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Eat it: Nathan's Famous, the home of the annual hot dog eating contest and a Coney Island fixture since 1916, could be demolished if Mayor Bloomberg has his way.

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The city’s plans for turning Coney Island into a year round tourist destination may lead to the demolition of the world famous Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand.

That’s the main bombshell that The Brooklyn Paper discovered in the minutes after discovering the Bloomberg Administration’s unannounced release of a nearly thousand-page report on the impacts of its plans to create a new amusement park, hotels, other attractions and thousands of apartments in a wide swath of Coney Island.

The beloved frankfurter franchise — which has stood on the corner Surf and Stillwell avenues since 1916 — is a possible casualty of the controversial plan because it sits on land whose value could soar after a rezoning opens it up to development.

“[Nathan’s is] assumed to be replaced under the proposed actions with a new building, containing hotel, amusement, retail and enhancing uses,” according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which was posted online by the city on Friday afternoon, but not announced. A press release from the Department of City Planning is embargoed until Tuesday morning.

The report is the first step in the rezoning process towards enacting Mayor Bloomberg’s vision of a 27-acre indoor-outdoor amusement zone in the so-called “People’s Playground,” a vision that is complicated by the fact that the city must spend tens, if not hundreds, of millions in taxpayer money to acquire land in the area between the landmark Cyclone roller coaster and Keyspan Park.

The area’s principal landowner, Joe Sitt of Thor Equities, opposes the city plan, but is in stalled negotiations to sell his land to the city.

Before construction can begin, the project is reviewed and voted on by the local community board, Borough President Markowitz, City Planning and the City Council — a lengthy and often bitter process, especially in sweeping undertaking like this.

In the meantime, it is unclear what Coney Island will be like this summer. Sitt has raised rents along the Boardwalk, and, with Astroland closed, it is unclear whether there will be enough activity for the rag-tag collection of bar owners and other open-air vendors to pay the new rents.

Several sources familiar with city zoning changes thought this passage meant the fast food location would be susceptible to pressure from real-estate speculators who could now buy it to create a much-larger, and more profitable, structure on the site of the current two-story structure.

And Dick Zigun, the head freak at the Coney Island USA circus sideshow, said that’s the problem.

“They [the city] are not doing what they could do to preserve truly historic structures,” he said.

Due to the holiday, officials from the city and Nathan’s were not immediately available for comment. Late on Monday, The Brooklyn Paper receieved two e-mails from city officials that reiterated that it is not the city plan to tear down the Nathan’s restaurant, but merely to rezone the area to stimulate development.

Indeed, the Nathan’s company, which owns the iconic frank shack, could hold onto the site and develop it itself, one city official reminded.

And on Tuesday, The Paper received this statement from Nathan’s CEO Eric Gatoff: “We remain committed to Coney Island in the long-term and we fully intend to maintain our historic flagship restaurant at 1310 Surf Avenue. … As to the latest report issued by the City, we believe the information relating to Nathan’s Famous is being misinterpreted and that there is no intention to replace or demolish our flagship location.”

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

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