Kruger: ‘It’s a Long Process, A Rocky Road’
By Sarah Ryley
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
CONEY ISLAND — A long, difficult road could be ahead for the Bloomberg Administration as it struggles to enact its sweeping proposal to revitalize Coney Island, unveiled earlier this month.
Central to the plan is the creation of a 15-acre amusement park between the Cyclone and KeySpan Park, on privately owned land the city intends to acquire, then lease to a single operator. Such a feat would require state approval for the transfer of city parkland west of KeySpan — currently used as parking lots, mainly for Cyclones games — to the 15-acre plot.
Democratic Senator Carl Kruger told the Eagle Monday that he intends to “lobby as effectively as I can to assure that the bill, if there is a bill, would be defeated on the floor.” Such a statement signals a long, difficult road ahead for the city, as it first has to pass the rezoning initiative on the city level — roughly a year-long process — then tackle the parkland issue on the state level.
Kruger called the approach, also criticized by Dennis Vourderis, owner of a small plot of land beneath Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, “a back-door approach to eminent domain.” He also pointed out that the soccer field at the base of the Parachute Jump would be destroyed under the city’s plan, which he could contest in court since the bonds used to build that project haven’t been paid off.
“Certainly [a vote on the land transfer] won’t happen during this session in the legislature. It’s a long process, it’s a rocky road,” said Kruger.
Retail magnate Joseph Sitt, founder of Thor Equities, has spent some $150 million since 2005 amassing 11 acres of land within the amusement district, and the leases or businesses held by individual operators there, many that were swiftly cleared out. But his plans of building high-rise hotels, time shares and entertainment retail on much of the land, with a year-round amusement park smaller than Astroland and an indoor water park attached to one of the hotels, was met with stiff resistance by the city.
Most of that land, save for the parcels he owns north of the Bowery, would be turned into the 15-acre amusement park under the city’s plan, which also makes use of vacant waterfront property owned by another scorned entrepreneur, Horace Bullard.
“We recognize there are those who stand to profit more from other uses, but we are committed to ensuring that Coney Island’s amusement district is enhanced, made permanent and kept open to the public. The mayor’s plan is designed to achieve that,” said a spokeswoman from the city Economic Development Corporation, an arm of the Mayor’s Office. “We are just now beginning the public process, and we welcome input from all stakeholders as we move forward.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained at the plan’s unveiling, held earlier this month at Gargiulo’s, that private property owners within the proposed amusement park could either sell their land to the city for cash, or swap it with the parkland west of KeySpan Park, where they could build high-rise housing.
Not mentioned at the unveiling was the street the city plans to build through Gargiulo’s parking lot, according to a map of the rezoning proposal.
A spokesman for Sitt said he intends to work with the city, but declined to give specifics.
“There’s not actual money for this either,” said Kruger, referring to the cost of Sitt’s land. “No one talks about who’s going to develop it, no one talks about how much it’s going to cost, no one talks about how much time it’s going to take.”
Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corporation, said the amusement park would take 10 to 20 years to build once an operator is selected. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” she said, stressing that the agency would do everything it could to assure that the area surrounding the 15-acre footprint was kept active during construction.
“You won’t see a shovel in the ground during this administration, and I don’t know if the succeeding administration would feel the same way as this one does,” said Kruger. “And if we go into a recession, what developer is coming?”
He warned that such complexities could cause Bloomberg’s proposal to suffer the same fate of those of Coney’s past: Mayor Robert Wagner proposed to expand Luna Park in the 1950s; Mayor Ed Koch, to bring in casino gambling in the 1970s; Horace Bullard to build a massive theme park in the 1980s; and Mayor Rudy Giuliani promised to build a community sporting facility in KeySpan’s parking lot.
Kruger said his office has not been contacted by Coney Island landowners complaining about the mayor’s proposal.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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