Coney Island photographer Eric Kowalsky, who documented the demolition of the Bank of Coney Island in November, has eloquently captured the destruction-in-progress of the historic Henderson Music Hall in this series of images.
Eric put his camera through the gate on Henderson Walk to take the above photo of the crushed remains of part of the Henderson Building formerly occupied by Faber’s Fascination. “They took the front and side of the building down. The Bowery is still standing,” he said this morning.
Last week we posted historian Charles Denson’s video tribute to the Henderson Theater. As we previously noted, the City aided and abetted Joey “Bulldozer” Sitt by rezoning the Henderson parcel for a high rise hotel. There are however no immediate plans to build a hotel on the site. The City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission denied landmark designation and also declined to create a historic district, which would have created tax incentives to rehab the building.
The Henderson Building is the first sight you see on Surf Avenue when you step out of Stillwell Terminal. It is at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues. We should probably use the past tense, though the demolition is still underway. The first sight you see when you step out of Stillwell will soon be another empty lot to add to Joe Sitt’s collection of empty lots.
Good riddance to the tube socks, cellphone accessories, shoe stores and automative supplies of Thor’s Flea in-fest-ation of last summer! Welcome back amusement rides on Coney Island’s Stillwell Avenue? We hope so….
On Thursday the Coney Island Rumor Mill was abuzz as new signage advertising the property “For Lease” was going up at Thor Equities flea market on Stillwell behind Nathan’s. Photographer and ATZ contributor Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 snapped a photo as dusk fell over the wind-ripped tenting that housed Joe Sitt’s flop of a flea last summer. “Maybe the second highest bidder for city land would be interested in this parcel,” Handy speculated. “Gets a lot of traffic from Nathans and the subway.”
Our guess is that several bidders, including the soon-to-be designated winner, have already made inquiries about leasing Thor’s Stillwell property. During the reply period for the City’s RFP for a Coney Island Amusement Operator to bring rides and attractions to land newly purchased from Joe Sitt, potential bidders asked the City about the adjacent vacant lots. The contact info for Thor Equities and Horace Bullard was posted on the City’s Q & A for all potential bidders to see.
Land for Lease by Thor Equities: The Stillwell parcels north of the city-owned Parcels B & C and south of the Bowery. Parcel A is the former Astroland, which is now owned by the City and was up for bid in the RFP. NYCEDC Map.
The timing of Thor’s signs couldn’t have been better. The short-listed respondents to the City’s RFP were reportedly in the City yesterday and today for meetings with the NYCEDC. If the bidders who didn’t make the short list have fire in their belly to come to Coney Island, now is the time for them to deal with Sitt or Bullard. Given Thor Equities’ history of sky-high rents and onerous lease terms, we think the parcels will go to the most highly motivated bidder.
We think the winner of the City’s 10-year lease on their newly acquired 6.9 acres will want to get control of all of Stillwell and keep other amusement operators from gaining a foothold in Coney Island. Joe Sitt sold approximately half of his Stillwell property to the City. But what good is half a sandwich? It’s not enough if you’re an amusement operator with ambitions of becoming the City’s single operator in Coney Island at the end of the 10-year lease.
After we reported “Memorial Day Weekend Mania: Thor Equities Coney Flea In-Fest-ation Is a Flop” (May 27, 2009), Thor brazenly went back to calling the so called fest “Flea by the Sea,” both on their website and ads. And why not? “Festival by the Sea” was indeed a flea market by the sea. Even though the permit was for a “temporary fair” because the original application for a flea market was disapproved by the DOB, the City did not enforce its own zoning against the illegal flea market in the amusement zone. “Tons of fun” it was not. A salsa band playing two sets on Saturday and Sunday was the sole entertainment at what was wrongfully billed as “A uniquely entertaining and amusing flea market in Coney Island.” We are not exaggerating. If you can stomach it, please view our complete flickr set of Thor Equities Flea Market.
