With casino developers no longer threatening to fundamentally alter the precious, singular, and enduring fabric of the neighborhood, the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island is set to receive a long-overdue makeover from the city.
When it arrives, the glow-up will come courtesy of the Parks Department, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and a whopping, checks notes, $1 billion in city funds designated by Mayor Eric Adams’ Office of Management and Budget, according to The City. The project, which has yet to be designed and will, no doubt, take many, many years to complete, is a late, but expansive, effort to address decades of calls from the community to repair the ailing wooden beams, concrete piles, and assorted support structures along the roughly 2.5 miles walkway looking out on the Atlantic, Staten Island, and The Rockaways at the borough’s most southern point. Also included is a plan to build 1,500 new apartments in the neighborhood and a proper renovation of the Abe Stark Sports Center between West 19th and West 20th on the boardwalk.
All of it sounds great, obviously, but it’ll be some time before any ground gets broken or sand gets shifted. The EDC will be putting out a call for designs at the top of next year, community input sessions are expected to begin in two years, and only after a design has been approved and the neighborhood itself gets a chance to weigh in will we get a construction timeline, which will presumably be broken up into phases to allow public access to the beach while the boardwalks gets its facelift.
This is a development story more than worth tracking, regardless of how much time you spend outside of Nathan’s any given summer. So hold tight for updates in the months ahead.
The post The Coney Island Boardwalk is Getting a Billion-Dollar Glow-Up appeared first on BKMAG.
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