City fields proposals for Staten Island beach front

The city has issued a request for expressions of interest for Staten Island’s public beach fronts, in a move to reinvigorate the area after Superstorm Sandy.

Proposals for the locales — both Midland Beach and South Beach – are due today and could be set in motion as early as the summer of 2014, according to the blog Amusing the Zillion. The city’s plan mentions the possible inclusion of amusement rides, carnivals and stall-based amusements, at eight different sites.

Amusement park operators Big Mark’s Action Park and NY Carousel Entertainment, which operates two carousels in Queens’ Flushing Meadows and Forest Park, have recently eyed the sites in recent visits held by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the blog reported. Mark Zientek of Big Mark told Amusing the Zillion that “the beachfronts offer a lot of promise.”

On the Midland Beach Site Opportunity section, six concrete pads for amusement rides area already installed, along with electrical utilities. A pad for a concession buildings with an attached public restroom is also under constrction on the site.

A $330 million Ferris wheel project in Staten Island lost out on state funding from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s economic development program in December because it failed to provide any economic benefit, state officials said at the time. The New York Wheel was to rise 625 feet on the St. George’s waterfront. The City Council approved the wheel, as well as BFC Partners’ Empire Outlets mall project, in late October. [Amusing the Zillion] — Julie Strickland