In addition to a gaming facility, “The Coney” would feature a 250,000-square-foot, 500-room hotel, a 2,500-seat concert venue, 92,000-square-foot convention center, a dozen restaurants, room for local businesses, public open space and more, according to newly shared specifics.

The development team — consisting of Thor Equities, Saratoga Casino Holdings, Legends and the Chickasaw Nation — has already spent a year and a half trying to sweeten the pot for reluctant locals with the promise of thousands of jobs.

“We have heard time and time again that Coney Island needs a project that provides year-round economic support while also lifting up the infrastructure in one of the most densely traveled areas of the community,” Sam Gerrity, CEO of Saratoga, said in a statement. “The Coney does just that.”

The entertainment hub would be right by the iconic Boardwalk and include more than an acre of public space, most of which would be part of a rooftop garden.

But the plan is far from a sure bet. The Coney is among about 10 contenders across the city vying for one of three highly competitive casino licenses on offer from the state in 2025. Five proposals are in Midtown Manhattan, one at Ferry Point in the Bronx and a pair in Queens: one by Citi Field and another at the existing Resorts World “racino.”

The casino competitors have been trying to woo their respective communities in the lead-up to state applications opening next year. Developers have offered public benefits ranging from green space to affordable housing in an effort to break away from the pack.

The Coney team has been campaigning hard since 2022, hiring the area’s former Council member and even sponsoring youth sports. Many Brooklynites have nonetheless been skeptical about a casino, with a report released last July by the borough president finding most locals were against it.

Gerrity still hopes the neighborhood will roll the dice.

“We believe that no other project would create as big of a lift as ours in terms of lifting up the local economy, which, again, right now is seasonal,” he told the Daily News.

“You’re right there on the beach and it’s just this beautiful landscape, the Boardwalk. It’s got so much history and we’re going to use its already existing unique character and weave our project into the district.”

The New York City Fire Museum at 278 Spring St. in Hudson Square was evacuated about 9:45 a.m. on Saturday when employees who were preparing to open for the day heard loud banging and felt the building vibrate, according to Executive Director Patti Murphy.

“It’s closed off until we can get a structural engineer to ensure the safety of anybody entering the building,” Murphy told the Daily News. She said that the collection of 10,000-odd artifacts did not appear to be damaged.

“The safety of our visitors and staff is our utmost priority, and this closure is a precautionary measure while we await clearance,” read a notice on the museum’s website.

A 311 complaint to the city Buildings Department suggested a nearby construction crane may have been a factor, but a spokesman said the agency did not find issues related to the building shaking or any evidence that crane activity had caused any structural damage.

The department has issued an order for the museum to have a professional engineer inspect the facade.

“The New York City Fire Museum plays an important role in honoring the department’s history, and the FDNY is in touch with museum leadership and we are working closely with our agency partners to ensure its safety,” said FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.

“The department will work with the museum and our partners in the public and private sector to make sure the collection remains open to the public for years to come.”

The Fire Museum has been at the Spring St. location since 1987 and dates to 1870. The 1904 Beaux Arts building was once the firehouse of Engine Co. 30 and is home to a permanent 9/11 exhibit memorializing the 343 members of the FDNY who died in the terror attacks.

Murphy said it’s unclear how long the museum will have to stay closed, but that the closure would likely have a “significant impact” financially on the independent, self-funded nonprofit, which relies heavily on admissions, gift shop sales and events (the museum was about to host a children’s birthday party when the incident happened).

“Closing down right now is going to have an impact on our operations of course,” she said.

Councilman Justin Brannan told Department of Housing Preservation and Development leadership at a marathon budget hearing Tuesday that he and his colleagues were “disappointed” no new money for affordable housing capital was added to the budget — despite the Council’s previous ask for further funding amid the ongoing housing crisis.

“It’s not rocket science — one obvious and big way to get started reducing homelessness, driving down rents and helping working families thrive is to build more housing,” Brannan said in a statement.

“Our Council recognizes the deep and far-ranging impact of expanding the availability of truly affordable housing across all five boroughs. This is really a no-brainer: People need a place to live, and everything else follows.”

A report from the New York Housing Conference released Monday found cuts in the mayor’s executive budget would lead to a 32% drop in the number of affordable apartments paid for with capital subsidy — findings the Council cited in calling for additional funding but which the administration disputed.

HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión Jr. said the report “got it wrong” and pushed back when asked how much more the agency’s $1.84 billion proposed budget might need to meet capital targets.

“The resources that are needed, as we go through the process, will be available to us,” he said.

