Randalls Island Water Park

[BigMac]

New York Daily News
January 11, 2006

Making waves

Some pols fear water park may swamp Randalls Isle

BY DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF


Proposed water park on Randalls Island

The city is quietly pushing plans to build a massive, Six Flags-style water park on Randalls Island - complete with wave pools, slides, a manmade "adventure river" for rafters and even an indoor, year-round "beach club."
The $168 million theme park, which would be paid for by a private developer under a 35-year lease with the city, faces a critical hurdle today before the city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee.

But the park - which was proposed originally in 1999 by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani at 12 acres - is drawing concern because of its swelling size, now set at 26 acres.

"It's as if this project has evolved from a wading pool into a tidal wave on the East River," said Jeff Simmons, a spokesman for city Controller William Thompson, who has a seat on the FCRC and is expected to vote against the project at today's meeting. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer also is expected to vote against the project, citing concerns about its size. Still, it is believed the mayor has enough votes on the board to pass the measure.

In addition to the 7-acre indoor beach club, the park - which was approved by the City Council in 2004 - would include 19 acres of outdoor water slides and rides, with additional space required for 1,800 new parking spots.

City officials hope to cut the ribbon for the park, where an all-day ticket will cost $25 for kids and $30 for adults, by Memorial Day 2007.

Ten of the island's 29 baseball fields would have to be bulldozed, but officials said yesterday that new fields would be created as quickly as possible.

Some of the proposed water slides would tower more than 80 feet over the adjacent East River, making it a highly visible addition to the area's skyline.

City Planning Department officials estimate the park could draw up to 1.3 million visitors a year, most of them between Memorial Day and Labor Day. A year-round swim academy could teach hundreds of kids a year to swim.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe yesterday defended the water park as an economic engine that could provide $1 million a year in new tax revenues for city parks, as well as a place for kids to escape the heat.

"As it is now, children from the surrounding neighborhoods have to travel 2-1/2 hours each way to get to a comparable facility," said Benepe, referring to the Hurricane Harbor water park at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.

Today's FCRC meeting is required so the Parks Department can begin negotiations with the New York-based Aquatic Development Group to design, construct and operate the proposed park. The company is considered a leading designer of water parks, with clients ranging from Disney to Six Flags.

"Pools, lagoons, geysers with bubbles, lazy rivers, raft rides - there's nothing you can imagine that we can't create," boasts the company's Web site.

All contents © 2006 Daily News, L.P.

[MidtownGuy]

Randalls Island water park plan clears hurdle

January 11, 2006, 6:20 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) _ Randalls Island could go underwater.

The city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee voted Wednesday to clear negotiations for a proposed $168 million water park on the island below the Triborough Bridge.


The committee still must sign off on any agreement reached between the city Department of Parks and Recreation and the would-be developer, the New York-based Aquatic Development Group.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, a proponent of the plan, said he was pleased with the news.

"We've been working on a master plan for Randalls Island for probably the last 10 years, little by little, and this is the last piece," he said.

But opponents of the plan complained that it has expanded substantially since then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani proposed a 12-acre facility back in 1999. The current plan covers 26 acres of the island, including a 7-acre parcel for a year-round indoor beach club.

City Comptroller William Thompson said he supported development of the island but questioned the bidding process and the scope of development. He complained that the city should have tried to lure additional bidders once the expansion of the plan became clear.

"It is inappropriate to authorize a sole source negotiation on the water park because other firms have not had the opportunity to submit proposals on its significantly expanded scope," Thompson argued before casting a no vote.

The panel passed the proposal 4-2. If the plan passes the next step, city officials could open the water park by Memorial Day 2007.

The 273-acre island is home to a variety of sports fields, the new Icahn Stadium for track and field, a driving range and a tennis center.

[Ninjahedge]

It looks like it could be fun and interesting, but having a waterslide in NYC?


I don't getthe feeling of "amusement park" when I hang out around Randals. I think it would have been better used around Coney Island and the area. I just don't think they had enough contiguous area to be able to make a park that big......


Oh well.

[antinimby]

How does one get onto Randalls Island?

[NIMBYkiller]

Triboro Bridge.

I love this idea and I can't wait to see it open. I wish this was around a few years ago so I could've had a cool summer job. I agree though, it should be at Coney Island if there's room.

[Ninjahedge]

Better to have a water park near the beach, no matter how ironic that is.....

(I always get a kick out of those parks in Jersey. All they need is a "wave pool" and they could not get more absurd.. )

[CMANDALA]

You would be adjacent to Bronx Kills, which can become quite fragrant in summer. On the Bronx shore you have waste transfer stations and a railyard full of stinking garbage containers.

Apart from either walking to the park (not easy) or taking the M35 bus, the majority of visitors would be forced to use their cars. This means paying the TBB toll as they enter and depart. Add those fees to a probable parking lot charge.

It sure isn't Coney.

