Coney Island

Thrill seekers and cotton-candy enthusiasts at Coney Island can look forward to seven extra years of revelry. Citing a need to compensate the neighborhood’s amusement operator, Zamperla USA, for damages sustained during Hurricane Sandy, the city will extend the operator’s lease agreement, the New York Post reported. [more]

1223 Surf Avenue (credit: PropertyShark)

One Brooklyn neighborhood’s trash is another’s treasure. The New York Daily News reported that a Coney Island landlord has actually reached out to restaurant chain Hooters in hopes of bringing it to the boardwalk just three months after a Park Slope landlord rejected the wing joint’s expression of interest in renting his property. What’s more: Whereas rumors of the chain’s interest sparked outrage in Park Slope, Coney Island officials are also working to lure the restaurant. [more]

Zamperla USA, the company tapped last week to be Coney Island’s new amusement park operator, is bringing Luna Park back to Brooklyn. Luna Park was the name of one of Coney Island’s four historic amusement parks; the original was there between 1903 and 1946. Zamperla’s new Luna Park will span three plots of land between the former Astroland site and Keyspan Park and will welcome an estimated 400,000 visitors for the first season, which opens Memorial Day weekend, Alberto Zamperla told his hometown newspaper in Italy. He takes over the site April 15 and plans to invest $24 million over three years. [Amusing the Zillion]

The city is nearing a deal with Zamperla USA, the American subsidiary of the Italian Zamperla Rides company, to operate the rides at Coney Island, after an ongoing saga to develop the historic amusement park. Other competitors for the role were Ripley’s Believe it or Not and Steel Pier. Although it’s unclear how far along the Zamperla and the city are in their agreement, the two parties are reportedly ironing out the details of their agreement.