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Coney Island 2016: Pizza Hut Express Signs Lease on Coney Island’s Surf Ave

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged franchise, Franchise Restaurant Row, Joe Vitacco, Johnny Rockets, Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut Express, Surf Avenue on January 11, 2016| 2 Comments »

Franchise Restaurant Row in progress on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue: Checkers, Pizza Hut, Red Mango, Johnny Rockets, Applebee’s, IHOP , and more to come. Photo © Tricia Vita

The year is young but ATZ already has exclusive news of the first lease of 2016 on Coney Island’s franchise restaurant row, the north side of Surf Avenue. Broker Joe Vitacco says, “On Friday we signed a lease, for the 1,900 square foot space at 1223 Surf Avenue, with franchisee Nafees Bukhara. Nafees owns the Popeye’s on Surf Avenue and will be opening a Pizza Hut Express.”

Bukhara will also open a Red Mango franchise, for which he bought the rights from Rahman Hashimi, the Johnny Rockets franchisee, as well as a pretzel franchise. The Pizza Hut Express will be on the ground floor to the right of the 6,000 square foot Johnny Rockets, in a building that has been under stop-and-go construction since a lease deal was signed three years ago.

“You ask why we don’t do Mom and Pops,” Vitacco said last year, in an ongoing conversation that began with ATZ’s 2012 post “Will Coney Island’s Surf Ave Become a Mecca for Franchises?” He says that Mom and Pops wouldn’t be able to afford this, referring to the extraordinary delays and ballooning costs due to city and MTA red tape.

Unlike Manhattan, where Mom and Pops are being forced out by landlords who triple the rent and then turn around and lease to chains or upscale businesses, the new franchises on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue are replacing vacant lots or illegal furniture stores which have existed for years in defiance of the zoning.

Until the early 1980’s the north side of Surf was home to individually-owned penny arcades and a variety of rides including bumper cars, carousels and even a Jumbo Jet-style coaster. By the time the last ride– Coney Island’s B & B Carousell — closed in 2005, the north side was known as the wrong side of Surf Avenue to locate a business because of the lack of foot traffic. Now it is a mix of franchises and a few Mom & Pops like the Red Doors Bar & Grill and Luna Park Cafe.

Construction in progress on Surf Avenue building for Johnny Rockets and Pizza Hut Express. Photo © Tricia Vita

Coney Eats: Magic Gyro & Checkers to Open, Kosher Pizza Signs Lease, Johnny Rockets & IHOP Underway

Posted in Food, Food & Drink, tagged Checkers, franchise, Franchise Restaurant Row, IHOP, Joe Vitacco, Johnny Rockets, kosher pizzeria, Magic Gyro on October 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Franchise Restaurant Row in progress on Coney Island’s Surf Avenue: Checkers, Johnny Rockets, Applebee’s, Grimaldi’s, and more to come. Photo © Tricia Vita

In Coney Island’s Stillwell Terminal, Magic Gyro, a Mom and Pop destroyed nearly three years ago by Hurricane Sandy, is about to reopen, and a Checkers hamburger franchise is set to debut. Magic Gyro owner Levent Demirgil told ATZ that he will be training employees this weekend and plans a soft opening next week.

“We suffered a lot from Sandy,” Demergil said in an oral history interview recorded in Turkish for the Coney Island History Project’s immigrant narratives series. “We didn’t have insurance. I took personal loans. By taking those we are trying to stay afloat, that’s why we could not open here for three years.” Formerly a gourmet shop with a corner kitchen, the new store will be a Mediterranean Grill featuring healthy fast food such as hummus, salads, and döner kebabs.

Levent Demirgil in his soon-to-open Magic Gyro in Stillwell Terminal. Photo © Coney Island History Project

Meanwhile, construction has resumed on the north side of Surf’s Franchise Restaurant Row. Next door to Checkers, the Johnny Rockets “Coming Soon” banner is tattered, but the long stalled construction on the burger franchise, whose themed decor is based on retro diners, is once again underway. “They are laying the plumbing under the concrete floor and pouring the concrete next week,” says broker Joe Vitacco, who gave us an update on a lease deal that he closed nearly three years ago in December 2012.

“You ask why we don’t do Mom and Pops,” Vitacco added, referring to our ongoing conversation that began with ATZ’s 2012 post “Will Coney Island’s Surf Ave Become a Mecca for Franchises?” He says that Mom and Pops wouldn’t be able to afford this, referring to the extraordinary delays and ballooning costs due to city and MTA red tape.

