Developer Buys Coney Island’s Astroland
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A Brooklyn developer that plans to convert Coney Island into a $1.5 billion amusement, hotel, and residential district announced the purchase yesterday of the Astroland Amusement Park.
The developer, Thor Equities, has already unveiled plans to develop about 10 acres of beachfront property on either side of Astroland. The purchase will add 3.1 acres to the project.
“Now they will own two-thirds of Coney Island’s amusement district,” the founder of the nonprofit arts group Coney Island USA, Richard Zigun, said.
Thor Equities and Astroland declined to comment on the price of the sale.
Although details of the project are still being hashed out, Thor Equities has said it wants to build a mix of amusements and a hotel on the Astroland site. The plan already includes an indoor water park, a three-story glass-enclosed carousel, and a new roller coaster.
The decision to sell the 45-year-old Astroland came after months of deliberation and hopes of an alternative that would enable the amusement park to remain in its current location, a co-owner of Astroland, Carol Albert Hill, said in a statement yesterday. Mrs. Albert Hill also said the Albert family had turned down larger offers in the past.
The purchase came a surprise to Mr. Zigun.”None of us knew this was in the works,” he said.
“It’s a shame,” an author and Coney Island historian, Charles Denson, said. “Astroland is the only intact parcel of land in Coney Island from the 1870s.”
The sale will leave only a small distribution of family-owned businesses in the Coney Island amusement district.
Astroland will close at the end of next summer, drawing the curtain on rides like the Astrotower and the Tilt-a-Whirl. However, the wooden Cyclone roller coaster, which is a part of Astroland, will continue to operate under a contract with the city, Mrs. Albert Hill said.
The Alberts did not sell the Astroland name or rides and hope to move the amusement park to another location in Brooklyn, she said.
Astroland was founded by Dewey Albert in 1962 as an outer space-themed amusement park during the height of the space race, Mr. Denson said.
