On the Market: Taconic’s former ‘Coney Island North Venture,’ vacant parcels of land on north side of Surf Ave. between W 16th and W 20th Streets
Last year, the landmark Childs Building on the Boardwalk and a neighboring lot zoned for condos became part of iStar Financial’s portfolio when Taconic Investment Partners, which acquired the properties in 2005, defaulted on loans. Now the other shoe has dropped. Taconic’s former “Coney Island North Venture,” three city blocks on the north side of Surf Avenue across from the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium totaling over 100,000 square feet of vacant land, is on the market.
ATZ learned of the offering from Coney Island broker Joe Vitacco. Neither Taconic nor iStar is mentioned in a two-page teaser for “Surf Avenue Assemblage: Prime Coney Island Mixed Use Development Opportunity.” Nor is the price. Interested persons are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the listing broker to find out additional info.
According to the brokers, R7-X and C2-4 zoning allows for approximately 380,426 buildable square feet as-of-right or up to 507,235 buildable square feet with inclusionary housing on 101,447 square feet of parcels. Combined Assessment/Taxes Due for 2013 and ’14 are $1,668,753/$185,488.
“Buyers can also explore a larger assemblage opportunity by incorporating adjacent sites currently owned by HPD,” says the flier. “Developers will also be able to take advantage of the property’s significant retail frontage. With few assemblages of this scale ever coming to market, the Surf Avenue Assemblage represents a unique opportunity to develop a project in one of New York City’s most dynamic submarkets.”
Coney Island Aerial: Detail of Conceptual Rendering Shows Residential Towers West and North of the Brooklyn Cyclones Stadium. CIDC Press Kit, 2009
Up until a few years ago when they fell silent, Taconic Investment Partners planned to build a glittering city of high-rise apartments and retail west and north of MCU Park. Their Senior VP of Acquisitions and his colleagues were a regular presence at hearings leading up to the Coney Island Rezoning of July 2009. According to Taconic’s website, the rezoning “significantly increased our buildable floor areas for mixed-use residential and retail projects to between 1.8 million and 2.4 million square feet, with the potential to create nearly 2,000 residential units and more than 200,000 square feet of retail space.”
The parcels between W 16th and W 20th Streets have been vacant since the wave of urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s, says Coney Island History Project director Charles Denson, who grew up a few blocks away and documented the razing of the neighborhood in his photos. The RKO Tilyou, operated by the Tilyou family across the street from their Steeplechase Park on Surf at West 17th was demolished in 1973.
Rendering of Coney Island North and South Venture, Taconic Real Estate Investment Partners
Taconic’s plans for their “Coney Island North and South Venture” remain on their website. Only the players are changing.
As Taconic CEO William Bendit told Eliot Brown of the New York Observer in an interview in 2009: “What attracted us to Coney Island was the fact that it’s vacant land—we didn’t have to dispossess anybody, relocate anybody. And it’s the beachfront. How much beachfront land is there in New York City? Not only that, but beachfront land that’s accessible to the subway. So, if you think about it, how many young people, or anybody, for that matter, would like to commute into New York or Brooklyn, and go home at night and live on the beach?”
Related posts on ATZ…
December 7, 2013: New Construction: Coney Island Area’s 1st Hotel in Decades
October 30, 2013: Photo Album: Four Transformations, One Year After Sandy
October 17, 2013: The New Coney Island: Thor Equities Vacant Lots, Dummy Arcades
February 17, 2011: New Construction: Coney Island’s 1st Private Beachfront Condos on Boardwalk
Amusing the Zillion 
You could put up an enclosed amusement park ala Steeplechase, a bowling alley to appease certain people and a multi-story parking garage on those parcels. All three would be great to further the cause of a year-round Coney as an amusements destination. Now if only I could win Powerball…
Somebody won $425M the other day. That would buy us some Coney Island!
We need to start a Kickstarter drive! Crowd financing for the win!
Last year in Coney Island, Kickstarter saved the Mermaid Parade and funded Fredini’s Scan-O-Rama 3-D art project. But the asking price for this property is likely to be way above anything raised through crowdfunding. In 2005 Thor Equities flipped the block known as the Washington Baths site to Taconic for an exorbitant $90 million. And that was before it was rezoned for residential!
I’d like a vintage trolley running down Surf Ave ending in a Trolley Museum.
That would be great. They successfully brought trolleys back to Tampa! And Coney Island still has a few trolley poles.
[…] Sure, why not? [Bedford + Bowery] New York City is getting an influx of Marvel heroes [Bloomberg] Wanna buy some vacant lots in Coney Island? [Amusing the Zillion] City councilman wants do-over on Sandy recovery money [Sheepshead Bites] […]
thank you for very informative writing