[MrSpice]

What's amazing is that in Russia subway in both St Petersburg and Moscow has been wired for cell phones for several years now. When I was in St Petersburg in June, I saw many people talking on their cell phones inside the trains. And in New York - the capital of the world - we are still debating whether this is necessary or feasable. This subway of ours is so behind...

[NIMBYkiller]

Psst...wrong thread, lol

About the water park, I'm sure new bus services can be started to reach the park. I know that if I start Island Transit here in the LI area, then I'd definately have service there.

I wonder if it'd be possible to have a Metro North stop there. After all, MN has been pushing to run service via the Hell Gate to NYP for New Haven line service.

[Scruffy88]

totally for the idea. I hung out on randalls island and wards and there is nothing there. could be developed to be fantastic. There is a direct exit to it from the highway. which bridges to three boroughs directly. You can walk there via the 125 st bridge or the 100th street pedestrian bridge (summer only) this is a good idea. in my oppinion they should take a couple steps further and build a full scale amusement park. if they use the whole island, they have more than enough land for it. Just get rid of the mental hospital. the firefighter training center can stay. thats already seperated by the overhead amtrak viaduct.

[TranspoMan]

The Randall's Island Sports Foundation developed a master plan to redevelop portions of Randall's and Wards Islands in 1999. I believe the first project to be completed as part of this plan was the track and field stadium, located on the former site of Downing Stadium. The water park was included in the master plan.

http://www.risf.org/projects2.html

[pianoman11686]

New NYC water park to include indoor beach

(New York-AP, February 12, 2006) - A visit to the Big Apple always promised a great adventure: Times Square, Coney Island, the Empire State Building. There was never a need for some trumped-up theme park in the land of Trump himself.

Until now.
In the latest bit of suburban creep into the nation's largest city, a family-themed water park is due before summer 2007 on a piece of Randalls Island parkland at the juncture of the East and Harlem Rivers, under the vast Triborough Bridge.

The city hopes to lure more than 1.3 million visitors a year to the $168 million attraction that will boast water slides rising 80 feet into the skyline.

So are the five boroughs going Six Flags? A little bit, yes. And not everybody is pleased.

"The citizens of New York like the Brooklyn Bridge," said Billy Tallen, a performance artist who's waged a long (and losing) battle against New York's commercialization. "The consumers prefer the water parks. We insist on being citizens, not consumers."

The water park is just the latest indignity for Tallen and others who fondly recall the corner tavern, the mom and pop drugstore, the local coffee shop. These days, it's more likely a Starbucks (159 locations in the city) or a TGIFriday's (a dozen spots, including one on 42nd Street near the Red Lobster). Last year, a 7-Eleven opened on Park Avenue South at 23rd Street - the first new Manhattan franchise for the 24-hour stores since 1982.

"And Coney Island is going to be turned into another suburban development," said Tallen, fearful of an $83 million redevelopment plan announced last year for the colorful Brooklyn beachfront.

The taming of Times Square is a fait accompli, with adult entertainment emporiums like Peepland and Show World giving way to kid-friendly fare and a comedy club. And "The Shops at Columbus Circle" is a highfaluting name for a (gasp!) mall, with outlets for J. Crew and Sephora.

But city officials and developers portrayed the 26-acre water park - an unlikely attraction in an unlikely location - as more boon than bane for both the citizens and consumers of New York.

"This is good news," said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, one of the park's boosters. "It has a potential to be a huge draw. We hope to be building a park for the 21st century on Randalls Island."

The water park, designed by the New York state-based Aquatic Development Group, is a virtual done deal. The city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee must still sign off on a proposed 35-year lease with Aquatic Development, but all the other steps in the process are finished. The site is easily reachable by car, bus or footbridges.

And so New Yorkers will now have access to an amenity previously found only in locations like Scotrun, Pa., or Mason, Ill., or Grapevine, Texas.

The New York attraction will include wave pools, action rivers and wading pools, and plenty of slides. A seven-acre indoor beach will give New Yorkers a year-round attraction; Coney Island, in contrast, is strictly seasonal (except to those twisted Polar Bear Club swimmers who take an annual winter dip in the Atlantic).

According to David Sangree, a water park consultant and president of Hotel & Leisure Advisors, the vast majority of the nation's 71 water parks are located far from urban centers.

Wisconsin, with 30, is the state with the most water parks.

The New York facility would operate under unique circumstances. The new breed of water parks are typically attached to hotels, with admission reserved for guests only. The New York operation, since it's on city parkland, will work with day passes and without a hotel.

It took seven years for the city to take the plunge on the water park. The plan was proposed in 1999 by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a 12-acre facility. Seven years later, under the Bloomberg administration, the light at the end of the water funnels is here.

Henry Stern, who spent two decades as parks commissioner, was less surprised by word of the burgeoning water park than most New Yorkers. He sorted through various proposals for Randalls Island, including a ski jump, while in office.