But he admitted that the 750 housing projects currently in the HPD pipeline — 300 new construction projects and 450 preservation projects — were not progressing as quickly as hoped.

“Based on the resources available, we can sort of trickle these projects out at a rate that we wish was much faster, but it’s not because we have the imposition of reality on us,” Carrión said. “We’d like to see more, faster.”

The Council wants a $732 million annual increase in funding for programs “to meet affordability needs and fulfill the mayor’s pledge of $2.5 billion in capital funding per year for affordable housing.” That adds up to an extra $3.66 billion over the next five years, which the Council says would preserve or build some 60,000 affordable units.

“If the mayor cared as much as he claims about affordable housing, your all’s budget would look a lot different than it does,” said Councilman Lincoln Restler.

Mayor Adams has made the housing crisis a policy priority, and recently launched his signature “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” zoning plan. It comes after Albany passed its own long-awaited housing deal last month as part of the state budget deal.

Two key HPD programs the Council wants to earmark $250 million each for are Open Doors and Neighborhood Pillars. Open Doors funds construction of units affordable for middle-class ownership, while Neighborhood Pillars provides loans for nonprofits to rehab apartments to keep them permanently affordable.

Neighborhood Pillars has been stuck in limbo since 2019 but Carrión said it remains a “priority” for the agency and they hope to relaunch it by the end of the year after doing some “reengineering.”

“I think the broader point that many of us are trying to make is that it seems that HPD’s capital budget is still insufficient to meet the demand to meet the desired production levels that we have in the city of New York,” said Pierina Sanchez, who heads the Committee on Housing and Buildings. “We want to see the agency doing more.”

The landmarked Bronx Borough Courthouse takes up a full block at the intersection of E. 161st St. between Third and Brook Aves. in Melrose and has been vacant for nearly 50 years. It was listed for sale in March with an asking price of $40 million, which was recently cut to $35 million.

“It’s gorgeous, it’s a piece of history,” said broker Shlomi Bagdadi of Tri State Commercial Realty.

Today, the 121,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts building boasts a grand lobby, intricate stonework and new electric and mechanical systems. The granite structure was nicknamed “the Gray Lady,” supposedly in honor of a famous marble statue on the facade depicting Lady Justice without a blindfold.

Built between 1905 and 1915, the Courthouse was once a civic hub for the borough. It housed three courts, a coroner’s office and a jail until 1934, when most city services relocated to the newly built courthouse on Grand Concourse. It served as a criminal court until 1977 and was vacated a year later as the South Bronx fell into decline.

Over the years, community organizations tried and failed to acquire the Courthouse, and the city put it up for auction twice before it was bought by Liberty Square Realty in 1998. It has remained empty aside from a brief stint hosting an art exhibition in 2015.

In 2017, the charter school operator Success Academy announced plans to transform the property into a high school, but the deal collapsed amid litigation that remains ongoing, according to court records.

Bagdadi said zoning prohibits the building from turning residential, but he voiced hope that the city might be interested in reacquiring it.

“The only fitting buyer, in my opinion, is someone that either works with the government, a government contract or a government agency that is going to actually restore this into the use of the local community,” he said.

The Courthouse isn’t the only borough landmark up for sale. The Bronx General Post Office on Grand Concourse was recently listed for $70 million, five years after a previous deal fell through.

The delay puts the creation of hundreds of promised affordable apartments in jeopardy amid New York’s ongoing housing shortage.

“Any way that the influence of the state will result in the building of more housing, I’m all in,” Hochul said at a press conference Thursday, when asked about the status of Atlantic Yards.

The multibillion-dollar plan, also known as Pacific Park, is a public-private partnership between developers and the state that has been in the works since 2003. It brought the Barclays Center and thousands of new homes to the Prospect Heights area, but many of the assurances made around housing and open space remain unfulfilled due to myriad complications.

A key auction to spin off the rights for six sites was rescheduled for the third time last month when no bidders came forward to potentially assume responsibility for the beleaguered project.

The challenge is that any developer that takes over would have to deal with the financial and logistical problems of building a platform across the LIRR tracks at Vanderbilt Yards before breaking ground on the housing, already a costly process.

An existing community agreement also means if they fail to build the remaining 876 units of affordable housing promised by mid-2025 — as seems inevitable — they’ll be saddled with hefty fines.

“The practical problem is that the project right now isn’t marketable … and it can’t become marketable until there’s some kind of renegotiation,” said Gib Veconi, chair of the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council.

“It’s difficult right now to see how any other developer would be willing to take on the project with that deadline out there,” he said, adding that it would likely be up to Hochul to change the terms so that Atlantic Yards can move forward.

