Late on the afternoon of Jan. 24 the Westchester County Board of Legislators received a briefing on the situation surrounding the county’s Playland Amusement Park in Rye. The county had received a formal notice from the park’s manager Standard Amusements that it was terminating the management contract it has with the county and that the county breached the contract.
A substantial part of the Board of Legislators’ meeting was conducted in executive session, meaning that what was said is not for public consumption. According to the agenda for the board’s Committee of the Whole meeting, appearing before the legislators were members of the county’s law department including County Attorney John Nonna, Chief Deputy County Attorney Stacey Dolgin-Kmetz , and Assistant Chief Deputy County Attorney Justin Adin.
During the open portion of the meeting, Nonna brought the legislators up to date on what has happened. He said that in November Standard Amusements had initially notified the county that they wanted to terminate the management contract and that the county was in default. After the county received Standard’s formal letter of Jan. 21 saying they are, indeed, terminating the contract, the county responded saying that it is Standard, not the county, which is in default.
The legislators were told that the county gave Standard 30 days to cure its default and operate the park.
Sources tell the Business Journal that Standard Amusements is seeking $57 million from the county, claiming that the contract provides for such a payment.
Sources say that the county has retained an accounting firm to conduct an audit and determine whether Standard made the investments in the park that it was required to make under the management contract.
Late on Jan. 24, Standard released a statement saying, “For over a decade, we have tirelessly worked to revitalize Playland and restore it as a special place for residents and visitors for generations to come. We are proud of the progress we made towards achieving our vision, including improving rides and attractions, engaging local artists to enhance the park with their creativity, establishing new traditions through robust community programming, launching a seasonal ferry service, and much more to create dynamic opportunities and memorable experiences for our community.”
Standard said that the county did not meet its obligations in the way of required construction to complete improvements to the park.
“Despite spending over $150 million of taxpayer money — already surpassing their $125 million budget intended to cover completion of the entire project — the county has proven incapable and is nowhere near done,” Standard said. “Accordingly, our contract, negotiated over the course of nearly a year with the assistance of a federal judge, was carefully structured with contractual deadlines for construction to ensure our extensive renovation plan stayed on track.”
Standard said that the contract had a detailed formula for determining how much money the county would owe Standard if the county failed to meet specified deadlines.
“The county, by its own admission, failed to meet those deadlines, over and over again, despite our consistent flexibility and patience, including a blanket one-year extension on all of their project deadlines,” Standard said. It also said it has tried to work with the county to unwind their relationship in an orderly and responsible way.
“These offers have thus far been ignored. It is not apparent to us how the county, after squandering the months we have afforded them, will be ready to open Playland for the start of the season,” Standard said.
Standard Amusements accused the county of “wasting time and money trying to spin and misdirect the public.”
