New Yorkers in Exile

[BullNBear52]

As Coney Island Stirs, One Man’s Vision Is Unbuilt
By C. J. HUGHES

For over 30 years, Horace Bullard’s visions for Coney Island amounted to little more than a boardwalk of broken dreams.

His plans for year-round amusement parks and bustling commerce for full-time employment never came to fruition. The properties he bought up in the 1970s and ‘80s – the Shore Theater, the Thunderbolt roller coaster and the Playland Arcade — either remain dilapidated and largely vacant, or have been utterly vanquished.

And while a burst of new retail development and two additional amusement parks have been attracting more visitors to Coney Island, Mr. Bullard’s ideas for a few key parcels seem stalled again. He died of Lou Gehrig’s disease in April, prompting his lone heir, his daughter, Jasmine, to remove his properties, including the decrepit but landmark-status Shore Theater, from the market for the first time in years.

To hear Mr. Bullard’s friends, relatives and business associates tell it, the deals that fell through over the years closely follow the ups and downs of Coney Island itself. In the 1940s, when Mr. Bullard was a child living in the Soundview section of the Bronx, his family would take the subway to Coney Island a few times each summer, recalled his sister, Nellie Bullard, a retired nurse in Florida. They would eat Nathan’s hot dogs and ride the Thunderbolt. “Those were the real good days,” she said, before the beach resort area declined precipitously in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Born in 1938 in East Harlem, Mr. Bullard grew up impoverished as the son of a black father, who was a plumber, and a Puerto Rican mother who raised five children. He began working at the age of 8 shining shoes, according to a television interview produced for the Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV channel in the early 2000s.

And although he said he largely shrugged off prejudice, his sister blamed racism for his failure to secure a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in New York in the 1960s. But he later turned that to his advantage, having a friend analyze the chain’s batter and adding Puerto Rican spices, or “a touch of love,” his sister said.

In 1968, that recipe grew into Kansas Fried Chicken, a chain named for Max’s Kansas City, a popular nightclub in Lower Manhattan where Mr. Bullard liked to spend time, said Ita Lew Bullard, who said she was his common-law wife for 35 years until they separated in 2002. He made his fortune from the chain, which once had 18 locations across the country — including one on the ground floor of the Shore Theater.

The business eventually closed, but the profits enabled Mr. Bullard to buy up properties on Coney Island and to begin dreaming of restoring the resort area’s luster with new or improved rides and parks.

“He wanted year-round amusements, year-round employees,” said Ralph Perfetto, a Coney Island resident and political organizer who knew Mr. Bullard since the 1970s. “It would make the neighborhood safe at night, it would be lighted up and clean, so we were strongly in favor of Horace Bullard.” Even Mr. Bullard’s stationery was inscribed with carnival rides on it.

He bought the Shore Theater for $125,000 in 1979, Ms. Lew Bullard said. Within a few years, Mr. Bullard had assembled enough land to unveil a $450 million plan for a new amusement park on the site of the former Steeplechase Park, which included a 110,500-square-foot parcel between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk where the old Thunderbolt ride, immortalized in “Annie Hall,” once sat. But financing fell apart when Wall Street tumbled in the late 1980s. Then, in what would turn into a drawn-out battle with City Hall, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani revoked Mr. Bullard’s approvals for the project, in 1994, two months after taking office. Eventually, the city demolished the Thunderbolt.

Even when Mr. Bullard later lined up prominent development partners, he said his projects never received a go-ahead from the city. In later interviews, he blamed racist attitudes for the roadblocks.

Jasmine Bullard declined to explain her reasoning for removing the parcels from the market. In an interview, she said: “I share my father’s vision for a better Coney Island. But I don’t have any plans that are specific right now.”

Analysts say her decision may be a signal that the properties aren’t going to be sold at discounted prices as part of some fire sale simply because Mr. Bullard has died. Others say Ms. Bullard would be wise to wait, as improving land values, based in part on the increasing revival of parts of Coney Island, may enable her to get even higher prices for her holdings after the summer winds die down.

For years, the theater, built in 1925 but shuttered since the 1970s, had been listed at $12 million with Joe Vitacco Jr., a longtime friend, and for the last six months, with Coldwell Banker Reliable, a local brokerage, at an undisclosed price, until it was taken off the market a few week ago. Real estate agents suggested that the listing took into account at least $15 million needed in renovations. Sections of the inside resemble a bombed-out shell.

Between January and June of this year, however, the building received more than 200 sales inquiries, 10 of which were presented in writing to Ms. Bullard, said Richard DiPietro, a Coldwell agent. “We are finally starting to see things happen,” he said.

Similarly no longer being actively marketed is the site of the former Steeplechase Park. Until Ms. Bullard’s decisions to unlist the land, that rectangular parcel, adjacent to MCU Park, the baseball stadium for the Brooklyn Cyclones, had been listed at $90 million with Mr. Vitacco.

Some friends and business associates say Mr. Bullard was never the same after the Thunderbolt was razed in 2000. “He started out as a strong, vibrant and handsome young man, and I saw him age because of what happened,” Mr. Perfetto said. “He got gray hair and didn’t have that spark in his eyes like he used to.” Mr. Bullard ultimately won a $1 million settlement from the city, but according to Mr. Bullard’s lawyer, Barry S. Gedan, refused to collect the money because it came from taxpayers.

