It is beginning to look like the city is getting involved in trying to keep Astroland open. Yesterday, an unnamed city official was quoted in the Daily News as saying that the city would like to see the amusement park’s lease extended. Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg seems to have expressed the same sentiment. “It would be a great shame if the amusements, which have been around for so many years and defined Coney Island and this city as much as anything,” he is quoted as saying in an AP story. “It would be a shame if we lost those.” Astroland operator Carol Hill Albert was trying to negotiate a two-year lease with developer Joe Sitt but has said that the developer had refused to negotiate or even talk. Last year, the displeasure of both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff with Mr. Sitt was obvious at a news conference in which the city announced plans to acquire Mr. Sitt’s land in the amusement district and dismissed him as incapable of operating a “world class amusement park.” According to AP, the Mayor said yesterday: “What we’re trying to do is to get Astroland to have another one-year extension of their lease so that we can get the rezoning done and then hopefully come to an agreement with Thor.” Ms. Albert did not respond to AP’s request for a comment. Thor spokesperson Stefan Friedman said no negotiations are underway with either the city or Ms. Albert. The Mayor, on the other hand, said that “there are private developers who have their own economic interests and then there’s the public that has a broader interest, and we’re trying to reconcile property values with what’s in the public interest, and hopefully we will come to an agreement.”
GL Analysis
Last week, we wrote that the city was deeply at fault in the Astroland situation by having done nothing to protect it or the rest of Coney Island while the rezoning process is ongoing and before any redevelopment starts. One can argue about the parameters of the rezoning and whether the city’s approach is appropriate or whether it has already made too many compromises to try to gain Mr. Sitt’s support and that of his political allies. On the other hand, it’s painfully clear the city is on the verge of allowing the premature destruction of the handful of assets that Coney Island does possess by failing to plan for an interim 1-5 year period when development is being planned. It is time for the city to get deeply involved in safeguarding Coney Island’s short-term future. Expressions of sadness that things are closing are not enough. It is time for the city to exercise the leverage it has and engage in some good old fashioned hardball negotiations with Mr. Sitt. The last time we checked, the city still held a good hand when it came to cutting a deal with the developer. If it intends to allow him to build the hotels and “entertainment retail” he deserves, one can only assume that the threat of rendering his property useless for such purposes might prove to be a bit of an incentive. Last November, the Mayor engaged in a great deal of bluster about how the city would get Mr. Sitt to see the light.
Well, it’s time to hit the switch, make the room very bright and tell the developer that, with all due respect, it’s time take off the sunglasses and negotiate in good faith about Coney’s short term future. Or else. Of course, nothing has happened in the last 36 months to inspire faith that will be outcome, but hope should always spring eternal.
