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Posts Tagged ‘Surf Avenue’

New Building Breaks Ground Next to Coney Island’s Stillwell Terminal

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, New Construction, Stillwell Terminal, Surf Avenue on August 2, 2012| 1 Comment »

Lot at 1223 Surf Avenue next to Stillwell Terminal. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

The second new commercial building to be constructed in Coney Island since the rezoning broke ground on the north side of Surf Avenue next door to Stillwell Terminal. “This is a spectacular location for a restaurant or nightclub, broker Joe Vitacco tells ATZ. “We are looking for quality tenants that will add to the growth of Coney Island.” The new building will be across the street from Thor Equities’ new retail-only building on the southeast corner of Surf and Stillwell, on the site of the demolished Henderson Music Hall.

The lot at 1223 Surf Avenue was in the news in December 2010, when we reported that Popeye’s Chicken was offered a lease in the new building for which plans had been filed. Construction was delayed and Popeye’s ended up relocating earlier this year to the Popper Building on the south side of Surf. Says Vitacco, “Finally, after two years of submitting and resubmitting and resubmitting again to the MTA and the Buildings Department, ground was broken for a two story, 15,000 square foot building at 1223 Surf Avenue in Coney Island. The first floor will be 10,000 square feet and the second floor will be 5,000 sq feet with a 2,500 square foot terrace. The second floor will be 22 feet above Surf Avenue with a view of the Atlantic Ocean and Luna Park.”

First Floor: Plan for Two Story Commercial Building 1223 Surf Avenue in Coney Island

The owner of 1223 Surf Avenue, Fox 18 Realty, LLC, purchased the lot from Horace Bullard for $1,344,000 in 2010. The property has been vacant since 2001, when the Giuliani administration repeatedly ticketed and finally got rid of the flea market that had operated on the lot since the 1980s. The headline in the Daily News read “CONEY SMALL BIZ BLITZ STORM OF TICKETS TIED TO DEBUT OF CYCLONES.”

Prior to the flea market, independent rides have come and gone from the lot for as far back as anyone can recall. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the Pinto Brothers, who also manufactured kiddie rides on 8th Street in Coney Island, operated a Whip here and a Crazy Ghost ride nearby. In the 1960s this location was home to McCullough’s Illions carousel, which was moved from Surf and 15th Street, until it was dismantled in 1968. A Sky Rapids water slide, a Jumbo coaster that resembled a Jumbo Jet, and go karts took turns operating there in the 1970s.

Once home to a variety of rides including Bumper cars and the B & B Carousell, the north side of Surf Avenue is now attracting bars, clubs and restaurants. Coney Island Bar & Grill, Tattoo Shot Lounge and the popular Grimaldi’s Pizzeria are the new face of the north side of Surf. At long last, the furniture stores named after amusement parks appear to be on their way out.

Sky Rapids Ride at 1223 Surf Avenue, Coney Island January 1, 1979. Photo by Abe Feinstein via Coney Island History Project

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

Thor’s Coney Island: Shore Hotel Lot No Longer Vacant

Posted in amusement park, tagged BK Festival, Coney Island, Steeplechase Park, Steve's Grill House, Surf Avenue, Thor Equities on May 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Thor Equities’ Shore Hotel lot and adjoining Henderson Walk in Coney Island will be activated this summer with rides, concessions and other attractions, according to BK Festival promoter Will McCarthy. The first tenant pulled onto the empty lot on Monday. Steve Bitetzakis’ Grill House trailer was relocated from the BK Festival lot on Stillwell Avenue. The Grill House is now parked on the Surf Avenue side of the Shore Hotel lot at 1228 Surf, which goes through to Coney Island’s Bowery. The rides and other amusements are expected to open on Memorial Day Weekend.

As previously reported, Thor Equities’ Stillwell Avenue lots were leased to the BK Festival promoters for last year’s flea market and this year’s new Steeplechase Park. Thor’s Surf Avenue lots, including the former Shore Hotel site and the Bank of Coney Island lot at Surf and 12th, will also be part of the Coney Island amusement park slated to open Memorial Day Weekend.

Paving Paradise By the Sea: Shore Hotel Lot and Henderson Walk , Coney Island. March 23, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

The Shore Hotel property has been vacant since Thor Equities demolished the circa 1903 hotel in December of 2010. The lot and the Walk were paved in March as seen in the above photo. Just to be clear–we’re talking about the Shore Hotel –here’s our flickr set “Coney Island’s Shore Hotel (Demolished)”— and not the landmarked Shore Theater, which is frequently misidentified as a hotel!

Henderson Walk, one of Coney Island’s historic walks, has been fenced off since the demolition of the Henderson Music Hall. The century-old Henderson Building and Shore Hotel were on opposite sides of the Walk. Thor Equities’ new building on the Henderson site remains vacant and encased in plywood.

On Easter Sunday, Steve Bitetzakis debuted his new Grill House trailer at the BK Festival on Stillwell Avenue next to Scream Zone. Located on the Coney Island Boardwalk since 1993, Bitetzakis was one of the “Coney Island 8″ evicted by Zamperla. In February he called off plans to have his modular building moved down Stillwell and instead sold it to Zamperla and purchased a concession trailer.