Astroland in 'holding pattern'
(Photo by Getty Images)
Astroland’s co-owner says she won’t put the storied Coney Island amusement park’s rides up for sale just yet, despite issuing an ultimatum that she would do so if she was not offered a lease for 2009 by Friday.
“I’m just kind of in this holding pattern,” Carol Hill Albert told amNewYork on Thursday. “I think I’m going day by day. I really just don’t know.”
Last week, Albert said she was inching closer to accepting the fact that Astroland would close forever on Sept. 7. The park’s lease with developer Thor Equities expires Jan. 31. Thor and City Hall have separate plans for the waterfront property, but construction before the end of next summer is unlikely.
Albert said Thor officials have not contacted her in the past two weeks. She declined to provide a new deadline for making a decision but said the process of selling and removing the rides will take months.
Albert briefly put Astroland’s rides up for sale last year before pulling them off the market. Thor eventually gave the park an 11th-hour lease extension for this year. While the rhetoric from Albert might seem familiar, she says the circumstances are different.
“Last year, every time my rides were to go on sale, I got a call from a city official asking me to pull the rides back, that they thought I was going to get a lease,” she said.
Albert said that city officials have expressed interest in having Astroland return next year but added that she has “not had the same confidence that I had last year.”
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Comments (1)
This is unbelievably short-sighted on the part of the city. We do not need yet another series of condos. What we do need is a place for young people to let off steam during the long hot summer. At fifty, I'm a bit old to be roller-coasting it with the young 'uns, but not too old to remember that when I was growing up we had TWO amusement parks - Coney Island and Palisades Amusement Park a quick half hour bus ride into New Jersey. Now the second (and larger) one is gone and some apartment complex is in its place. In the meantime, our kids are fatter and less social due to having one less place to play. Perhaps Bloomburg would like them to play in the street? I'm usually a fan of the mayor, but in this case he's forgotten about his youngest constituents. Once we lose Coney Island, we'll never get it back again - there won't be room or financial incentive. The city needs to remain diverse and serve ALL its citizens.
BTW, it would be a good idea to expand the NY Aquarium too. the tiny aquarium we have is a joke for a city our size. Atlanta has the largest aquarium in the world, and San Francisco - barely a tenth our population - has a bigger one too.