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Coney’s Bowery To Get New Midway Games But Can It Get Its Groove Back?

Posted in Amusement Game, amusement park, tagged Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, Bowery, Coney Art Walls, Coney Island, Thor Equities on May 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Stillwell Avenue and Bowery, Coney Island. April 16, 2010. Photo © Tricia Vita

It turns out that Dan Biederman’s consulting firm Biederman Redevelopment Ventures was hired by Thor Equities to manage and create programming for two lots in Coney Island. So what’s planned for Thor’s second long-vacant lot, on the Bowery across the street from where Coney Art Walls and Smorgasburg are set to debut? “Our programming is still in flux, though we hope to announce some exciting things next week,” Ben Donsky, BRV’s senior project manager, told ATZ. “There will probably be performances on both lots.”

Since Thor bought the property in 2006 and emptied out the bumper boats, go karts and batting cages, the lot has seen sporadic use, most infamously in 2009 as the failed Flea by the Sea. Its tattered tents can be seen in the photo above.

As for game trailers coming to the lot and kiosks being offered for rent this season, as the Coney Island Rumor Mill has been saying for months: “There are no actual ‘kiosks’ in our plans on the east side of Stillwell, at least right now,” Donsky says. “But Gordon Lee of the Eldorado is going to be putting up midway games along the Bowery.”

Balloon Dart on the Bowery, Coney Island

Balloon Dart, on the Bowery in Coney Island, May 26, 2008. This game did not reopen in 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita

Can the Bowery get its groove back? Or will it get a complete redo? Coney’s Bowery from West 12th Street to Stillwell is a ghost town compared to the crowds it used to attract, particularly since McCullough’s Kiddie Park got pushed out in 2012. As a measure of how much has changed, the spot where the old-school Balloon Dart was located in the demolished Henderson Building is now occupied by the Brooklyn Nets Shop in Thor’s retail building, where Wahlburger’s is opening a rooftop dining area that will overlook the festivities unfolding on the lots this summer.

Slated to open this summer, Wahlburgers will have a rooftop overlooking Thor’s Stillwell lots. April 18, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

Coney Island 2015: Update on Wahlburgers, Temporary Fair at Thor’s Vacant Lots

Posted in amusement park, Food & Drink, tagged Burger restaurant, Coney Island, Donnie Wahlberg, Mark Wahlberg, Paul Wahlberg, Stillwell Avenue, Thor Equities, Wahlburgers on April 27, 2015| 2 Comments »

Slated to open this summer, Wahlburgers will have a rooftop overlooking Thor’s Stillwell lots. April 18, 2015. Photo © Tricia Vita

Last week, Wahlburgers released details of the 6,800 square foot franchise restaurant currently under construction in Coney Island and slated to open this summer. Eater dubbed it “a massive indoor/outdoor extravaganza.” Rooftop patio dining with a retractable glass roof sounds spectacular but it’s a stretch to say Wahlburgers “will overlook Coney Island’s famous boardwalk and beach” as the pr copy claims.

Located in Thor Equities’ retail building on Stillwell Avenue across from Nathan’s, the celebrity burger palace overlooks the Bowery and Thor CEO Joe Sitt’s long-vacant lots. That’s why we’re betting the rumors that began in November and continued this year about attractions coming to those lots for the summer are indeed true.

Architectural Rendering of Wahlburgers in Coney Island

Sources have told ATZ that Thor’s lots will host food and merch in 20 trailers. Rides and other attractions are now said to be part of the mix. Ironically there was an entire amusement park including bumper boats and a miniature golf course there before Joe Sitt bought the property in 2006 and promptly turned it into “Thor Equities Corridors of Blight.” The last time a carnival was here was 2012. The lots remained vacant in 2014 as well as in 2010 and 2013, when the City issued a stop-work order on a permit for “temporary parking for the amusement district.”

Prototype MegaWhirl ride, abandoned after the 2012 season and damaged by Hurricane Sandy, is finally being demolished. April 25, 2015. Photo © anonymouse via AmusingtheZillion

While the DOB has yet to issue permits for a “temporary fair,” the property is being prepped in earnest. Last week, the MegaWhirl ride, abandoned after it debuted here in 2012 and was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, was being demolished and tossed in a dumpster. Underground electric utilities were installed last month and the Bowery was cleared of concession trailers adjacent to the lot.

ATZ’s first post back in December about the celebrity burger franchise opening in Coney Island and subsequent updates continue to be as popular as posts about Friday night fireworks! That makes us think it’s going to be a magnet for some of Mark Wahlberg’s 15+ million Facebook fans. The Wahlburgers restaurants are the backdrop for the A&E TV reality series about Mark, Donnie and Paul Wahlberg’s adventures in the burger business. This summer’s opening of the Coney Island location is being scripted into the show. The original opening date of early May has been pushed back to June.

