Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report

From the Brooklyn Paper, 6/15/23,  Developers say proposed Coney Island casino would bring 4,000 new jobs to the People’s Playground . As they workshop their proposal to open a new casino in Coney Island, Thor Equities, the team of developers behind the bid, have announced they believe the new gaming facility would bring roughly 4,000 union jobs to the neighborhood. According to Robert Cornegy, one of the partners on the pro-casino task force, the jobs would be within the hospitality, hotel and gaming realm, offering locals who have been detached from the ability to earn a decent wage year-round a chance to work 12 months out of the year in a “lucrative” industry. Um, the "old" Brooklyn Paper, circa 2005, wouldn't have fallen for this. Yes, the new article does quote the local Community Board chair, who (logically) wants to know what percentage of jobs would go to locals and points out that some public housing residents may be wary that earnings over a certain threshold c...

Photos by Norman Oder The summer concert season in Coney Island is both bigger and smaller than when Borough President Marty Markowitz was in charge, though that's not quite successor Eric Adams's fault. A new, not-quite-finished, 5000-seat  Ford Amphitheater  opened in late June at the Coney Island boardwalk, built at West 21st Street into the landmarked Child's Restaurant building, which awaits restoration, and covering what was once a community garden. This venue, programmed by Live Nation and with Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment as a partner, has a busy summer season. But the free  Seaside Summer Concert Series , along with the  Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series  (in Flatbush/Wingate), is somewhat truncated. The cloud over contributions As the 7/1/16 Brooklyn Paper reported,  Beep Adams: Free concert series not so free, because sponsors fear non-profits amid citywide corruption probes : Coney Island’s once-free Seaside Concert Se...

It's coming, the Amphitheater at Coney Island Boardwalk, another step in the consolidation of venues connected to Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, now owned fully by Mikhail Prokhorof's Onexim. It's located at the far west end of the amusement district, built into and beyond the landmarked Childs Building The structure, which was by no means finished when I walked around a couple of years ago, will have a preview opening on June 25, with Ziggy Marley, according to its web site , with concerts scheduled through September 21. The grand opening is in July. These are not the free concerts sponsored by the Borough President's Office, though perhaps those will be moved there. Last year the Seaside Summer Concerts were held in MCU Park a few blocks away. Who's in charge? Who's paying? The developer is iStar, and the lease is held by the entertainment company Live Nation, while Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) will sell naming rights and spons...

Daily News photo It's sure nice when you have a newspaper on your side. On Saturday, 5/18/13, the New York Daily News, the sponsor of the Barclays Center plaza, broke the news, complete with (at least online) four large photos of Brooklynettes cheerleaders in bikinis. The headline and subhed:  Brooklyn Nets boutique to open in Coney Island on Thursday: The Nets Shop by Adidas will feature beach balls, flip-flops, visors and the usual Nets gear, but the black-and-white bikinis for the ladies may be the biggest draw. The article was attributed to Jason Sheftell, real estate correspondent, noted sycophant : Nets bikinis and other fun summer merchandise will be available on the Coney Island beachfront this season in the basketball team’s signature black and white. “After one year, we’re fourth in the NBA in apparel,” said Nets and Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark. “But this isn’t about sports. The Brooklyn Nets are an international lifestyle brand. Our colors have bec...

The summer season has begun at Coney Island, with Astroland replaced by the new rides of Luna Park (named to echo one of the three great amusement parks, open from 1903 to 1944 and replaced by public housing). That's the cause of much official celebration and, indeed, there are some other signs of life, such as the city's plan to move the famed B&B Carousell to Steeplechase Plaza. However, as Kevin Baker writes in the Village Voice and the folks at Save Coney Island remind us, much remains contested, notably developer Joe Sitt's plan to demolish some historic structures on or below Surf Avenue and replace them with chain retail and restaurants--and, quite possibly, hotels/time-shares that would be turned into condos, thus leading to the demise of the amusement zone ecosystem (despite Coney's unique zoning). (Graphic at right from Save Coney Island.) In the saga ( Coney Island's Grand Past and Grim Future: Requiem for a dreamland ), Baker suggests the current...

From a New York Daily News article today headlined Coney Island redevelopment plan attracts 50 amusement park companies from seven countries : The competition to build a new amusement park at the faded seaside mecca has reached a fever pitch as a who's who of amusement operators work to put together proposals by a Dec. 18 deadline. ...It was standing room only when city officials presented their request for proposals at the Las Vegas IAAPA convention last month, after sealing a deal to buy 6.9 crucial acres from developer Thor Equities for $95.6 million. Some 50 companies from at least seven countries showed up for the information session. Yet when it came to a "great piece of real estate" (in the words of Forest City Enterprises CEO Chuck Ratner) like the Vanderbilt Yard, only one bidder besides Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner responded to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's July 2005 Request for Proposals. Could that have been because city and s...

Those testifying in favor of Atlantic Yards don't necessarily spring up spontaneously. Pastor Guillermo Martino of the Tabernacle of God's Glory Church in Crown Heights, who testified not so coherently on June 22 before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Finance Committee in favor of the Atlantic Yards plan (video below), has a curious profile when it comes to development disputes. In November 2007, he protested the mayor's plan for Coney Island. As reported by the Bay News, Martino was "one of the dozens of people who turned out wearing bright yellow hats carrying the message 'The Bloomberg Plan: How Much? How Long? Who Pays?'" Martino and fellow protesters came on buses chartered by Sen. Carl Kruger, who, as the Daily News later reported , spent several thousand dollars from his campaign fund. (After all, Kruger has a huge campaign fund but an untouchable seat.) The Daily News quoted Kruger: "Nobody knows how much [the redevelopment is] goi...

