Sustainable Playland Holds Fundraiser at Coveleigh

More than 180 people turned out for a fund-raiser at Rye’s Coveleigh Country Club Friday night to help non-profit Sustainable Playland Inc. raise money to submit the best proposal money can buy to Westchester County to redevelop Rye’s Playland Amusement Park. 

The county’s deadline for RFPs (Requests for Proposals) to redevelop Playland is March 10.

Talk is cheap. And there are lots of Rye committees talking the talk about what to do about Playland. Especially in the face of possible commercial development by the likes of the Trumps, Icahns and Live Nations, bringing with them the un-Rye-like specter of residential towers, maybe even a casino, hotel and convention center, golf course, more.

But in Rye, only SPI is putting its money --$150,000 –where its collective mouth is so it can walk the walk by submitting a competitive proposal.

SPI says it will take $150,000 to submit an RFP to Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s office by Thursday, the deadline for all proposals to redevelop Playland.

So SPI staged its fund-raiser Friday  to help raise the money needed to submit a community based public- parkland solution for the evolution of Playland.

There were 150 RSVPs at $125 per person and more than 30 walk-ins who paid $175  apiece at Coveleigh's door to attend the informative fundraiser-cocktail reception that also included an auction for donated gifts that raised even more big bucks.

What attendees heard was that SPI would look at Playland in terms of zones along the lines established by New York City’s Central Park and Bryant Park, albeit on a smaller scale. 

So there would be an Educational Zone, a Great Lawn, a Transition Zone from Playland to the Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary, more recreational and leisure activities, arts and cultural programs, enhanced, less tacky rides and restaurants, a sculpture garden, more open green spaces and greater access to the shoreline.

Taking that “zonal-approach,” SPI’s proposal will also most likely have an amusement zone anchored by the Westchester Childrens’ Museum in the North Bath house, a leisure zone comprised of seasonal cafes and restaurants, and a recreational zone with open green space for active and passive recreation. There would also be lacrosse fields, maybe even tennis courts, a roller skating rink, sailing, kayaking and canoeing facilities.

In addition, while maintaining the sanctity of Edith Read Wildlife Sanctuary, SPI’s plan will refine the transition space between the current Amusement Park and the Wildlife Sanctuary so as to increase public access along Long Island Sound.

In brief, SPI’s proposal would live up to SPI’s mission to restore the historical and environrnental integrity of Playland Park and propose a plan for its evolution into a sustainable park that is fully in the public domain.

But SPI remained deliberately vague on the specifics.

“We’re sorry if you expected more specific details regarding our proposal, but we are deliberately playing it close to the vest, we don’t want to show our cards or tip our hand because the players will be waiting till the last minute and we don’t want to give them any of our ideas,” said Rye’s Dhruv Narain, SPI President and managing director of Goldman-Sachs, while addressing the Coveleigh audience.

Narain, his wife, Sandhya Subbaro (desribed as the “heart and soul of SPI”) and third generation Rye resident Doug McKean, the principal architect working with SPI pro bono (his projects include playing a leading role in the restoration of Grand Central Station), were among the main speakers during what amounted to a brief presentation.

 That presentation also included the consultants retained and responsible for the research and development of SPI’s proposal—HR+A, Divney Tung Schwalbe and Design Constructs.

The consultants shared their insight on the significance of SPI’s mission, other comparable projects and their efforts to position SPI’s proposal for success.

Between the ravioli, crab meat, osso bucco and wine flowing like water, the endless appetizers and the occasional announcement (“Will the owners of two Mercedes blocking the entrance to Coveleigh kindly move their cars”), one of the most impressive aspects of the evening was the number of financial and legal heavy hitters in the SPI lineup.

The  Founder’s Circle, for example, is filled with the likes of Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo; Steve Garnett, managing director of Credit Suiise and Robert Kinstler, vice chairman of Morgan Stanley.

Board members range from Rye’s Peter Rukseyer, managing director of UBS Private Wealth Management, to White Plains attorney Joseph Carlucci (“who unlocked the Westchester corridors of power,” according to Narain) to Rye’s Kim Morque , with his expertise in real estate revitalization and development, including the redevelopment of downtown Norwalk, CT. 

The latest consultants to come on board include Dan Biederman, President, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures and Bryant Park Corporation as well as Tupper Thomas, ex-Administrator of Prospect Park and ex-President of the Prospect Park Alliance.

So if the SPI proposal is accepted, they have the know-how to fund it.

“We want a ‘Sustainable Playland’ based on the triple bottom line concept  of land development—People, Planet, Profit (in our model –break even).,” according to the SPI backgrounder. “The Capital cost will be funded through a combination of Equity from Operators of various facilities, LDC Financing and money raised from corporations, Foundations and private sources. The on-going operating costs will be funded through a combination of concession/lease payments from various facilities within the park, County funding and funds raised by the public-private partnership.”

“Maybe once in a lifetime you get a chance to do something worthwhile like this,” said Narain. “When we started we were a couple of people meeting in Starbucks downtown trying to figure out how to start a non-profit, how to protect Rye’s interests in the face of a worst case scenario commercial development of Playland. We weren’t even sure of how to create a mission statement. The state sent it back three times before we got it right.  We almost never got started. And now,  as far as we are aware, we are the only non-profit organization that has reached out to the community and is taking a bottom-up approach in submitting our proposal.”

He asked the Coveleigh audience to become "connectors" like "Paul Revere riding from Boston to Lexington, spreading the word that 'The British are coming, the British are coming.' Spread the word about what SPI is trying to do. The idea is to try to really get the community behind what SPI is trying to do."

And just what is that? 

The SPI backgrounder states: ”Frankly, we are all—the state, the county, the municipalities and taxpayers—facing an uncertain financial environment, and, in such times, we all have no option but to join forces. As residents, we must take a greater stewardship role in determining the future of our public assets and the government must do all that it can to lower our tax burden. In our view, the County should not be in the business of running an amusement park! This is not their area of expertise! They should continue to own the land as it is after all public land, but leave its management and operations to an outside entity.” 

Left unsaid is the fact that Playland has been losing millions of dollars over the past several years, a period when attendance has kept declining.

So something must be done.

 SPI thinks its proposal is the answer.

Further information: www.sustainableplayland.org.