{"id":2067,"date":"2007-01-31T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2007-01-31T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/01\/what_are_you_going_to_do_not_build_the_4000-foot_roller_coaster.html"},"modified":"2007-01-31T10:00:24","modified_gmt":"2007-01-31T18:00:24","slug":"what_are_you_go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/01\/what_are_you_go.html","title":{"rendered":"What Are You Going To Do, Not Build The 4,000-Foot Roller Coaster?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Sources familiar with informal talks between the city and Thor say these are the two biggest obstacles to the developer’s plan.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}