While New York City's plans for the Coney Island amusement area are not directly comparable with developer Forest City Ratner's plans for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard, it's certainly intriguing to learn that the value of land for the former has gone up while the latter has (effectively) gone down. Consider that, as reported today by the New York Times and Crain's New York Business , the city has agreed to buy 6.9 acres from investor/speculator Joe Sitt for $95.6 million. That's $13.86 million per acre, more on a per acre basis but less in total than the $140 million he sought for 10.5 acres ($13.33 million per acre). Sitt apparently paid $93 million for about 10 acres, the Times reported in April. So Sitt made a nice profit. What about AY? Meanwhile, Forest City Ratner in 2005 agreed to pay the MTA $100 million cash for the 8.5-acre (or 8.3-acre) Vanderbilt Yard. The developer said that the value of its bid was much greater, beca...

When I visited Coney Island last weekend, one of the first things I saw was a billboard on the north side of Surf Avenue inviting people to visit the Playland amusement park in Westchester, with 50 rides less than an hour away. The implication was obvious: Coney Island, in its diminished state, can't compare. The problem goes deeper: critics say the rezoning passed 44-2 last week by the City Council won't save Coney Island so much as shrink the amusement area, allow the demolition of historic buildings, and, crucially, permit hotel towers south of Surf Avenue, blocking views of the beach and amusement area. Here's Neil deMause's live-blog of the Council action, suggesting the city unwisely gave up leverage over developer Joe Sitt. (Graphics from Municipal Art Society slideshow; full MAS slideshow is further below.) It seems a very shortsighted solution. The enormous natural advantages of Coney--the beach and the sky--are a civic asset. If there are to be many new high...

Sunday, the New York Daily News reported, in an article headlined Local Brooklyn politicians push developer's zoning changes for Coney Island , about some apparent collusion that has generated outrage: Local pols approved dramatic new changes to the city's plan for Coney Island at a developer's urging, infuriating city officials, sources said. Thor Equities officials floated a half-dozen recommendations - and Community Board 13 even adopted some of the wording, city sources said. "Having a for-profit developer write these zoning amendments is the equivalent of having a Big Tobacco lobbyist write anti-smoking legislation," a city official said. And what about AY? In November 2006, I reported how, according to the Atlantic Yards Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), government agencies worked together (and with the developer) to create design guidelines. However, while the agencies did contribute to the Design Guidelines, memos acquired via a Freedom of Info...

A little more than four decades ago, many in the city had given up on the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). Now it's a thriving, multi-building institution, and its handsome, cavernous BAMcafe, glittering with light and graced with Milton Rosa-Ortiz's floating part-torso sculptures dubbed "Disbelief", was the appropriate setting for last night's standing-room only public unveiling of the Municipal Art Society's (MAS) Imagine Coney project. It was a particularly opportune time, as well, given that just yesterday morning the New York Post reported that developer (or flipper?) Joe Sitt was ready to give up his plans for hotels (time-shares) and entertainment retail and sell to the city. And MAS president Kent Barwick said that city officials, while not yet jumping on the Imagine Coney bandwagon, were definitely listening. (Presumably they're considering the Imagine Coney contention that a 25-acre amusement area, not the city's plans for a bonsai park of ...

After two public meetings and two design meetings last week for the Imagine Coney project, the Municipal Art Society will unveil the design team's initial recommendations on Monday at 6:30 PM at the BAMCafe upstairs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Reservations are recommended . Initial ideas While the design team obviously isn't wedded to suggestions from the public, the MAS has provided a list of "top public ideas," some of which are far more realistic than the others. * Create a Venice, CA-style Muscle Beach * Brooklyn Nets/Nudie Bar/Gambling (note that these are not linked) * Hologram Facility/Video Wormhole * Dig Hole to China * Reestablish Massive Clock * Outdoor Stage/Indoor Theater for Public Use * New Fanciful Architecture * Best Water Ride Ever * Robots * Adult Fun * New Old Rides * National Eating Hall of Fame ( my idea ) * Transport Rides * Be in Video Game * Laser Water Show * Interspecies...

Observing that the city's truncated Coney Island plan--an apparent accommodation to developer Joe Sitt--"greatly reduces the area set aside for open-air amusements and puts too much faith in 'entertainment retail,'" the Center for an Urban Future yesterday issued a report called Coney Island Visions , asking thinkers from a variety of fields about Coney Island's future. The effort is a partnership with the Municipal Art Society (MAS), which recently began the Imagine Coney initiative. While the MAS is soliciting advice from everybody (here are my suggestions ), the Center for an Urban Future consulted amusement industry veteran, writers, architects, urban planners, and historians. Most have not been involved in the details of the development debate but were asked to provide a broader picture. Avoiding AY The first person quoted in the report brought up Atlantic Yards is an example of what not to do. Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn & The ...

Inspired by the Imagine Coney initiative launched by the Municipal Art Society and the Center for an Urban Future's new Coney Island Visions report, in which many suggested drawing on Coney's roots, I offer three suggestions, one of them not my own. A Museum of Amusement History Credit former Brooklyn Borough Historian John Manbeck, who made this prescient suggestion in the 6/10/02 issue ( PDF ) of the Brooklyn Paper, in a column headlined "Coney Island Comeback?" Manbeck wrote: My suggestion? Use some of the promises and profits to help us remember what Coney Island really meant. Coney Island always rebuilt itself. Now build a Coney Island historic museum, a Museum of Amusement History — like William Mangels wanted back in the 1950s. Build re-creations of Coney Island rides as Rockefeller did in Williamsburg, Va. The Trumps have roots in Coney Island. Re-construct the old Elephant Hotel. Buy ancient merry-go-rounds and rides like the Virginia Reel. Recruit Dick Z...