Yet we saw police towing away ice cream carts belonging to vendors who lacked licenses. The little guys get their businesses shut down while Thor gets this incubator project for his shopping mall. To people who say to us, the tents are pretty or it’s better than an empty lot, we say Thor Equities deliberately created the empty lots on Stillwell in 2007, when they evicted or bulldozed thriving amusements. Remember the batting cages, go karts, bumper boats, mini golf, and climbing wall? Let’s bring ’em back to Coney Island in 2010.
In an exclusive interview this week on Fox Business News, Joe Sitt, the real estate speculator who’s been holding Coney Island hostage in his battle to turn it into a shopping mall dotted with high rises, had this to say: “The way I look at it you’ve got to let other people play in the sandbox and be a good friend to folks. I’m looking forward to working with the Mayor of New York and sharing the development of Coney Island and hopefully seeing some hotels come to that marketplace.”
Thor Equities CEO Joe Sitt sharing? We’re deeply cynical. Sitt’s history in Coney Island has consisted of buying and flipping property (Washington Baths bought for $13 million, sold for $90 million), keeping historic properties vacant or underutilized by evicting longtime tenants or tripling the rent (Astroland, Boardwalk, Grashorn Building, Shore Hotel, west side of Jones Walk), and bulldozing thriving amusements on Stillwell to create empty lots and a failed flea market.
The Coney segment is at the tail end of a conversation about “Rebounding Real Estate?” 4:10 to be precise. Watch it here…
The clip begins with the reporter asking: “What does somebody who owns more than $3 billion dollars worth of property in the nation’s most populated cities have to say about the real estate market and where it’s headed?” As Sitt yaks about investment opportunities in commercial real estate, a caption reminds the viewer that “Thor Equities owns 11 acres of Coney Island Amusement Park.”
Fox didn’t show any pix of Sitt’s property, so here’s a few shots from my Thorland set on flickr (photodocumentation from between 03 Sep 2007 & 18 Jul 2009). In the pic below, note unused tables due to lack of vendors. Note shuttered water race game across the street in the Henderson Building aka the historic Henderson’s Music Hall. Gee that’s funny, didn’t Sitt’s pr flack say Thor Equities property was 100% active in 2009?
The reporter finally asks Sitt if “you guys” –Joey Coney Island and Mayor Mike– are close to resolving their differences. It’s the question on everyone’s mind. When the City Council passed the Coney Rezoning on July 29, there was some serious wheelin’ and dealin’ going on behind closed doors. Charles Bagli’s article in the New York Times had us on the edge of our seat: “Under the tentative deal, according to officials and executives involved in the talks, the city will buy six of Mr. Sitt’s 10 acres, leaving the remaining property on Surf and Stillwell Avenues for him to develop.” The City and Sitt’s attorney were said to be negotiating till 11 pm on the night before the hearing and through the Council meeting. Evidently the two sides never sealed the deal, or perhaps the selling price was deemed too exorbitant to make public before the election? Oh, if we were a fly on the wall at these so-called negotiations, what a delicious tell-all this would be!
Now Sitt is telling Fox News that there have been bumps in the road, but he and “Mayor Mike” are closer than they’ve ever been to a deal. Well, this is not exactly news because Bloomberg said what amounts to the same thing in a sit-down with the Brooklyn Paper back in August: “Fundamentally, the deal with him is done.”
For the past four months, it’s been awfully quiet on the Coney Island redevelopment news front. It’s as if all of the usual sources had been told to keep their lips zipped till after the election. Yet the Coney Island Rumor Mill is abuzz. Rumors come and go, but the one that sticks around is that the City is buying the Astroland site and will close on it after Bloomberg wins a third term.
