It’s a sad day for me as I can remember when I was a kid growing up in Queens, NY, my parents would take me to Coney Island for its Famous Nathan Hot Dogs, Amusement Park and Boardwalk. Coney Island says good-bye after 36 years.
The owner of Coney Island’s Astroland said yesterday she is calling it quits and the historic amusement park will close for good on Sunday September 7th.
Carol Albert, whose family has owned the Brooklyn amusement park for almost a half century, said she gave up on negotiating a two-year lease with Thor Equities after the developer missed the deadline to reply.
Thor spokesman Stefan Friedman said the company is “extremely disappointed that Carol Albert has decided to give up on the future of Coney Island when her current lease isn’t even up for a number of months.”
The park was under threat of closing a year ago, but Thor — which owns the land under the park — and Astroland agreed to a one-year lease extension.
A sad day in NYC history indeed! I remember my dad taking me to Nathan’s. Let’s hope they work something out.
I hope so as this is a historical site for many visitors and New Yorkers a like.
Whatever… This just makes me lose even more respect for that borough. And of course, once the deal is sealed, then comes the re-development project. So I wonder what Markowitz is going to get out of the deal on this? Besides, ya might as well pull down the bridge and pave over Prospect Park, seeing as Astroland has no sentimental value to anyone anymore it seems.
So true and I remember when they closed Roosevelt Raceway, guess what? It still there and it looks like a ghost town.
Makes me sad and I’ve never even been there. I hate to see this country’s historic icons disappear. I happen to know the powers that be at Thor…maybe I’ll check it out and see if anyone’s stepped up to keep it open.
It is a shame and one that I will never forget as I went there many times and drove by it everyday.
I can’t believe it. My grandparents lived 5 minutes away so I passed it often growing up. Although I was only actually in the park as a young child, it reminds me of where my parents grew up. I thought it would be there forever.
I grew up about 15 minutes away and I am sure when my mom hears about this she will also have a reaction.