the rezoning went through. You see Hilton or other hotel chains beating down Joe Sitt’s door to build on his lot?
Sitt tore down Henderson in case a future mayor or landmark preservation committee reverses their decision that it is worthy of landmarking.
Then the city threatened Sitt that if you leave the land empty, we will take it from you, so he built this nothing of a land. Of course he will price if for the moon, and when no one bites, he will cite financial loss, request a zoning ordinance, get his precious condo zoning, and sell the land.
And for the person who commented about the painted boards that were construction walls around this nothing of a building, you can visit the artwork at his Bay Parkway deconstruction zone. It’s a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces don’t match anymore.
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[…] YORK…I never thought I’d write this, but the suburbanization of Coney Island has arrived (Amusing the Zillion). At least there are some relics of the past in Times Square (Forgotten NY). Twenty years after the […]
that eyesore is STILL 100% empty… every time I pass it I shudder to think this is what is in store for the rest of my beloved Coney Island. I hope it sits empty all Summer and Sitt loses tons of Money, packs up and GOES AWAY.
Here is a interesting thought, A real builder can build in the Empire State Building in less time then it will take Sitt to finish a small strip mall.
After he repaved the sidewalk, he realized… oh.. we forgot utilities, and broke open the sidewalk to run water/sewer pipes.