Unanswered questions: Is the City buying more than the Astro site from Sitt? What happened to the now three-month-old, 6 out of 10 acres deal? Or will the City go all out and buy the Stillwell lots as well? What will happen to the former Bank of Coney Island building on 12th Street and the Henderson Music Hall at Stillwell and Bowery. Both historic buildings occupy lots rezoned for the proposed high rise “hotels.” Will Sitt keep ‘em and flip ‘em in 2010? In the vid, the Thor CEO describes 2010 as the magic year he’s been waiting for patiently.
As for “seeing some hotels come to that marketplace”… We’ve never heard anyone but Sitt refer to Coney as a marketplace. Thor Equities falsely advertised the flea fest as “the most thrilling open air market on the planet” and “a uniquely entertaining and amusing marketplace in Coney Island.” Instead it was a desecration of the C-7 amusement zone. This property is where amusements such as batting cages, go karts, bumper boats and mini golf thrived until Joe Sitt bulldozed them in 2007 to make way for “site preparation.”
Forget sharing. We recommend that Mayor Mike buy out Joe, no matter what it costs. The Mayor has spent $85 million to win a third term, he can afford to buy back Coney Island. If re-elected, Bloomberg is destined to go down in history as the Mayor Who Saved Coney Island or the Mayor Who Killed Coney Island by Letting Joe Sitt Get Away with Murder. As for Joe Sitt, we recommend that he take his own advice about the rebounding real estate market. At one point in the video he says “I think Brazil is the single biggest opportunity…” That’s great, Joe. Please move there. Permanently. Here’s an airline schedule. Adeus.
The grassroots group Save Coney Island says this is your final chance to make your voice heard prior to the City Council’s vote on the City’s rezoning plan. You can sign the group’s petition here and learn about the group’s position here.
ATZ received an email from Save Coney Island that they would be winding up their online petition drive this week. Organizers plan to submit the results of the online and paper petitions to City Council by the middle of next week.
Our online petition will complement the thousands of signatures that we’ve collected on the ground (somehow, the interweb has proven a poor substitute for the old boots on the ground approach). As we prepare to deliver our signatures to Council members, we have had to switch our petition from the old site to a new one that collects the information necessary for us to sort signatures by Council district.
Please take a moment to transfer your signature to our new petition (even if you already signed the old one). In the next couple of days, we will sort the signatures by council district and deliver them to the appropriate representatives, asking them to fix the City’s plan or, barring that, kill it mercilessly.
As previously reported, the group rallied on the steps of City Hall asking the City to expand the acreage for outdoor rides and amusements, keep high-rises out of the central amusement district, protect small businesses, create amusement jobs and preserve Coney Island’s historic structures such as Nathan’s and the Shore Theater.
UPDATE: When I signed the online petition, a window appeared requesting a PayPal donation to the site that hosts the petition. But you do NOT have to donate to sign. I closed the window and that was the end of it.
I just confirmed the info with staffers in both Councilmember Avella’s and Katz’s offices. The Coney Island Rumor Mill was sayin’ the hearing had been moved up to July 1, but the wording on the City Council website is incredibly opaque. It’s as if the powers that be would like to keep the public hearing an insider’s secret so that fewer people will show up. This calendar listing must have gone up today, because when I looked last night nothing was listed yet for July 1.
Council Meetings for July 2009
Zoning & Franchises * Addition Tony Avella, Chair
Wednesday, July 1, 10:00 AM
Council Chambers – City Hall
Details: See Land Use Calendar Available in Room 5 City Hall
Save the dates: This weekend Coney Island heavy hitters Charles Denson and Dick Zigun will be giving talks about the precarious present and imperiled future of the People’s Playground. If you want to know what’s likely to happen in Thor-land if the City’s rezoning of Coney passes the upcoming City Council vote, your presence is required at one or both of these events.