His daughter disputed accounts that her father’s spirit was broken by the demolition, saying he was happy-go-lucky until the end of his life. “He would never waste his time being hung up on something that didn’t come to fruition from the past,” she said.

These days, Mr. Bullard’s beloved stretches of Coney Island are recovering from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy. While the boardwalk has been repaired and debris swept away, there are still chain-link fences walling off dangerous sections and the New York Aquarium has curtailed the number of exhibits open to the public.

Today, if Mr. Bullard were to saunter just outside of the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway terminal, to the intersection of Surf Avenue and Stillwell, he might see private investment that’s been a success.

Some plans are still like the wisps of cotton candy spun alongside the amusement rides, waiting for more development. But at that corner, Thor Equities has constructed a $9 million, 15,000-square-foot, one-story building to house several new shops. It was nearly complete before Hurricane Sandy came ashore on Oct. 29, according to Joseph J. Sitt, Thor’s chief executive.

Today, though, the building, whose glittering sign features the grinning vaudevillian that is Coney Island’s unofficial mascot, is nearly full, with stores having leased six of its seven berths. The stores are a mix of seasonal and year-round retail, and the building can be expanded to six stories.

The candy chain It’Sugar, where Sour Patch Kids can be scooped for $2.99 a quarter-pound, has taken a long-term lease for a 2,000-square-foot corner space, paying $140 a square foot, according to Mr. Sitt.

The Nets Shop by Adidas, selling the N.B.A. team’s black-and-white tank tops and other basketball gear, sits at the opposite corner of the building, with a comparable rent, Mr. Sitt said. Four other tenants, some of whom have yet to move in, are renting space averaging about $15 a foot under short-term leases for the summer season. Average asking rents along Surf Avenue are about $40 a square foot, according to Coldwell Banker Reliable.

Among those seasonal leaseholders are Coney Island Convenience, stocking beach paraphernalia like inflatable toys in a 2,500-square-foot space; and Wampum, a skateboard shop that started in Bridgehampton, N.Y., in 2011.

“This place definitely has a different feel than the Hamptons,” said Marley Ficalora, a Wampum partner, who said he had never visited Coney Island until last winter. “But we think it is really turning around, and we want to be a part of it.”

Signs of the intensive efforts that got Coney Island and other beachfront amusement areas up and running for the summer season are everywhere.

In fact, Nathan’s, the Surf Avenue hot dog landmark shuttered by the hurricane — the first time it had ever closed since it opened in 1916 — resumed serving its well-known fare on May 19.

Mr. Sitt grew up in nearby Gravesend, and the commercial building development is his first project in the area since he began snapping up properties there a decade ago. At one time he owned 12.5 acres, but sold seven acres, mostly along the boardwalk, to the city in 2009 for $95.6 million.

The same year, the city rezoned the neighborhood, increasing the size of the amusement area to 27 acres. Since then, two new amusement parks have opened: Luna Park, in 2010, and Scream Zone, in 2011, joining the existing Deno’s Wonder Wheel park. The New York City Economic Development Corporation says that visitors to the two new parks reached 2.6 million. This spring, the city cut the ribbon on Steeplechase Plaza, at the boardwalk and West 19th Street, whose centerpiece is a refurbished carousel.

Mr. Sitt said he wanted to build hotels, stores and movie theaters on his remaining parcels, which cluster near Surf Avenue, but is awaiting new sewer lines The city has pledged $130 million for sewer improvements, the economic development agency said.

Mr. Sitt suggested that the rezoning didn’t go far enough, adding that hotel operators would need zoning changes to support larger venues like halls for wedding receptions to keep business going in the off-season.

Mr. Sitt called his new building merely a placeholder, to generate revenue to cover the property’s taxes, and said the strip “needs to look aesthetically nice, even during the interim phase.”

In the meantime, the project is welcoming neighbors. A two-level Applebee’s restaurant, with an enormous fish tank, opened this week in a converted space at 1217 Surf Avenue.

The dirt lot at 1223 Surf Avenue, next to the subway station, will soon feature a 15,000-square-foot two-level building featuring several restaurants. Johnny Rockets, the burgers-and-fries chain, will take 6,000 square feet on the ground floor, said Natan Bukai, the building’s developer.

Red Mango, the frozen yogurt chain, will occupy 2,000 square feet, also on the ground, he added. Another 2,000-square foot ground-floor berth remains open, but it is being marketed in combination with a 5,000-square-foot second-floor space, which also has a large terrace.

Tenants who have been approached so far include chains like Hooters, as well as Tilted Kilt, whose waitresses wear red tartan miniskirts and matching bras; Bareburger, an organic chain, has also shown interest, said Mr. Vitacco, the commercial agent.

Three years ago, Mr. Bukai bought the parcel from Mr. Bullard for $1.4 million; he’s spending another $1 million on it.

“He finally let it go,” he said, “and we’re glad.”

Mr. Vitacco also pointed to the new signs of development, recalling how he and Mr. Bullard swapped e-mails even in the final months before he died on April 9.

“He would have liked things to move faster, but his vision will become the reality. I only wish that he could see his dream come to fruition,” Mr. Vitacco said.

“His dream did not vanish,” he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/realestate/commercial/as-coney-island-stirs-one-mans-vision-is-unbuilt.html?hp&pagewanted=print