What Are You Going To Do, Not Build The 4,000-Foot Roller Coaster?

Thor Equities can play hardball, as the Post reports, but what exactly is their leverage? They don’t even have a basketball team to bring to the table:

The developer planning a $2 billion Vegas-style makeover for Coney Island’s boardwalk strip says the project will have to be scrapped if City Hall won’t let him build a luxury apartment building in the heart of the seaside district.

The Coney Island project “isn’t a financially feasible investment” without the inclusion of high-rise housing along Stillwell Avenue just off the fabled seaside boardwalk, Thor Equities spokesman Lee Silberstein — speaking for company chief Joseph Sitt — told The Post.

“Everybody wants Coney Island to be revitalized, and housing has got to be part of it,” Silberstein said, adding that from a planning perspective the project needs guarantees that there will be people on the boardwalk year-round.

The news that the city faces losing its biggest private investment in Coney Island’s future if it doesn’t meet Thor’s request comes while the developer this week took a calculated gamble by beginning to clear some of the land where its planned construction would occur.

Bulldozers have begun removing longtime attractions on Thor property along Stillwell Avenue. In doing so, Thor is banking on city officials granting necessary land-use changes.

Beside housing, Thor’s project calls for a water-park-themed hotel, another full-service hotel, time-share facilities, new retail, a multilevel carousel and a 4,000-foot roller coaster.

Chuck Reichental, a member of the agency that will determine how Coney Island is rezoned, said a majority of residents opposes housing in the amusement district as well as any new development exceeding the height of the 262-foot landmark Parachute Jump.

Sources familiar with informal talks between the city and Thor say these are the two biggest obstacles to the developer’s plan.