On Saturday, Charles Denson, noted historian and author of the award winning book Coney Island: Lost & Found will give a slide talk at the New-York Historical Society. Denson, who grew up in Coney Island in the ’50s and ’60s, began documenting his neighborhood at age 12 amid rumors that Steeplechase Park was going to be torn down. Denson’s talk will follow a showing of the Ric Burns documentary about Coney Island. The program is free and open to the public. Saturday, June 27, 1 – 4 pm, Free. New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West at 77th St
On Sunday, Dick Zigun, Coney Island USA Founder and Artistic Director and “Permanently Unelected Mayor of Coney Island” will give his annual State of Coney Island Address. Last year’s address was on July 20, nearly a month later than this Sunday’s talk. Time is of the essence since the all-important City Council review, the next to the last step in the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), is scheduled for this summerJuly. At the recent “Don’t Shrink Coney Island” rally at City Hall, Zigun called on the City to increase the acreage for outdoor rides, move the high-rise hotels to the north side of Surf, and protect Coney Island’s historic resources. Sunday, June 28, 4 pm, $5, Free for members of Coney Island USA Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Ave. between Stillwell and West 12th St
Yesterday afternoon members of Save Coney Island stood at the gates of City Hall waiting permission to symbolically take over the steps for a “Don’t Shrink Coney!” rally aimed at getting the City to amend its rezoning plan. Some were veterans of the very first Save Coney Island rally in March 2007 at City Hall. ATZ asked Dick Zigun of Coney Island USA: What would you say to motivate people who say it’s too late to save Coney, it’s a done deal, the pols have already decided?
Zigun, who resigned last June from the Coney Island Development Corporation’s board of directors to protest “the city’s flawed plan” had this to say: “There is a vote next week (City Planning Commission) and there is another vote in July or August (City Council) and that’s why we’re making our voices heard.”
Save Coney Island is asking the city to expand the acreage for outdoor rides and amusements, keep high-rises out of the central amusement district, protect small businesses, create amusement jobs and preserve Coney Island’s historic structures such as Nathan’s and the Shore Theater.
If you missed the rally, there’s still time to sign the online petition or volunteer for the group’s citywide petition drive. Save Coney will also be hosting breakfast briefings with legislators, media and other interested individuals in the weeks to come.
Next question: What I don’t get is why doesn’t the City just go back to their original plan? This so-called “compromise plan” of reducing the proposed new amusement park from 15 acres to 9 acres has utterly failed in its purpose of appeasing Thor Equities. Or is the city now veering towards an even worse compromise with real estate speculator Joe Sitt? Today’s Daily News quotes Sitt saying he has no interest in selling unless the city decides to spend $165 million for the property. That’s $60 million more than the City’s supposed “final offer.” But who knows what’s going on behind the scenes? The Coney Island Rumor Mill has been sayin’ for weeks it’s a done deal and the City is set to acquire the land in September. All the more reason for Save Coney Island to press the city to “fix the plan.”
ATZ will be asking additional questions as the city’s rezoning plan continues to wend its way through the ULURP process this summer. For now, here are a few photos of the rally and excerpts from some of the speeches. Speakers included Dick Zigun and Fred Kahl aka The Great Fredini of Coney Island USA; Juan Rivero of Save Coney Island; Angie Pontani, Miss Cyclone; and artists Richard Eagan and Marc Kehoe of the Coney Island Hysterical Society.
Dick Zigun of Coney Island USA Speaking at Don't Shrink Coney Rally
Although the plan has merits it does need modifications. A Coney Island that rips down Nathan’s Famous restaurant and replaces it with a themed Nathan’s restaurant in the base of a 15-story hotel is not a good Coney Island. A new Coney Island that builds a hotel blocking the view of the Wonder Wheel, a designated landmark, is not a good Coney Island. And if you tell us Mayor Bloomberg that you are going to designate 15 acres for outdoor amusements and then a few months later say cut it back to 9, we have a right to agitate, protest, and ask you to reconsider and give us some acreage back for outdoor rides because those tourists staying in those hotels are not tourists coming for bowling alleys or movie theatres or gymnasiums. They will be coming for rides (cheering)
We want a critical mass of acreage for outdoor rides, we want you to move the hotels to the north side of Surf Avenue like the New York Times suggests, like the Municipal Art Society suggests, like Community Board 13 suggests.
