First The Thunderbolt, Now Coney Island Might Be Getting A Water Park?
Why see the world when you’ve got the (fake) beach?
Just on the heels of news that construction is underway on the new iteration of beloved Coney Island roller coaster The Thunderbolt, we also get news that we’re one step closer to living out our dream of playing in a urine-tained wave pool while gazing out at actual, urine-tainted ocean waves. In other words, Coney may be getting a water park.
Brooklyn Paper reports that “Italian-born amusement tycoon Alberto Zamperla” (!)—the same guy whose company is behind the Thunderbolt—is in talks with the family of late Coney Island real estate tycoon Horace Bullard (!!) to turn some of their considerable property holdings along Surf Ave. into a water park (or “slippery funzone,” as Brooklyn Paper puts it).
The plans are still very much in their infancy (“It’s in the very primary stages, we don’t want to mention anything yet,” said an official from Zamperla), but one broker told the paper, “It can be anything as long as it fits the zoning — and that means amusements or food.” Other than our qualms about wasting that much water when you could just walk 100 feet to the actual ocean, this sounds like a pretty fantastic plan. And anyway, much better than casinos.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
