RIP Astroland and Hard Rock Park? Not so Fast.
Tuesday November 18, 2008
It's been T-minus-almost-zero in the countdown to scrap Coney Island's Astroland before, and it's managed to hang on. The scrappy Brooklyn, New York park certainly appeared to be orbit-bound a few weeks ago, but don't count it out quite yet. According to the New York Post, the City of New York may be on the brink of closing a deal to purchase prime Coney Island property from developer Thor Equities and finally embark on a deadlocked plan to rezone and redevelop the storied amusement area. And Astroland could be part of the plan.
And the Myrtle Beach Sun News reports that the bankrupt Hard Rock Park, which opened to great fanfare earlier this year, will be put up for auction with an incredibly low minimum bid of $35 million. Between the licensing fees for the band and the cost to build the coaster, I wouldn't be surprised if the budget for the park's Led Zeppelin--The Ride was somewhere around the opening bid for the entire park. What a strange and sad development for the once-promising park. If nothing else, the low asking price should guarantee that bidders will come to the table, and the park should reopen.
What are your thoughts about the fate of Coney Island's Astroland and Hard Rock Park? Click on "Comments" below to join the conversation.
Photo: The Cyclone has been delivering Coney Island thrills for years. ©Arthur Levine 2007. Licensed to About.com
Comments
Hey, my company, Whor Equities, has always wanted to be fair and helpful with the whole redevelopment plan. So we’ll sell our land to the city for only one trillion dollars. Hah! Suck it, New York.
Hey “JoeS,” with the economy in the crapper, the real estate bubble burst, and Mayor B. gunning for a third term, the City of NY may now have the leverage to talk you down to a more reasonable figure.
-Arthur
These two parks may have more in common than it seems on the surface. It is possible that Coney Island’s future reincarnation will suffer the same fate as Hard Rock Park. Recent plans for Coney Island, showcased by the Coney Island Development Corporation (http://www.thecidc.org), are glamorous, expensive, and will change the look of Coney Island forever. If Astroland and adjacent attractions are re-imagined as a high class, expensive venue, it may alienate the families and tourists who have enjoyed those parks for years. This is especially troubling in an economy wherein families are forced to tighten their entertainment budgets.
It is entirely possible that Myrtle Beach did not need a high-volume (pun-intended) amusement park. Sure, there were plenty of tourists driving past Hard Rock every day this summer, but Hard Rock was not the type of attraction they were looking for at Myrtle Beach. The same might be true for a glitzy park that stands where Astroland once stood.
No matter what happens, I encourage everyone who reads this to make a concerted effort to visit Coney Island and experience, at the very least, the Cyclone and Deno’s Wonderwheel. To do so is to take a ride into nostalgia, and one that you might want to experience before it’s too late.