We want respect for our historic icons: the Shore Theater, Nathan’s, other historic buildings. Give us the right things, make your plan better and we will stand with you in the upcoming fight against Thor Equities, who is the true villain. THe City is not the villain. But if the City wants our help, the City has to make the plan better.
The City maintains that its plan is to revitalize Coney Island and make it into a world class amusement destination. Well, let us see how that scans. Coney Island is identified in the world’s imagination as an amusement park. The first thing they do is take 60 acres zoned for amusements and reduce it to a narrow 12 acre strip, turning the playground of the world into a playground for a few skinny children. It is as if they were thinking, “what is the smallest possible park that would still be viable” instead of, “how many acres of these 60 acres currently used for amusements could we use to create an extraordinary amusement experience.”
And the rest of the amusement area has succumbed to this indoor
fetishism. Seasonality is one of the biggest assets of Coney Island.
For obvious reasons: The beach is seasonal, tourism is a seasonal
phenomenon, the school year is organized seasonally. To try to fight that seasonality would be like putting a tarp over Central Park so that you can increase attendance in the winter. You are fighting the very thing that makes Coney Island appealing, and the very thing, ironically, that is the crux of its economic potential.
Then, having done that, they erect a wall of hotels along Surf
Avenue. You want people to come out of that station and be dazzled by a display of amusements and to encounter a unique Coney Island with the few historic structures that remain along that corridor. The City’s plan would destroy all that, it would create an incentive to demolish those buildings and it would create a wall. Although they maintain that this a great idea they have not yet seen fit to produce a rendering of what this would actually look like so I have a little illustration for you…
We really want to support the city’s plan. The changes that we are
asking are not that big. We have already conceded 60% of the area zoned for amusements. But in what remains, amusements have become just an afterthought. So, we are asking for amusements to be expanded so that they extend all the way to the Bowery, as the City itself originally proposed. We’re asking for those hotels to be removed form the south side of Surf Avenue, as basic human decency would dictate. If the City makes those changes, they have our support. Until they make those changes, we will continue to denounce the plan for what it is: a permanent squandering of the enormous potential of Coney Island to become a world class amusement destination that once more might capture everyone’s imagination.
Juan Rivero of Save Coney Island holds up a rendering of a high rise to illustrate the danger of the city's rezoning plan. It would allow high-rise towers up to 27 stories tall in the heart of Coney Island’s amusement district.
Brooklyn and Manhattan politicians should take a long hard look at what is being done in the amusement area. It must be enlarged not shrunk. I also work at the present time as a tour guide taking people around Manhattan and Brooklyn, people from Australia, Europe, Asia and the rest of the United States. They all ask me about Coney Island. Coney Island is an international brand. Shrinking Coney Island at this point is the worst possible thing you can do because if you build an amusement park the world will come to it and there will be a continual revenue stream for the city and the borough of Brooklyn. I would say at this point, with this vote coming up, we’re standing at the threshold of the time in 1963 when Penn Station was ripped down and New York was changed forever. That was the beginning of historic preservation in America. And we need to do that here and now with Coney Island. We have to save Coney Island, enlarge the amusement area, keep the hotels to the north side of Surf Avenue.
What I would like to say to the City is think big, think ambitious, like the people who started Coney Island. Let’s make it big, let’s make it fabulous.
Today when people say ‘go out to Coney Island,’ they go for the amusement rides. That’s what people want, we have to make the area bigger. If you don’t have that, it’s just Anywhere USA.
We owe it to the world to keep Coney Island. There’s replicas of a Coney Island in Australia, Japan. We have the original. We have to maintain it and keep it. We don’t need to build a replica on top of the original.
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