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Story by Tricia Vita Photos by Bruce Handy
 In January, Zamperla President and CEO Alberto Zamperla thrilled the amusement world with the news that his company’s soon-to-be built amusement park in Coney Island, New York, would be called Luna Park. The first, the only, the inimitable Luna was created by IAAPA Hall of Famers Frederic Thompson and Elmer “Skip” Dundy in 1903. Renowned as “The Electric Eden” for its millions of light bulbs, fantasy architecture, and “Trip to the Moon” attraction, it inspired Luna Parks throughout the country and around the world, including Italy, where “Luna Park” is a generic term for amusement park.
 Four months later, on the eve of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, technicians were about to test the high-tech LED lights of the new park’s magnificent gate. The Surf Avenue entrance pays homage to the whimsical gate of the original Luna Park, but the journey from choosing the name to turning those lights on was a race against the clock.
For seven weeks, Zamperla’s construction crews worked 20-hour shifts to finish the park for Memorial Day weekend. Coney Island’s first new amusement park in nearly 50 years was almost ready to welcome visitors. The giant pinwheels and crescent moons, hoisted into place just a few days earlier, now flashed and spun, displaying dazzling patterns and animations. “It was really fun to watch how cars stopped, the train slowed down, and the faces were at the windows of the subway cars,” says historian Charles Denson, who runs the Coney Island History Project under the legendary “Cyclone” roller coaster. “To see those lights once again in Coney Island was mesmerizing.”
The reborn Luna Park has 18 brand-new Zamperla rides highlighted by the prototype Air Race, as well as a Reverchon water flume, food kiosks, games, and live entertainment. While it maintains Coney Island’s tried-and-true “open gate,” the park introduces a cashless midway via scannable cards and wristbands. For New York City officials, residents, and amusement operators alike, the new park is viewed as the first step in the neighborhood’s revitalization.
“Today is an incredible day for Coney Island,” said Valerio Ferrari, president of Zamperla subsidiary Central Amusement International, at the park’s opening ceremony on Memorial Day weekend. “Luna Park is a world-class amusement park that pays tribute to the birthplace of the amusement industry, while keeping alive Coney Island’s tradition of innovation.”
How the New Luna Park Came About
The 100-day challenge began in February when Central Amusement International (CAI) won the request for proposal for a 10-year lease to build and operate the park for the City of New York, which had purchased 6.9 acres of land in Coney Island’s amusement zone for $95.6 million. “This is a unique moment in time for Coney Island, to bring it back to life in a 21st-century way,” said Lynn Kelly, president of the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC), at a special information session for prospective bidders at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2009 in Las Vegas.
Ferrari, who is president of both CAI and Zamperla’s United States branch, says the idea of coming to Coney Island began to take shape more than a year ago, after Kelly invited him to be on the CIDC’s Amusement Advisory Board and participate in a charrette about interim amusements for summer 2010. “We decided to put together a small team to start working on a business plan for Coney Island,” he says. One of his principal team members was Fernando Velasquez, the new general manager of Luna Park, who formerly managed CAI’s Victorian Gardens in New York City’s Central Park as well as Minitalia Leolandia in Italy. “I also hired Beau Berni, who comes from the family who owns Canobie Lake, a young guy with a lot of experience,” Ferrari says. Berni and David Galst, the latter also a Victorian Gardens veteran, are the operations managers of the new park.
Ferrari credits Denson’s book “Coney Island: Lost and Found” with familiarizing him with Luna Park and its technological wonders. “Once we began studying the ‘park of the lights,’ it fit in with what we were trying to do. I shared that with Mario Boifava, Zamperla’s art director, and Alberto Zamperla, and they agreed it was the best name.”
A Source of Innovation Once Again
 “Our intention is to have the latest rides that we develop in our park,” says Ferrari, who points to the Air Race, a prototype designed by Mega Disk’O creator Gianbattista Zambelli. The thrill ride, which sends riders upside down at up to 4 gforces, made its world debut in Coney Island.
