PRIVATIZING PLAYLAND: Rob Astorino's $25 Million Joke on Westchester?

Continued from Part 1...

If you love Playland and you hate to see the condition it’s been allowed to descend into, and/or you’ve bought into the Astorino sound bite Kool-Aid of a “failing Park” that’s a multi-million dollar drain on the County (and THAT’S for an entire other Patch article all on its own, so stay tuned), and then someone told you they wanted to walk into the Park with $25 million to fix things and run it better you’d jump up and down and think that was pretty terrific wouldn’t you? I know that was *my* intitial reaction. But as we’ve heard time and again, the Devil is in the Details and here is where the Devil comes out.

The 1998 engineering study for the Colonnades project estimates the cost at close to $8 million. I’m not sure where the $10 million Legislators were referencing at the meeting comes from, it sounds like this was revisted since 1998 around seven years ago and at that time estimated to be $10 million, so I’ll just go with what I found concretely in the report and low ball it at $8 million. We all know full well that it would now cost substantially more. But that’s not the end of it. There is also a 2009 study on OTHER Capital Improvement projects to small buildings...and THOSE numbers come out to around $28-$30 million. No doubt THOSE costs would be more today for the same reasons: inflation and six more years of deterioration. So, let’s just low ball it at $36 million total and understand it would realistically be substantially more. A more likely and realistic estimate is probably in excess of $50 million, possibly upwards of that to be closer to $75 million because there can be no doubt that in all the time since they did those two reports and certainly the last five and a half years under Astorino of NO money being spent on the Park...more Capital Improvement projects have become necessary. And NONE of it has been done.

Okay, so, remember the crash helmets and seat belts? Now get out your personal flotation device. What’s come out in the meetings as I have continually asked for a list of exactly what Standard’s $25 million is going to cover and what it’s NOT going to cover is... that Standard isn’t going to pay for ANY of those projects, because it’s the COUNTY’S responsibility as the property owner and Landlord. It’s not in their contract that as the Operator they have to cover any of those fixes. Basically, their $25 million is going to pay for paint (ahhhh...but we’re not sure about who is responsible for the lead paint and asbestos abatement costs that will kick in...and if you think THAT’S not a major issue throughout the Park, ask the Childrens’ Museum folks how much that added to their costs when fixing up the North Bathhouse). Their $25 million won’t pay for any restoration. It will pay for some new signs, and a couple of new rides and maybe some repaving of the asphalt sidewalks inside the Park. Cosmetics and ONLY cosmetics. That’s all great, and yes, sure it’s a big help, and I pick up dog poop for a living so I’m not one to sneeze at $25 million, but guess who still has to pay for all the rest of the things that need to be fixed? That’s right kids, you, me and your neighbor next door. County residents. And if it all doesn’t get fixed, this whole thing will never be a successful venture and the Historic Landmark that we own will never get RESTORED. It will continue to crumble.

Okay, sorry to do this to you, but here’s where you’re going to need your oxygen masks, ‘cause it’s going dowwwwn. (Remember to put yours on first before assisting the person sitting next to you!). The contract stipulates that Standard will recoup their entire $25 million investment, and then proceed to retain 92.5% of any profits that come in. They are quite confident this will only take a few short years. So, we get a 7.5% profit share and $300k a year in “rent” from them.

“Ooooh, $300k a year and profit sharing? That sounds pretty good!” you might be saying. Until you think about this: we don’t know when the profit sharing will kick in, some folks posit that we will never see a penny of it, and the Park can pull in $300k on a good weekend. So in a nutshell, they get all their money back, then they make a killing on the place while we spend at least twice as much money to meet our obligations to fix things, and we essentially have no way to recoup any of the money we invest in the Park doing that because we’ve handed 92.5% of the profits over to them. We will be subsidizing a bunch of wealthy investors who will be laughing all the way to the bank. And somehow, this is the financial solution to take the expenses of Playland off the County’s plate? We will always continue to have financial obligations there. ALWAYS. There will always be County obligations for operational and infrastructure expenses because we own the property.

I’m still scratching my head trying to figure that one out. I’ll bet you are now too.

Question: If roles were reversed, do you think savvy business people like those behind Standard Amusements would sign a contract with those terms?

I know I wouldn’t.

For the Standard Contract, and the Capital Improvements Projects reports from 1998 & 2009 as well the Biederman Report and other Playland related info you can visit this link and scroll down to where it lists “Playland Improvement Plan” links.

To watch videos of the various review meetings, visit this link

For info about the Public Hearing being held this coming Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 7pm in Rye City Hall visit this link

For timely updates on this issue please visit and ”like” the Friends Of Playland page on Facebook ”