New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
New life on menu for eatery
BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006
The long-shuttered and graffiti-ridden Childs Restaurant in Coney
Island could be reopened as a seaside food court or upscale eatery,
the Daily News has learned.
Taconic Investment Partners signed a lease at the landmarked building
in August, and also plans to build housing and retail across from the
defunct restaurant.
"I think most people are happy with a restaurant coming in," said
Community Board 13 District Manager Chuck Reichenthal. "Every year
you find another street that didn't have a thing but is now the
new 'restaurant row.'"
In addition, a residential building with retail components is being
eyed for a 180,000-square-foot lot across W. 21st St. from Childs.
How high it will rise has not been determined, said Charles Bendit,
chief executive at Taconic.
No restaurant had been chosen for the landmarked terra cotta
building, Bendit said, but plans call for a food court, restaurant,
grocery store or catering hall.
The restaurant bid is the latest deal to hit Coney Island since
developer Thor Equities announced a $2 billion plan to add
residential, retail and entertainment to the area.
Until now, however, most of the redevelopment has hinged on glitzy
new rides, an indoor water park and a hotel in Coney Island's
amusement district - not food and housing.
Reichenthal declined to weigh in on the housing bid, except to say he
was opposed to a building that would tower over the parachute jump,
now the area's tallest structure.
"The feeling is that nothing should be taller than the parachute
jump, that that's the definitive height of the Coney Island amusement
district," Reichenthal said.
Bendit would not rule out the possibility that the new building could
be taller than the parachute jump.
Childs Restaurant, which opened the first of its nine cafeteria-style
diners in 1898, extended to Coney Island in 1922 and included rooftop
dancing, said Coney Island historian Michael Immerso.
"Certainly a venue that involves dancing in Coney Island would be
consistent with what Childs had in mind," Immerso said. "That would
restore something that was synonymous with Coney Island's early
days."
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