Developers and others interested in re-imagining Playland Park in Rye have an additional month to submit formal proposals to Westchester County officials, who earlier this month made public data about the amusement park”™s operations.
The county has extended until 5 p.m. March 10 its deadline for responses to its request for proposals to “develop, manage, operate and maintain and/or propose other options for Playland Park.” The extension followed questions by prospective redevelopers about the park”™s performance submitted to officials in the nearly four months since Westchester issued the 35-page “Reinventing Playland Park for the 21st Century” on Aug. 27.
“We received a lot of questions, so we extended the time for us to give the answers to the questions, and because of that we extended the actual time of the RFP,” said Peter Tartaglia, director of marketing/public relations for Westchester County Parks.
Westchester wants to end Playland”™s annual losses by finding a redeveloper for 100 of the site”™s 280 acres. The 100 acres includes the Ice Casino indoor rink; the beach and Olympic-size pool; and the amusement park, which counts seven of its 50 rides and several Art Deco buildings as national historic landmarks.
The county has pledged to operate Playland through 2011.
Individuals and groups interested in redeveloping Playland are required to submit their proposals ”” five paper copies and one electronic PDF version on disc, identified by “Playland RFP” on the envelope ”” to William M. Mooney III, Esq., Senior Assistant to the County Executive, Office of the County Executive, Michaelian Office Building, 148 Martine Ave., White Plains, NY 10601.
Tartaglia said he and Mooney are coordinating how Westchester will review the proposals. A committee of county officials is expected to be convened, Tartaglia said, and possibly an advisory board of stakeholders. They include officials from Rye and the Westchester Children”™s Museum, whose plans to open at Playland late in 2011 have been on hold.
“The committee has not been set up because we don”™t know what we”™re going to receive, so we don”™t want to jump the gun,” Tartaglia said. “It”™s a long process. As soon as we know that something is going to be happening, we”™ll start moving forward.”
To date no proposals have been submitted, Tartaglia said, pending county answers to the questions submitted by prospective redevelopers, made public Dec. 17 in a 21-page “Response to Questions” available on the Business Opportunities page of the county”™s website (www.westchestergov.com/rfp).
Highlights of the Response to Questions:
- Attendance ”” Amusement Park attendance has fallen by half since 2005, from just over 1 million visitors that year to 494,766 visitors this year. Beach and pool attendance also slipped during that time, from 76,656 to 62,886. The Ice Casino drew an estimated 135,000 visitors this year, 36 percent above the 98,974 recorded in ”™05.
- Annual losses ”” Playland Park was projected in the third quarter to have lost $3.2 million this year, an improvement from the roughly $4.6 million loss of 2009. The beach and pool lost an additional projected $291,336 this year, compared with $309,034 last year. The Ice Casino finished in the black both years, at $72,028 profit in ”™10 compared with $58,274 in ”™09.
- Staff ”” Total positions at the amusement park dropped steadily from 59 in 2005 to 43 this year. The beach and pool have had a total of seven employees since 2007, up from four in 2005 and 2006. The Ice Casino had six employees this past season, compared with a high of seven in 2005 and a low of four in 2009.
