Well that’s embarrassing!
After rudely giving them the boot, an Italian company tapped by the city to revive Coney Island will likely have to ask some longtime seaside businesses to come back — or risk a barren boardwalk, The Post has learned.
Zamperla USA had planned to replace seven boardwalk mainstays — including Ruby’s Bar and Grill — once their leases expire at the end of the month as part of a $5 million plan to create a more sanitized amusement strip. But a deal with a Miami Beach group to operate four sit-down eateries in the space appears to have fallen apart, sources said yesterday.
And now, some of the seven businesses are expected to be offered new leases of life.
Ruby’s, which was expected to shut down after 77 years in business on Oct. 29, and Paul’s Daughter, a four-decade-old food stand, are now among the likely candidates, sources said. They would have to agree to significant capital improvements, staying open year-round and filling new jobs locally.
“It’s not a done deal, but there could be an announcement very soon where at least some return,” said a source.
Michael Sarrel, the co-owner of Ruby’s, declined comment.
Zamperla had been in talks with Michele Merlo and Julio Gonzalez, who operate the Pelican Hotel in Miami, to run the four eateries. But the duo is now backing out because an ice cream parlor they opened on the boardwalk in July has been a huge bust, sources said.
Merlo told The Post that his ice cream business, Coney Cones, has been “very disappointing” — mostly because of bad weather over the summer.
Both he and Gonzalez said Coney Cones would return next summer but declined to comment on the rest of their boardwalk plans.
But two sources said Gonzalez and Merlo have been telling other boardwalk merchants they can’t make money off Zamperla’s existing lease offer and are backing out. This, they said, has left Zamperla scrambling to find new tenants for next summer.
The uncertainty of the boardwalk’s future seems to be an annual topic in Coney Island.
Before selling the boardwalk business space to the city in 2009 –along with the former Astroland site and other nearby tracts – developer Joe Sitt regularly flirted with shutting the businesses down.
After cutting the agreement with Sitt, the Bloomberg administration then handed Zamperla a 10-year lease to 6.2 acres of prime land.
Zamperla used most of it to open Luna Park and the Scream Zone.
But it also inherited control of 12 boardwalk stores. Nine were served with eviction papers last year.
Eight decided to fight the eviction proceedings in court. Facing an empty boardwalk this past summer, Zamperla cut a deal allowing seven of the businesses to come back for one last summer.
The popular “Shoot the Freak” game, however, was lost as part of the deal.