Coney Island Death Watch: Sitt to Pressure City via Bulldozer and Press Leaks?

Bulldozers dispatched by Thor Equities were at work in Coney Island this week and it would appear that the land clearance is a strategic move by the developer to ratchet up the pressure on the city to act on rezoning it wants in order to build its $1.5 billion Coney project. The reaction of some officials to allowing Thor to build luxury housing highrises in the current "amusement zone" has been decidedly lukewarm. The developer, in turn, has suggested that he might pull the plug on the project without the ability to build cash-generating housing. It was the first time that direct public threats have been uttered in what could be an intense test of wills.

The Brooklyn Paper expanded on resistance to Mr. Sitt's plans for housing in Coney Island:

“The city’s chief goal is to support the amusement area and we have serious concerns about how residential fits in with an enhanced amusement area,” said an EDC official who did not want to be named.

“[Sitt] wants residential because that’s where he gets the most bang for his buck, but we’re not convinced the housing is necessary.”

Sitt’s Thor Equities would need a zoning change before it could build residential units on the dozen or so acres it owns in Coney Island.

In the meantime, it appears demolition is one of the tactics that Thor will use to increase pressure for action, as it will leave Coney Island with large tracts of land that it has cleared for development. While Thor did not respond to the Brooklyn Paper, it did talk to the Courier Life chain and to the New York Post (whose parent corporation also owns Courier Life) this week. An article in the Park Slope Courier quotes Thor spokesperson Lee Silberstein of the Marino Organization:

“Thor is committed to implementing its vision for Coney Island as soon as the city finishes the rezoning process...It therefore believes it is important to complete as much site prep work as possible now..."

Silberstein further explained it is clear that during construction there is going to be a time of adjustment.

“Those sites were not going to be active this summer, so rather than wait to do the site prep work at a future time, Thor made a decision to do it now,” Silberstein said.

GL will go out on a limb and predict that the spring and summer will feature a great deal of added vacant land in Coney Island, a pitched fight over the inclusion of housing near the Coney boardwalk and on the height of the buildings and a campaign of calcuated leaks of information and opinions to select media outlets by the developer to try to sway public opinion and increase political pressure to get the changes it wants.
[Photo from the Park Slope Courier]