“Coney Island was once the amusement manufacturing capital of the world,” says Denson, citing Illions Carousel Works and the William F. Mangels factory, as well as the artisans, electricians, and machinists whose shops lined West 8th Street. “With the arrival of Zamperla, Coney Island is once more a showroom and a laboratory for new and exciting amusements and will once again have the best and newest rides.”
One of Coney Island’s historic rides that inspired a modern counterpart in the new park is “The Tickler.” Considered the world’s first thrill ride, it was designed by Coney Island inventor William F. Mangels and debuted in Luna Park in 1907. “It was amazing that they were trying to do a spinning coaster in the early 1900s, with the barrel going down the wooden track,” says Ferrari. Zamperla’s spinning coaster model, the Twister, was renamed “The Tickler” in Mangels’ honor. The ride also offers a tip of the hat to Steeplechase Park’s George C. Tilyou by having a funny face emblazoned on the side of the cars.
Among the other rides in the new park is the Discovery pendulum swing, renamed the “Eclipse” and themed with Luna Park’s pinwheel and crescent moon logo. A kid-size water flume called “Mermaid Parade” after Coney Island’s famed art parade was rethemed with mermaid-shaped seats. The most photogenic ride is the flying carousel, dubbed “Lynn’s Trapeze” in honor of CIDC’s Kelly. Its center pole is graced with historic images of Coney Island.
A Major Project
“The easiest part was putting the rides together; the most difficult part was all the infrastructure and coordinating the different trades that needed to come together all at the same time,” Ferrari says. “We had 11 different consultants— architects, engineers, expeditors, project manager, environmental, electrical …”
The new Luna Park’s neighbors include landmarks “Cyclone” and “Wonder Wheel,” New York Aquarium, Coney Island Sideshow, and other thriving independently owned and operated attractions, which enjoyed a 30 to 40 percent increase in business on the opening weekend of the new park. Carol Hill Albert, the operator of the “Cyclone” roller coaster, is effusive in her praise of the new Luna Park: “The fabulous Italian flair for design is bringing a new energy and sophistication to Coney’s amusement park tradition, and the giant crowds are testament to how thrilled everyone is.” Dennis Vourderis, whose family owns Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, is equally enthusiastic: “A rising tide raises all ships, and in the last decade we have seen a new baseball stadium, a new train station, and now a new amusement park. We are seeing more first-time visitors, and getting more repeat visits from loyal customers.”
The new facility is directly across the street from the original Luna Park and was built on the 3-acre site of the former Astroland Park, which closed in 2008.
“We got 200 inspections from the building department to prove how good we built this park, how safe it’s going to be,” Alberto Zamperla told NY1 News in a half-hour special on Luna Park. “My company, my family has been working in this field for more than 100 years. We’re going to bring new thrills, bring new action that’s going to change everything around here.”
Mutually Beneficial Municipal Relationship
The new Luna Park is a partnership with the City of New York, which receives $100,000 annual rent plus a percentage of the gross; the arrangement represents a newmodel for government- owned amusement parks, which are a rarity. The city purchased the land to ensure the preservation of the amusement area in perpetuity but did not want to run the park as Westchester County-owned Rye Playland is; nor did public officials consider nonprofit models like Children’s Fairyland in Oakland, California. The city invested more than $6.6 million to support the opening of Luna Park, while CAI will invest $30 million over the next two summers to build and operate Luna and the new Scream Zone, set to open next year.
Scream Zone is a thrill park to be built on the city’s 3-acre parcel on the Boardwalk at Stillwell, two blocks from Luna. Plans call for two Zamperla coasters, plus a SlingShot vertical thrill ride and go-karts, designed to appeal to teens.
“Next year we’re also going to take over 11 businesses on the boardwalk. It’s a case-by-case scenario. We’re going to study what they’re doing and try to improve the operation,” says Ferrari, who hopes to keep the edgy authenticity of Coney Island. “But at the same time I think we can clean it up and have it be more professional with better services and better product.
“We look forward to welcoming back the countless people throughout the world who have visited Coney Island in the past, and to creating incredible new memories for the millions we will welcome for the first time in the coming years.”
Tricia Vita is a New York-based writer who frequently covers Coney Island. She can be reached at hello@triciavita.com.
Bruce Handy is a Coney Island resident.
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