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COURIER L 12 IFE, FEBRUARY 21-27, 2020
‘HEARTBROKEN’
Longtime Coney Island boutique to
Closing: Lola Star (center) will shut down her Coney Island souvenir shop because of massive
rent hikes. Photo by Rose Adams
BY ROSE ADAMS
A Coney Island souvenir shop will
shutter in the wake of a massive rent
hike at the hands of Luna Park’s international
landlord, according to the
owner.
Dianna Carlin — who’s owned Lola
Star Souvenir Boutique on the Coney Island
boardwalk for 19 years — has spent
months negotiating a rent increase
with the amusement park’s landlord,
Zamperla, after the Italian corporation
demanded a 500-percent rent hike, she
claimed.
Carlin hoped to hammer out a deal at
a fi nal meeting with Zamperla on Tuesday,
but the corporation would only allow
a 400-percent hike, which the owner
said would destroy her t-shirt shop.
“At the meeting, I offered them double
the rent I was paying previously.
That is a 100-percent rent increase and
they fl atly refused,” Carlin said. “They
did not decrease their offer to less than
the 400-percent rent increase they
have been demanding for the past few
months…I’m heartbroken to say that
means my business will be leaving Coney
Island.”
Zamperla — the Italian corporation
that operates the six-acre amusement
district — fi rst announced the rent increases
facing six Riegelmann Boardwalk
businesses in November, two
months before the tenants’ eight-year
leases were set to expire.
Five of the businesses, including
85-year-old Ruby’s Bar and Grill and
57-year-old Paul’s Daughter, negotiated
agreements with Zamperla by the Dec.
31 deadline. Some insiders say that the
other tenants received smaller rent increases
than Carlin.
“I believe the deal was fair,” said one
business owner, who claimed he faced a
25- to 75-percent rent hike. “I would’ve
liked to pay less, but I believe it was a
fair deal.”
Carlin, unable to pay the 400-percent
hike, received two extensions to continue
working out a rent increase with
Zamperla, but the extra time didn’t yield
any results, she said.
“It’s heart breaking. I’ve built a successful
business over the past 19 years.
I started it with nothing,” she said on
Tuesday. “I created a truly unique business
based on my art products I design
and hand print in Brooklyn.”
The Bloomberg administration
awarded Zamperla a ten-year lease in
2010 to revamp the Coney Island amusement
park and boardwalk businesses,
which was later extended. In 2011,
Zamperla tried to oust all eight boardwalk
business — including Lola Star
and Ruby’s Bar and Grill — but kicked
out only fi ve after public pressure.
Carlin and others have accused
Zamperla of unethical business practices,
such as forcing tenants to hand
over 10 percent of their sales and to sign
non-disclosure agreements.
“It’s one thing for private landlords
to have non-disclosure agreements, but
it’s another thing when the city and
the City Council issues non-disclosure
agreements,” said civil rights lawyer
Norman Siegal at a Dec. 5 rally at City
Hall against the rent hikes. “What do
you have to hide?”
Despite the impending closure, Carlin
— who also operates a Lola Star
store in Queens and the Dreamland
Roller Rink in Downtown Brooklyn —
says that she plans to take legal action
against the Italian company.
“I told them I was really hoping to
fi nd an amicable solution before it became
an ugly legal battle but they didn’t
care,” she said on Tuesday. “I am not
leaving without a fi ght.”
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