The original plan was to build a new home for the Brooklyn Nets, 16 new apartment and retail buildings and eight acres of open space across a 22-acre swath of Prospect Heights and surrounding neighborhoods, including on top of the “blighted” train tracks.

Over the 20 years-plus since Atlantic Yards was announced, the Barclays Center has proven a success, but only three of the eight acres of pledged open space have been developed and the rail yard remains uncovered.

Eight residential buildings have gone up, with just under half of the 6,430 apartments promised, including 1,374 of 2,250 affordable units.

Watchdogs and local stakeholders have been calling for accountability around Atlantic Yards. But they say the odds of the remaining housing and open space commitments being fully met are dwindling due to the project’s troubled history.

Last year the developer, Greenland USA, defaulted on $350 million in loans tied to six stalled sites, and the rights to build on them have been trapped in limbo ever since because no other group has stepped forward at auction.

“In a situation where both the governor and the mayor are very concerned about creating additional housing in New York City, this is a place where a lot of housing could be created right away if the governor was willing to take action,” Veconi said of Pacific Park.

Both Hochul and Mayor Adams have stressed the need to build more to alleviate the current housing crisis, and the Albany legislature passed a long-awaited housing deal last month.

Veconi sits on the board of directors of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AYCDC), which advises Empire State Development, the governor-controlled state economic development body that oversees the megaproject and would need to approve a new developer — if they’re ever presented with one.

“ESD remains committed to the successful completion of the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park project,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Building the remaining housing, including affordable units, remains a top priority and ESD will continue to keep the community’s best interests at the forefront as we push towards the completion of this project.”

At an AYCDC board meeting last month several directors expressed their frustration at the current impasse.

“All of this sounds very bleak and I’m hoping here’s another way to approach this,” said Ethel Tyus, who brought up the possibility of using eminent domain “to take over the project as a whole and move it forward rather than limping along, hoping for the best and not knowing where the hell we’re going.”

With Tim Balk

The short video, released Tuesday, shows a variety of analog creative items — including a piano, trumpet, chalkboard, buckets of paint, cameras and more — all being flattened and destroyed by an industrial press.

While the ad was seemingly designed to highlight the many ways the iPad can be used to pursue countless creative endeavors, many online considered the commercial to be a tragic reflection of how technology kills creativity and the human forces behind it.

“The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” wrote actor Hugh Grant, in a repost of the ad on X.

In a post of her own, Reed Morano, the director of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” told Apple CEO Tim Cook to “read the room,” adding that the ad was “actually psychotic.”

Others called the commercial an “insult to artists,” as well as an example of Apple “turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad.”

That ad in question first promoted the original Macintosh computer and portrayed Apple as saving the world from a dystopian future — much like the one written about in George Orwell’s cautionary novel “1984,” in which individuals are persecuted for independent thinking.

“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad,” Tor Myhren, Apple’s VP of marketing, said in a statement to Ad Age on Thursday. “We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Apple also confirmed that the spot will no longer be shown on TV.

That’s according to a monthly analysis by real estate company Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel released Thursday, which also found new lease signings “surged” across the city.

“This is the third time in the four months of 2024 that we’ve seen rental prices rise year-over-year,” author Jonathan Miller told the Daily News. “And this is increasing the odds — because rents don’t peak until the summer — that we could actually see last year’s July/August record broken.”

Median Manhattan rent was $4,250 last month, a 3.7% monthly increase and 0.2% annual increase. It was the third time in four months it’s gone up year-over-year, and was also a whopping 26.7% higher than prepandemic average in April 2019. Studio apartments rose to $3,250 while two-bedroom units dipped to $5,195.

Both median rent and listing inventory jumped year-over-year for the third time in Brooklyn, hitting $3,599, roughly 3% more than it was the previous month and year. Like Manhattan, that figure was 26.7% above what it was in April 2019. Studios went for $3,050 and two-bedrooms were $3,800.

In northwest Queens, median rent reached the second-highest April on the books at $3,244, a 1.4% bump from March and 8% decrease from April 2023, but 15.1% more than April 2019. Studio apartments in the area reached a median of $3,083 and two-bedrooms went for $4,000.

But Miller warned the April numbers could rise even further over the summer, when leasing activity typically peaks.

The sky-high rents come amid a historically bad housing crunch and affordability crisis in New York. A recent city comptroller report found that food insecurity is worsening across the state, with one in nine households unable to get enough food. Meanwhile, a StreetEasy/Zillow analysis published Tuesday found that New York City has the largest gap between wage and rent growth in the country, with rents growing over seven times faster than wages did last year.