"Tennis courts, stadium, concert hall, golf course - people see land, and they want to build," Stern says. "They salivate."

Since its purchase from the local American Indians in 1637, Randalls Island served as a burial ground for the indigent, a home for juvenile delinquents, an asylum for alcoholics and a rest home for Civil War veterans. After the island was designated a city park in 1933, its high points came as a sports and concert venue.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the opening ceremonies for a stadium on the island. The Olympic trials were held as the first event, with Jesse Owens warming up for the Berlin Games with victories in the 100 meters and the long jump.

Pele played there as a member of the New York Cosmos in the 1970s. The Dave Matthews Band is one of the musical headliners who played there in recent years. And by next summer, several hundred thousands people will splash and slide their way around Randalls.

As for Stern, he offered another suggestion.

"I think it would be no problem if it was left alone," he said. "It's doesn't have to be a happening. It's an open space, an island in the heart of the city."

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

[Kris]

April 10, 2006
Randalls Island Water Park Set for Final Approval Vote
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS



New York City is moving closer toward opening a water park on Randalls Island — its filtered waters free of soot, gunk and industrial contaminants, and with the added benefit of chlorine.

The $168 million theme park, which will have 26 acres of water slides, wave pools and man-made rivers, is planned for the northwestern end of the East River island, where there are baseball and softball fields.

The plan is scheduled for a final vote tomorrow by the city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee, which is the park's final hurdle. The committee has given the project preliminary approval, and the water park has also gotten the go-ahead from the City Council.

"This will provide an attraction that doesn't exist in this area," said Adrian Benepe, the city's parks commissioner. He said the water park would be "in the middle of a metropolitan area of 20 million people."

Mr. Benepe said construction could start later this spring and be finished by Memorial Day 2008.

The city expects the theme park to attract about 1.4 million people a year, with a 19-acre outdoor section that will open only during summer handling most of the visitors.

Among the attractions will be head-first and feet-first slides and an artificial "lazy" river that people can float down. The year-round portion of the park will feature a two-story restaurant and what could be the world's largest indoor pool.

The agreement between the city and the developer, Aquatic Development Group Inc., would provide the company a 35-year lease on the property. Aquatic Development, based in Cohoes, N.Y.,would guarantee the city a base payment of $1 million annually, and payments could climb as high as $3 million or $4 million, according to the city, because the rate would be based on attendance figures. The money would be used to improve other parkland on Randalls Island.

The plan's critics include Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., who said the process has been flawed because the city originally sought bids in 1999 for a relatively small 12-acre, $40 million water park that would operate during summer only — less than half the size and one-quarter the cost of the current plan.

"It has morphed into a 26-acre theme park, and we have no way of knowing whether this is the best deal for the city because we don't know who else is interested," he said. Mr. Thompson, who also has raised questions about a past bankruptcy declaration by Aquatic Development Group, said that while he would continue to oppose the process, he would most likely be unable to force the city to reopen the bidding.

Park advocates are concerned about the city's leasing public land to a private company to subsidize the rest of the island's parkland, which they say has been inadequately cared for by the city.

"This deal is based solely on the city refusing to allocate proper resources to maintain the park," said Geoffrey M. Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, a private, nonprofit group. "Selling off public parkland to make up for these appalling shortfalls is certainly not the answer, and is a terrible precedent."

Other critics point to the daily price of admission — adults will be charged $37, children $30 — as a problem. Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, negotiated a deal with the developer last week that will allow discounts for some families and children during July and August to be as high as 45 percent, with smaller discounts the rest of the year.

Mr. Stringer said he had been concerned that not enough had been done to make the park accessible to residents of neighborhoods near Randalls Island, many of them poor, who use the island for picnics and to play baseball and softball.

"This could be a wonderful, fun, exciting New York experience," said Mr. Stringer. "I just want to make sure that everyone in the community gets a chance to enjoy it, and it's not based on income."

Richard J. Davis, chairman of the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, which operates the park, said even without discounts, the admission charge is in line with the area's other water parks.

"We want to make sure the community has access and can afford to go," he said. "Maybe it becomes a family event for once or twice per summer."

Aquatic Development Group, which operates similar water parks around the country, including parks in Ohio and Florida, has said it plans to establish a program in which as many as 2,000 local children a year will get free swimming lessons. The company did not return calls seeking comment.

While the idea of a water park is popular in the neighborhoods near the island, some residents who probably would not qualify for discounts said they wondered whether they could afford to go.

"They say they're helping us by putting it here, but they're really hurting us," said Ruisdael Cintron, 21, who lives in East Harlem. "How many people in this neighborhood can go and say, 'I need to cool off,' and pay $30, $35? It's not going to happen."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[NY_Yankees_1979]

Originally Posted by antinimby

How does one get onto Randalls Island?

The Triborough Bridge.

[BrooklynRider]

Wonder if the city hopes to use this to siphon off the low income factor from the beaches in summer to spur big beachfront development.