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Thor Equities Joins Facebook, Shows Coney Island’s Surf Ave Minus Eldorado

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, Uncategorized, tagged Eldorado Bumper Cars, Facebook, Henderson Building, social media, Surf Avenue, Thor Equities on July 23, 2012| 4 Comments »

Rendering for 1218 Surf Ave, currently the Eldorado Bumper Cars, shows a new arcade and burger restaurant. Photo via Thor Equities Facebook Page

Long absent from social media channels, last week Thor Equities joined Facebook and Twitter. “Our FB page is up & running. We have begun featuring exclusive photos & descriptions of our properties. Take a look,” they tweeted. We did, and found that Thor “liked” Times Square, Central Park, a raft of real estate pages, and one that surprised us– Bikram Yoga — but has yet to “like” Coney Island or anybody in Brooklyn. Snub? Priorities? They’ll probably get around to it sooner or later.

Among the Brooklyn properties featured in Thor’s Facebook photo albums are two in Coney Island: The vacant new building at Surf and Stillwell Avenues and the Eldorado Building at 1218 Surf Avenue. Eldorado owners Sandy and Sheila Fitlin sold the building to Thor in March and the bumper cars and arcade are expected to close at the end of the season after a 40-year run.

Thor Equities bought the Eldorado Building at 1218 Surf Avenue in March 2012. Its neighbor is Denny’s Ice Cream, owned by Coney Island USA. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

When the Eldorado closes the Fitlins plan to take down the marquee and other signs, which were not part of the sale, they told ATZ. They hope to place the signage with a museum or collector. Knowing all of this did not lessen the shock and dismay of seeing Thor’s rendering for 1218 Surf with a “Joe’s Burgers” and generic arcade replacing the fabulous Eldorado Skooters facade and “Bump Your Ass Off” signage. If this is news to you, better run right over to the disco palace of bumper cars and bump, bump, bump for one last time this summer.

Along with the expected closure of McCullough’s Kiddie Park on the Bowery, whose lease with Thor ends this season, the closing of the Eldorado marks a critical point in the exit of independent amusement operators with a long history in Coney Island and the beginning of Thor’s “CONEY ISLAND – The RETAIL RIDE of a LIFETIME.” It started in 2007, with Thor’s eviction of Norman Kaufman’s Batting Range and Go Kart City and the Zipper and Spider rides documented in Amy Nicholson’s upcoming film “Zipper.” It continued with the loss of games in the shuttered Grashorn Building and the demolished Henderson Building. The caption for the Eldorado property calls it “an unbeatable retail opportunity.”

On Thor’s Facebook page, the captions on the two Coney properties got reversed and what’s more the new building at Surf and Stillwell is ~~misidentified~~ idiotically referred to as the “Henderson Building.” The century-old music hall was demolished by Thor in 2010 despite preservationists’ best efforts to save it. The doomed Henderson along with the old Shore Hotel were on a parcel rezoned by the City in July 2009 for a high rise hotel. “Every one of these buildings is just horrible, rundown relics with nothing exciting about them. I hate to say it, but the great buildings of Coney Island disappeared 80 years ago,” Sitt told NY1 before demolishing the buildings.

Ironically, Sitt’s first new construction after years of real estate speculation in Coney Island is a suburban looking one-story structure that looks like a car dealership. We certainly hope it’s a typo that Thor is calling this vacant, boarded-up new building the Henderson Building! Why not call it the Thor Building? The question is what are Joe Sitt’s plans for Coney Island’s newest building at Surf and Stillwell, and Coney’s oldest building– the Grashorn — at Surf and Jones Walk? ATZ tweeted that question to @ThorEquities. Awaiting a reply.

Rendering of Thor Equities Building at Surf and Stillwell, Coney Island via Thor Equities Facebook

Coney Island Boardwalk Advocates Sue Parks Department

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Boardwalk, concrete, Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance, Friends of the Boardwalk on July 13, 2012| 1 Comment »

Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

On Thursday, the advocacy groups Friends of the Boardwalk and the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance along with neighborhood residents announced that they had filed a lawsuit against the New York City Parks Department. According to CBBA’s website savetheboardwalk.wordpress.com: “The Parks Department abused its discretion when it decided that its plan for the Boardwalk was not subject to any environmental review, even though the potential for negative environmental impact is obvious and far-reaching.”

The suit aims to stop the agency from replacing additional sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk with concrete and plastic wood. The above photo taken a few weeks ago by ATZ shows the concrete-slabbed Boardwalk between West 33rd and West 37th Streets in the West End of Coney Island. It’s not a pretty sight. The cracks, repairs and drainage issues mentioned in the suit can be seen in the close-up shots. The Parks Department’s plan to redo the Boardwalk was approved by the Public Design Commission at a charade of a public hearing in March.

Section of Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The petitioners are the Coney-Brighton Boardwalk Alliance and its president Robert Burstein, Ocean Parkway resident Arlene Brenner, Boardwalk resident Brunilda Figueroa, Friends of the Boardwalk and its president Todd Dobrin, and Ida Sanoff, an environmental advocate who led the fight against the amphitheater in Seaside Park. All are longtime residents of Brighton Beach.

The release says:

The lawsuit seeks to prevent the Parks Department from implementing a plan to replace 56,000 square feet of wood boards on the section of the Coney Island Boardwalk running from Coney Island Avenue to Brighton 15th Street with concrete and plastic. The lawsuit also contends that the Parks Department has a longer-range plan to replace most of the Boardwalk – approximately 1 million square feet of wood – with some combination of the same concrete and plastic materials.

The lawsuit contends that the Parks Department violated the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (“SEQRA”) and New York City’s Environmental Quality Review (“CEQR”) regulations by not subjecting its plans to the necessary environmental review. Under SEQRA and CEQR, state and municipal agencies are required to determine if actions they undertake may have a significant impact on the environment. Under the law, factors such as erosion, flooding, drainage problems, and impact on existing use must be considered. Additionally, an agency must consider the project’s impairment of the character or quality of important historical or aesthetic resources and existing community or neighborhood character.

Section of Coney Island Concretewalk at West 36th Street near Sea Gate. June 22, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The full complaint can be read via scribd

View this document on Scribd

Relocated Popeyes Set to Open Today in Coney Island

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Coney Island, Herman Popper, Popeyes Chicken, Popper Building, Surf Avenue on April 10, 2012| 3 Comments »

After serving its last supper on August 24, 2010 in its former location at Surf and Stillwell, Popeyes Chicken is reopening today at 1220 Surf Avenue. As previously reported in “Popeyes Chicken Returning to Coney Island’s Surf Avenue” (ATZ, October 17, 2011), the restaurant’s owner had been in business year-round in Coney Island for 27 years, first as Kennedy Fried Chicken and then as Popeyes, when he lost his lease in the now-demolished Henderson Building. The Thor Equities-owned site is now a vacant new building encased in plywood.

The popular fast-food restaurant’s new home is in the Popper Building, which has a distinctive old copper sign that says “Herman Popper & Bro.” Though it does not have landmark designation, the building as well as its original owner have a colorful history. Herman Popper was a whiskey distiller and wholesale liquor seller who once supplied most of the Bowery dives and concert halls. Though selling liquor on the Lord’s Day was then illegal, his business extended to Sundays on the orders of Coney’s notorious John “Boss” McKane.

Popeyes is the third relocated Coney Island eatery to open this week. On Easter Sunday, Cha Cha’s opened a bar/restaurant on Surf Avenue and Steve’s Grill House made a comeback on Stillwell Avenue after losing their leases on the City-owned Boardwalk last year.