The platform, which has more than 1.7 billion users worldwide, and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, said in legal papers that a newly enacted law that orders it to be sold or shut down violates its First Amendment right to free speech.

“Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community,” the company said in a 67-page legal filing in Washington D.C. federal court.

TikTok asserted it would be impossible for it to sell the app before the January 2025 deadline named in the law, which President Biden signed last month.

“There is no question: The act will force a shutdown of TikTok,” it said.

The bill orders the app to be sold within nine months or a year at the most if an extension is granted. If ByteDance does not sell TikTok, American online marketplaces would be barred from permitting downloads of the app, which amounts to a ban.

Lawmakers from both parties say TikTok poses a potential national security risk because the Chinese government could gain access to user data. They also believe the app stokes harmful political and social divisions in American society.

Supporters of the app say the government shouldn’t ban a platform that up to 100 million Americans use for business and to communicate with one another.

They dismiss national security worries, saying China and other rivals already mine user data in myriad ways.

The bill’s backers frame the measure as a necessary regulation of TikTok and stress that ByteDance is free to sell the app.

TikTok and ByteDance counters in the lawsuit that they really aren’t being given a choice. They say there is no practical way to sell the app’s U.S. site without also selling the underlying algorithm that powers it, which would devalue the app’s global reach.

“The ‘qualified divestiture’ demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally,” the suit says.

The suit was filed in a federal district court in Washington D.C. Some legal observers believe the case could eventually reach the Supreme Court.

The fight over TikTok takes place against a background of heightened strategic economic and geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and China, especially in an American election year where leaders of both parties want to portray themselves as tough on Beijing.

The two superpowers are particularly focused on winning a global edge in the fields of advanced technologies and data security, seen as essential to both nations’ economic prowess and security.

Most of the cuts will come from Peloton’s research and development, marketing, and international teams, Peloton Chief Financial Officer Liz Coddington told CNBC.

Leaving is chairman and CEO Barry McCarthy, who took the reins from co-founder John Foley in 2022 in an attempt to stabilize the company amid wobbly post-pandemic sales. Board members Karen Boone and Chris Bruzzo are tapped as interim co-CEOs, while Jay Hoag will be the board of directors’ new chair, the company said.

Sales had skyrocketed in 2020, quintupling the company’s share price as homebound fitness buffs plunked down monthly money for interactive workouts on high-end treadmills and stationary bikes.

But amid declining post-pandemic sales, McCarthy — a former Netflix and Spotify executive — cut 800 jobs within just months of taking over.

McCarthy last year began rebranding to lean less on luxury exercise bikes and more on peddling health technology software to make its product accessible to more people via apps. Nonetheless, the fiscal year ending last June saw a $1.26 billion loss, with $350 million more by December.

Peloton on Thursday announced “comprehensive restructuring efforts to align the company’s cost structure with the current size of its business,” it said in an earnings statement, noting the measures would cut annual expenses by more than $200 million by the end of the next fiscal year.

Besides cutting staff, the company will further reduce its retail showroom footprint and “reimagine” its marketing strategy. But it’s not clear whether the tactics will work.

“Somebody needs to acquire them, because at this rate I don’t even know if this company will still be a company on its own in the future,” Paul Cerro, Chief Investment Officer at Cedar Grove Capital Management, told Reuters after the changes were announced.

With News Wire Services

The struggling teen-centric retailer, which is nearly $195 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy in Delaware Thursday, according to Reuters. The company reportedly employs nearly 5,000 people and operates in 45 states.

Rue21 has had no luck selling its operations, which once included nearly twice the shops the company currently runs.

The Pennsylvania-based retailer shaved off $700 million in debt when it filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and closed 400 stores, Reuters reports. Rue21 also filed for bankruptcy in 2003.

Shortly after news of the bankruptcy filing Thursday, the company’s homepage said it was “being updated.” No statements had been made on social media, and their official Instagram account appeared to have been removed. A representative for the chain did not return a request for comment.

“Gotta appreciate big corporations not giving a s–t about their employees and not bothering to warn anybody,” one critic wrote on Rue21’s Facebook page Thursday afternoon.

It’s not known if employees were notified in advance of impending store closings.

Bloomberg reports Rue21 plans to hold going-out-of-business sales for the next four to six weeks. Its listed liabilities and assets are both between $100 million and $500 million.

The retailer’s list of locations shows no stores in New York City, though it does list two Long Island locations — in Deer Park and Bay Shore.