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On Surf Avenue across from Luna Park, construction on a 5,400 square-foot IHOP has finally begun eight months after construction was expected to begin. The franchisee is Bryan McKenzie, who is also the owner of an IHOP in New Jersey. The delay was due to bureaucratic snafus at the City’s Department of Buildings. At the beginning of this year, ATZ reported the construction had been delayed by new and ever-changing post-Sandy building regulations. Johnny Rockets was waiting for approval of a storm surge resistant front. Construction had been stalled for so long that skeptical members of the Coney Island Rumor Mill doubted it would ever resume.

Vitacco says that at this point in time he believes IHOP will be open in March 2016, in time for the 2016 season. “This is a testimony to the undying commitment of Bryan McKenzie, the IHOP franchisee, who would not give up when faced by problems with approval by the building department that took 18 months to resolve.”

The one-story building at 1019 Surf is a longtime furniture store, which is not among the use groups permitted by the city’s zoning. The space is being subdivided into six storefronts by the landlord and the stores are getting new street numbers. IHOP will combine the three stores on the far left and the Subway Cafe has the one on the right. The two remaining storefronts totaling 3,000 square feet were in fact snapped up yesterday by a Mom and Pop for a kosher pizzeria and ice cream shop, which will also have a party room for kids’ birthday parties.

Coney Island Businesses Racing to Open by Mermaid Parade Day Now Aiming for July

Posted in Coney Island Redevelopment, Food, Food & Drink, tagged Coney Island Brewery, construction, franchise, IHOP, Magic Gyro, restaurant, Under construction, Wahlburgers on June 16, 2015| 5 Comments »

A trio of big name businesses originally hoping to open in Coney Island by Mermaid Parade Day, which marks the start of summer, have now set their sights on July and in one case August. Wahlburgers, IHOP, and Boston Beer Corp’s Coney Island Brewery have held job screenings but remain under construction.

Amid the influx of new businesses, there is one that is returning to its Stillwell Terminal store more than 2-1/2 years after being devastated by Hurricane Sandy! Coney Island Gourmet, a Mom & Pop owned by Turkish Americans, is being renovated and expected to reopen as Magic Gyro in July. When ATZ reviewed the store in August 2012, it had a corner kitchen and a “Magic Gyro” sign on the Stillwell Avenue facade. In addition to chicken and veal sandwiches and entrees served with rice and salad, the menu offered falafel, hummus, babganoush, haydari (yogurt flavored with garlic, herbs and olive oil) and stuffed vine leaves, all very reasonably priced. The store will no longer feature a food shop and is being renovated as a restaurant.

Coney Island Brewery on Surf Ave in MCU Park Building

At 1904 Surf Avenue, the Coney Island Brewing Company, whose craft beers celebrate the iconography of Coney Island, hopes to officially open its doors in mid-July. The brewery is located in a retail space on the outside of MCU Park adjacent to Peggy O’Neill’s. “We’re excited about the opportunity,” Kathleen Barnes of the Coney Island Brewing Company told ATZ earlier this year. She said they’re planning to have a tasting room, retail space, a community center, and tours of the brewing process. Draft beers will be sold in growlers. Retail items include Coney beer-themed tap handles, coolers, beach towels, T-shirts and trucker hats. The line of Coney Island beers was relaunched in 2013 after being sold to Alchemy & Science, a division of Boston’s Samuel Adams.

Further east on Surf Avenue, across from Luna Park, the construction of IHOP in a 5,400-square-foot store has been delayed by the slow approval process for building department permits. “While waiting patiently the franchisee is going forward with his soft core work. He should be open late August,” says Joe Vitacco, who leased the space to the pancake franchise in February.

Meanwhile, in Thor Equities “Retail Ride of A Lifetime” building on Stillwell, a quick peek inside Wahlburger’s Coney Island shows the 6,800 square foot Wahlburgers franchise to be far from finished. Asked when the celebrity restaurant would open a worker said, “Next month, by the Fourth of July.” The latest post on the eatery’s Facebook page says “The family is coming to town,” referring to actors Mark and Donnie Wahlberg and Chef Paul Wahlberg. The most recent photo is a snapshot of the view from their rooftop dining area. Can the A&E crew be far behind? Season 4 of Wahlburgers premieres on July 15.

UPDATE June 17, 2015:

The reality show comes to Coney! Wahlburgers Coney Island sent out an invite from the Wahlberg family to a private VIP Preview and Ribbon Cutting on June 23rd.