Signage on Wahlburgers currently under construction in Coney Island. Photo © Tricia Vita

UPDATE May 6, 2015:

Thor Equities has recruited Jeffrey Deitch, art advisor and former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, and food vendors from Brooklyn’s Smorgasburg to help activate one of their long vacant lots in Coney Island. Biederman Redevelopment Ventures (BRV), the consulting firm run by Bryant Park’s Dan Biederman, was hired by Thor to develop events and programming for and manage the lot as well as the one on the east side of Stillwell There will also be a music stage with live performances throughout the summer. (Thor Equities Recruits Jeffrey Deitch, Dan Biederman & Smorgasburg to Dress Up Vacant Coney Lot, ATZ, April 30, 2015).

Biederman will also manage a second long-vacant lot, on the east side of Stillwell Avenue, across from Coney Walls. “Our programming is still in flux, though we hope to announce some exciting things next week,” Ben Donsky, BRV’s senior project manager, told ATZ. “There will probably be performances on both lots. Gordon Lee of El Dorado is going to be putting up midway games along the Bowery.”

Coney Island 2015: New York Air Show Set For August 29-30

Posted in amusement park, Events, tagged air show, Coney Island, Coney Island 2015, Coney Island Air Show, New York City Air Show on April 21, 2015| 7 Comments »

During the 1980s and 90s, Astroland sponsored air shows featuring Air Force, Navy and Army flyers and parachute teams. The last air show in Coney Island was in 2000.

June 1, 2015: The Air Show was moved from Coney Island to Newburgh, NY! Scroll down for update.

City officials have just signed off on an air show that will bring teams of flyers and parachutists to Coney Island this summer, according to a report by Jeanine Ramirez of NY1. The show will cost more than $500,000, but sponsors have agreed to cover all expenses. The event is scheduled for August 29 and 30.

“So much fun! I’m so happy they’re bringing it back! So exciting!” Tina Georgoulakos of Paul’s Daughter told ATZ. Among the iconic photos on display in her boardwalk eatery is one of a parachutist landing on the beach in front of her family’s business, then called Gregory & Paul’s. Friends who’ve attended Coney Island’s famed air shows of the past –the last one was in 2000– say the jumpers landed with unerring precision on targets set out on the beach.

The New York City Air Show in Coney Island has been on the Coney Rumor Mill’s radar since last summer and on fan websites since early this year. Fence Check says the venue is MCU Park and lists the following participants: Air Boss & Consulting International, B-25 Panchito, Horsemen Flight Team, USAF F-22A Raptor Demo, USAF Heritage Flight, USMC AV-8 Harrier Demo, USN F/A-18 Hornet East Demo – VFA-106, USN Leap Frogs, and Mike Wiskus & the Lucas Oil Pitts. The new air show has a logo, a website under construction and a Facebook page. And they are already planning ahead for next year with “the New York City Air Show in Coney Island” on the Blue Angels schedule for August 20-21, 2016.

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, Astroland sponsored not only the USAF Thunderbirds but also the US Army’s Golden Knights parachute team as well as the Navy’s Blue Angels in 2000. The walls of Astroland’s office were emblazoned with dramatic news photos of these annual events. The flamboyant Coney Island press agent Milton Berger was the “air show chairman” and a master at estimating attendance. “For the first day of a three-day air show, he reported a crowd of only 750,000, but only to leave room for much bigger crowds that he would report for the next two days,” his obit says.

The U.S. Navy Parachute Demonstration Team, the Leap Frogs, will be part of the New York City Air Show. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Torrey W. Lee

How many people are projected to attend this year’s air show? In 2010, a Coney Island Air Show featuring the Thunderbirds was planned but could not get all of the necessary permits–a complicated situation by all accounts– and was cancelled. The director of that show told ATZ that “a conservative estimate would be 500,000 per day.” The air show will also be visible for blocks beyond the amusement district. According to the USAF Thunderbirds fact sheet, the largest crowd in USAF Thunderbirds history –2.25 million– was on July 4, 1987 at their Coney Island air show.

Fourth of July air shows and fireworks have been a Coney tradition since the 1940s. In 1957, New York City’s delegation to the House of Representatives lobbied the Secretary of Defense for a national air show in Coney Island that would demonstrate America’s “airpower for peace.” The May event grew into Armed Forces Week with the sponsorship of the US Air Force Recruiting Services, the City of New York and the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce.

The largest crowd in USAF Thunderbirds history was on July 4, 1987 at Coney Island where 2.25 million people watched as the Thunderbirds performed. Photo via USAF Thunderbirds

UPDATE June 1, 2015:

It’s been 15 years since Coney Island’s last air show but 2015 won’t be the year for a long-awaited comeback after all. ATZ has learned the New York Air Show that was planned for Coney Island on August 29 and 30 is being moved 60 miles north of New York City, to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, NY!