The city opened a $2.3-million fieldhouse at Leon S. Kaiser Park, ending an almost decade-long renovation project that transformed the aging Coney Island playground on W. 29th Street into a state-of-the-art open space.
Officials unveiled the renovated fieldhouse, basketball and handball courts at a ribbon cutting on Oct. 4.
The fieldhouse features a new roof, community room, storage space and rest rooms.
The $2.1-million basketball courts were repaved, and given bleachers and lights for night play.
Kaiser Park was renovated in two phases beginning in 2002, when work was started on a new $3-million track field.
After it was completed in 2006, the Parks Department turned to the renovation of the fieldhouse, basketball and handball courts.
Park boosters said the renovations would bring even more visitors to the open space.
“The park has been well utilized but with the renovations we’ll get an increase in people,” said Rocco Brescia, the president of Friends of Kaiser Park, who pushed for the changes.
“The wait was well worth it,” he added.
This wasn’t Kaiser Park’s first face-lift. The park — which opened in the late 1930s, and is home to PS 239 — was renovated in 1985 and again in 1994, following damage from a winter storm.
Kaiser Park also grabbed headlines in August when a shootout there left one man dead.
