There’s no waiting line at the original Nathan’s Famous. The colors of autumn have yet to blanket the city, and the streets of Coney Island are already quieter than they were at the end of August.
But Coney Island USA, a nonprofit arts organization, is undergoing a building expansion project to increase space for performances and arts programs that it hopes will help attract visitors year-round.
New developments seek to attract more visitors to Coney Island year-round. (Photo: Carol Tang | City Beats)
“A lot of people think that once the summer ends, there’s nothing to do in Coney Island,” said Tim Pendrell, 30, development director of Coney Island USA. “The reason the arts are important is that it’s often among the first groups to act quickest in redeveloping neighborhoods. A cultural scene emerges, and that brings in other developers and interests.”
For visitors who may not be as interested in the arts, there will also be the added lure of shopping. Thor Equities, a real estate development and investment firm that owns oceanfront land in Coney Island, is building a two-story retail mall on the opposite end of the same block as the nonprofit.
Two blocks the other way is the New York Aquarium where $100 million, with support from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is going toward the installation of two mammoth shark tanks to house more than 30 sharks to drive more visitors to the aquarium. There are about 10 right now.
Eight years ago, the Bloomberg administration, the City Council and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz formed the Coney Island Development Corporation to develop the area into a world-class recreational oceanfront destination.
“Coney Island has been much imitated but never duplicated,” Borough President Markowitz said in a public statement four years ago. “This plan will preserve Coney’s famed freakishness and fun-loving spirit, while residents and businesses benefit from their neighborhood’s rebirth as a 24/7 tourist and family destination. Coney Island has been called America’s playground, and it will be so again.”
Coney Island USA’s five-year capital project will officially start on November 14 when it assumes proprietorship of the building next door, currently Denny’s Ice Cream Shop whose owner is retiring after more than 30 years on Surf Avenue. Denny’s Ice Cream Shop will continue operations next year as Coney Island USA begins its transition process.
The nonprofit group purchased the building for about $900,000 with funding from private investors and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Current programs at Coney Island USA include the circus sideshow, a burlesque show, art exhibits, a freak show, a motorcycle parade, a mermaid parade and a film festival.
The goal of the expansion project is to turn the nonprofit from a small arts organization in Coney Island to a national institution of American popular culture, says Pendrell.
“Coney Island is part of America’s history. It was the place for working people to go and entertain themselves. It’s important to keep that legacy alive,” Pendrell said.
But not everyone is convinced that money alone can attract additional visitors to this remote corner of Brooklyn, a subway ride to the last stop on the D, N, F and Q lines – about an hour from midtown Manhattan.
“I think they’ll have to pull some cool promotions to get people out here,” said Kita St Cyr, 24, who works at Lola Star’s Gift Shop and participated in this year’s Miss Coney Island.
Coney Island USA will continue to fundraise over the next five years to finance its renovation plans to upgrade its current building and integrate the two properties. The front of the new building will remain a concession area with room for retail space, which Coney Island USA will rent out to vendors. The back area will be converted into a performance space, Pendrell said.
The dream, if able to raise enough money that will support constructing a tower, is to mold the building as the centerpiece of the Coney Island skyline. That’s the 20-year plan because the organization has not yet agreed on a final design and still needs to hire an interior designer.
But it already has architectural renderings of what the new building might look like. And because Denny’s Ice Cream Shop is not landmarked, unlike the organization’s current home, Coney Island USA is looking to build up.
In one of the renderings, a waved front and colossal word of walls forms a unique shape against a backdrop of adjacent buildings with straight lines. In another rendering, a hulking elephant sits atop the new Coney Island USA, towering over the horizon in a throwback to Bohemianism.
Think Moulin Rouge, but in the south of Brooklyn.
