It is beginning to look like the city is getting involved in trying to keep Astroland open. Yesterday, an unnamed city official was quoted in the Daily News as saying that the city would like to see the amusement park’s lease extended. Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg seems to have expressed the same sentiment. “It would [...]

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News of Carol Albert’s statement that Astroland will close for good on Sunday hit around 2PM yesterday. By 5PM our inbox was starting to get statements about the closure, some of them more curious than others. Lynn Kelly, who chairs the Coney Island Development Corp. and is one of the key city players in the [...]

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Will Coney Island’s Astroland die or live another year or two? A year after hundreds of reporters showed up to record “Astroland’s Last Day,” the process has started again, with a number of TV reports on Labor Day and an article in the Post on Friday suggesting that Thursday might be the park’s final day. [...]

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A long time ago, when developer Joe Sitt bought the Revere Sugar Plant property in Red Hook, it was said that the plan was to build a BJ’s Wholesale Club there. It could be coming to pass. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says the developer and the big box retailer are very close to an [...]

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The “Summer of Hope,” the label attached by Thor Equities to its summer activities in Coney Island, has boiled down to a few inflatable attractions at the corner of the big lot on Stillwell Avenue on which the developer demolished attractions nearly two year ago. Rides were on the property for part of the summer [...]

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[Image courtesy of Captain_Nemo/Coney Island Message Board]

The other day, we had some images of developer Joe Sitt’s land in Coney Island being cleared out as the “Summer of Hope” attractions pulled out somewhat before the end of the summer. This is what the lot now looks like. (It was occupied by amusements until the [...]

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[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]
This is all that remains of the property owned by developer Joe Sit and Thor Equities after the amusements that were there were packed up trucks and driven to a fair in Tennessee. The rides and other attractions were supposed to be on the property through Labor Day as [...]

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[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Photo Pool]
This is the Ring of Fire ride on land owned by developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities in Coney Island being dismantled. It comes from the roving camera of Rubys Host. The ride was one of those that was supposed to be in Coney Island all summer as part [...]

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Remember the Summer of Hope proclaimed back in May by Thor Equities as this summer’s Coney theme with rides occupying property on which the developer had demolished attractions in the winter of 2006-07? As it turns out, it would appear that “summer” is ending early. Regulars on the Coney Island Message Board have been reporting [...]

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Kinetic Carnival has a report this morning that the remaining Reithoffer’s rides on Thor’s Stillwell Avenue property have been or are being removed. Reithoffer was only supposed to operate the ride through the first week of June and half had been removed by last weekend. Another operator is supposed to run a small number of [...]

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The “Summer of Hope” in Coney Island is now smaller. Half the carnival rides on developer Joe Sitt’s land are gone (as was planned) and the temporary amusements have now been reduced. The petting zoo across the street has also left town. The rides have been replaced by parking and the blue fence that was [...]

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[Photo courtesy of Screwtape/Coney Island Message Board]
This is a roller coast called the Indy 500, which is one of the temporary Reithoffer Shows rides rising on property in Coney Island owned by developer Joe Sitt that will open on May 2 and run through early June. It’s a small, portable coaster that is also known [...]

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[Photo courtesy of GerritsenBeach.Net/flickr]
Thor Equities has unveiled its summer strategy for CConey Island and its 2008 summer theme: “Summer of Hope.” The developer, whose holdings include a large parcel of land between Coney’s Bowery and the Boardwalk on both sides of Stillwell Avenue was previously reported to be bringing a carnival ride operator to Coney, [...]

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It’s anyone’s guess what the final Coney Island resolution will be, but for now, we can say that developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities have found a new use for some of their land: a parking lot. The big plot of land along Stillwell Avenue that experienced premature demolition last year was being used (at [...]

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The fact that Thor Equities is a sponsor of the Polar Bears Club New Year’s swim has sparked a debate between members of the Coney Island crew. We noticed this because of a thread on the Coney Island Message Board called “Coney Island Polar Bear Club are Sellouts!!!!” The first entry says:
Never thought that I’d [...]

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Demolition permits to level Red Hook’s iconic Revere Dome were issued on December 6, 2006. A couple of days later, crews working for developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities were on site starting prep work for the big tear down. The job continued through the winter, spring, summer and into the fall. (For those with [...]

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Looks like a certain major Coney Island landowner is having an upkeep problem on his properties. This photo shows some problems with developer Joe Sitt’s fences in Coney Island that appear to have developed in that long, harsh Coney Island off-season. It comes from the very active poster known as Captain Nemo (aka Bruce) on [...]

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We were prompted to scan the hard drives yesterday and, among other things, pulled up some long shots down Beard Street in Red Hook taken over the last 18 months. Here is a small series.

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In case you missed this over at Kinetic Carnival or Curbed yesterday, we find this rendering of a possible future for Coney Island utterly riveting in a bad car crash sort of way. We understand that it from a scheme that is no longer the working one, yet the scale of the new development and [...]

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Only the smokestack is now left. Erin “Sniffy” Norris took these amazing photos of one of the last big pieces of the old Revere Plant in Red Hook being pulled to the ground. It remains unclear what developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities, which cleared the property, intend to with it, although they will likely [...]

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There is an important update in the still developing story of the roster of the Thor Equities Coney Island team. You might recall that, on Wednesday, Lee Silberstein of the Marino Organization, which has handled public relations for the embattled Coney Island redevelopment plan, let people know that he was no longer on the Thor [...]

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Yesterday, we noted in a post on Curbed that Thor Equities and developer Joe Sitt had parted company with spokesperson Lee Silberstein and the Marino Organization. It was unclear who had initiated the split. This morning we can report, based on a tip from another reliable source, that Thor has also parted ways with Kramer [...]

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Enjoy. Go over directly if the embed is bothering you by clicking here.

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Found on the YouTube and also noted by Kinetic Carnival. Visit it directly by clicking here if there is a problem with the embed.

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We were going to make this a “Photo Du Jour,” but it’s way too on-topic not to merit a few extra words. This is the scene on the lot next to the Thor Equities site where the Cole Bothers Circus is set up through tomorrow. This is some of the demolition equipment that has been [...]

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