Many Concerned About Coney Island’s Future

Posted on 02. Oct, 2010 by Anne Byrnes in Uncategorized

The verdict is in: New York’s first effort in years to revitalize Coney Island has paid off. Luna Park has already attracted more than 400,000 visitors during its first season, and the city has extended the amusement park’s stint to the end of this month. In all, the city says, more than 14 million people visited the Brooklyn boardwalk over the summer.

That first blush of success is certainly welcome, but neighborhood business owners are still wary, since the city’s long-range plan to rejuvenate the area remains a work in progress. Front and center among their concerns are suggestions that a wave of chain operations is headed their way.

Media reports earlier this summer said Shake Shack and Atomic Wings are looking for sites in the area. Shop owners worry that national chains are interested, too. Boardwalk businesses, including eccentric nightclub and restaurant Cha Cha’s, received a letter in August from Central Amusement International, the operator of Luna Park, asking tenants to explain why they deserve to have their leases renewed.

“Dunkin’ Donuts and all of those corporate chains are not Coney Island,’’ says John “Cha Cha” Ciarcia, owner of Cha Cha’s, as well as Beer Island nearby. “The individuals and the characters are what make Coney Island what it is.”

In July 2009, after years of study, the city rezoned a 19-block portion of Coney Island in an effort to breathe new life into the area. It envisions a 27-acre amusement and entertainment district, with about 5,000 apartments and additional retail units.

After a lengthy standoff with local landowner Joseph Sitt, head of developer Thor Equities, over the best way to redevelop the area, the city paid him $95.6 million for three local plots he owned. That removed a major obstacle to City Hall’s vision.

The city is currently working on the neighborhood infrastructure, drafting a plan to replace 40-year-old water mains and sewers. But the question of what will be built once all the infrastructure is in place remains a concern for local business owners. They fear that the new development will change the character and historic value of the area.

“Coney Island has tremendous potential to become an economic engine and tourist destination,” says Juan Rivero of activist group Save Coney Island. “But it needs investment from either a developer or the city in a way that capitalizes on the history of Coney Island.”

Meanwhile, if city officials thought that buying Mr. Sitt’s property would silence their most vociferous critic, they were wrong.

“If the city is truly interested in transforming Coney Island into a year-round destination, it must soon begin the difficult but necessary task of dramatically upgrading the area’s long-inadequate infrastructure,” says a spokesman for Thor Equities.

The developer has expressed concern over the city’s progress, which affects its ability to continue with its own projects. Thor still owns a significant piece of property abutting the entertainment district that it intends to develop itself—a plan that has local business owners concerned about the future of historic buildings on the plot.

The city’s Economic Development Corp., meanwhile, is trying to manage a balancing act: promoting the type of business that brings jobs and investment to the underserved neighborhood, but trying to maintain the area’s “Coney Island-ness.”

“We’re building on what Coney Island is, but making it accessible for the 21st century,” says an EDC spokeswoman. “We want it to still feel like Coney Island. The point is to enhance what’s there.”

Some businesspeople say that Luna Park’s success gives them hope.

“I’m a little nervous. Change is scary,” says Maya Haddad, co-founder of souvenir store Coney Island Beach Shop. “But I’m very excited by what we’ve seen so far.”