No Sitt, Astroland Will Be Back!

After back, back, forth and forth about whether the Astroland amusement park will close to make way for a vacant lot while developer Joe Sitt and the city figure out what they can build on it, Sitt agrees to allow the Coney Island institution to stay open one more year:

Thor Equities, the real-estate giant that bought the land under the amusement park from owner Carol Albert in 2006 and gave Astroland one final season this summer, announced on Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with Albert to keep her rundown park’s 35 rides operating for one more season.

“Thor is fully committed to keeping amusements and games as part of the fabric of Coney Island for decades to come, and today’s agreement — reached after discussions with Albert and the community as a whole — represents the first step in that direction,” said Joe Sitt, Thor’s president, who would not reveal the financials of the deal.

After all, attendance was only up 30 percent last season! (Telling people you’re closing forever has a way of spurring that.) But what did we give away in the process?

Location Scout: Coney Island Amusement Core.