Hollywood sees something in Coney Island’s oldest building that Thor Equities doesn’t.
The Grashorn Building on Surf Avenue between Jones Walk and W. 12th Street, rumored to be on the development company’s demolition hit-list, is being leased by the “Men in Black III” production team, who will use it as its location headquarters when it films in Coney from May 2 to May 6.
The news, first reported by the blog Amusing the Zillion, received raves from the Coney faithful.
“Perhaps the movie will show that the building has great commercial potential,” said Dick Zigun, whose Sideshows by the Seashore is located right down the block.
The flick, which stars Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin as alien-fighting secret agents, will also feature shots of the Boardwalk, Wonder Wheel Park and the stretch of Surf Avenue near Jones Walk where the Grashorn Building sits. The set is getting a retro makeover, as Will Smith’s “Agent J” travels back in time to 1969 to stop a villain from kiling Josh Brolin’s “Agent K.” Coney Island characters and shopkeepers are also being cast as extras.
With the dilapidated 120-plus-year-old building being revamped for a the five-day shoot, rumors are circulating that Thor will spare the Grashorn from the wrecking ball and lease it to a permanent business. Thor never obtained a demolition permit for the building, but has already demolished the nearby Bank of Coney Island, the Shore Hotel and Henderson’s Music Hall to make way for a one-story building with food joints and carnival games. But the construction hasn’t begun, as the city hasn’t approved the building plans.
The Men in Black III lease is one of the few bright spots of Thor’s tenure as a Coney landlord.
Thor Equities owner Joe Sitt spent much of the last decade — and about $100 million — assembling parcels all over the amusement area of Coney Island. He sold more than half of that land to the city in 2009 for $95.6 million, retaining several key acres surrounding the city’s planned amusement areas.
Since then, he has done little to rebuild, and played a roll in the closing down of Astroland Amusement Park and other attraction like batting cages, racecars and bumper boats.
His failed attempts to bring in foot traffic to Coney Island include the 2009 “Festival by the Sea,” a flea market on Stillwell Avenue, a five-day circus, and a collection of rides that didn’t last the full summer.
This May, Thor will attempt another comeback of sorts with a new market, dubbed the BK Festival, which will bring to Coney a flea market that once set up shop at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, a neighboring borough.
The Grashorn Building, named for community leader Henry Grashorn, was erected in the 1880s, predating Coney’s amusement parks. It housed a hardware store for more than 60 years, but has recently fallen into disrepair. Zigun’s Coney Island USA nominated the Grashorn for landmark status more than a year ago, but the city turned down the application, according to Zigun.
Thor Equities declined to comment on its post-production plans for the Grashorn but confirmed Men in Black’s month-long lease.
