Developers Have Big Plans For Future Of Coney Island
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With the recent opening of Luna Park, New Yorkers are starting to see how Coney Island is on the verge of change. NY1’s Jill Urban takes a look at what else is in store for the neighborhood in part one of a two-part series. Its past is often looked at with a sense of history and nostalgia, but, for many, Coney Island’s future brings on feelings of uncertainty and curiosity. The two major developers here who own most of the land have big dreams –and view Coney Island as the land of opportunity.
“You need to create enough density to be able to effect change,” says Charles Bendit, Co-CEO of Taconic Investment Partners. “You can’t make this small. It must be big enough to be transformational.”
A transformation is exactly what’s planned.
On the commercial side, Thor Equities owns most of the land along Surf Avenue in the amusement district. Owner Joe Sitt says he wants to restore Coney Island to its former glory, but in a modern way.
“Our dream is to have to major hotels, one being more of entertainment hotel [like] Nickelodeon/Disney type of thematic hotel that kids are going to want to come to,” Sitt says. “And then second part we want ot have as part of our plans is something in the nature of a combination of a convention hotel and amusement hotel, in that we want to do something with an indoor water park inside of it.”
His controversial plans would mean leveling some old buildings – including Henderson Music Hall, where Harpo Marx made his musical debut.
Around the hotels, he envisions another major entertainment facility, all indoors, to make Coney Island a year-round destination.
Sitt says it could be eight to 10 years before his master plan is realized, but a temporary small-scale plan is in the works.
“Restaurants, an indoor park, indoor amusements, food, games, entertainment, stuff that Coney Island has been known for,” says Sitt as to what should be completed in the near future. “It won’t be as big as our long-term dream, which can’t be built until the infrastructure is there. It will be smaller in scale, but it will be great and it will be a great way to keep Coney Island in line until the long-term plan will be executed.”
Just outside the amusement district to the west, Taconic Investment Partners is working on redeveloping the residential landscape of the area. In part two of the series, NY1 will take a look at what’s ahead on that front.