For sale: One, 1960s-era, 275-foot-tall sightseeing tower, more than slightly used.
One week after selling Astroland Park to developer Joe Sitt, the family that runs the popular summer amusement area has offered the city a discount price on the Astrotower, a rotating, glass-enclosed elevator that lifts passengers to its 27-story-high top and pauses, giving sweeping views of the ocean.
The Albert family wants to keep 41-year-old ride in Coney so badly that it is willing to share relocation costs with the city.
The Alberts say an interested buyer has approached them about moving the Astrotower to a Southern theme park — but the family said it would prefer to make a deal with the city.
Historians said that the relic of the 1960s space craze could be worth big bucks to the maker of a retro-themed amusement park.
“It looks so straight out of 1963,” said Michael Immerso, author of “Coney Island, The People’s Playground.”
“It’s from a piece of a time when America was seeing the moon for the first time and [the world] was talking about getting to outer space.”
The ride isn’t protected as a landmark like the city-owned Cyclone or the independently owned Wonder Wheel, so if a buyer cannot be found, the tower will be bulldozed to make way for Sitt’s $2-billion two-hotel, retail, condo and restaurant complex.
Sitt owns 13 acres of property between West 10th and West 15 streets — almost the entire amusement district and some land that fronts the famed Boardwalk (see map, left).
