Water Park Offers Queens A Golden Opportunity

The $168 million water park slated to be built on a slice of Randall's Island parkland where the East and Harlem Rivers meet under the Triborough Bridge may be open by Memorial Day 2008, and Western Queens should be ready.

The project, slated to break ground next spring, will be privately financed by Aquatic Development Group (ADG), based in upstate Cohoes, New York, under a 35year lease with the city. The 18.75-acre water park, complete with wave pools, water slides, raft rides and an indoor beach, will also include a year-round 7.25-acre indoor park.

According to the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, which is overseeing plans to redevelop all of Randall's Island, ADG will offer free lifeguard training and a free swim academy for more than 2,000 children. The park will employ 600 to 700 seasonal workers and about 150 jobs will exist year-round.

ADG has designed and built 50 major water parks in the last 15 years, all outside urban areas. The Randall's Island water park is the only such facility to be located in

the middle of a city, which is what makes it unique-and presents a golden opportunity for this borough.

The water park is accessible by ground transport only by way of the Triborough Bridge. Motorists access the bridge via Hoyt Avenue South, which means visitors to the park from Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island will have to travel through local streets. We see this development as a golden opportunity for this area.

According to some reports, visitors to the water park will be able to leave the facility and return the same day without paying an additional admission fee. That means they can avail themselves of the many restaurants that line the streets of the neighborhood at the foot of the Triborough Bridge. Either on their way into the park or while taking a break from it they can venture a little farther afield and pick up water wings and scuba gear. If they want to picnic, any number of delicatessens and grocery stores can pack a lunch with only a few moments' notice. The process of getting to the water park

offers another opportunity for development. It has been suggested that the park itself will provide vehicular transportation. Should that indeed be the case, parking facilities on this side of the Triborough Bridge have a sterling opportunity to expand. And of course, visitors to the water park who take public transportation to the Astoria Boulevard stop on the N/W elevated train line or travel by bus to the area can sample all the convenient stores and restaurants available here before boarding whatever transportation venue to the park has been set up.

The water park, aside from drawing thousands of visitors to New York City, presents the borough of Queens with an unprecedented opportunity for growth and economic development. To bring this happy circumstance about, everyone involved--the Department of Transportation, local business districts and development groups, community boards, civic organizations-should meet and devise a plan at the earliest opportunity. We should not hesitate to seize this chance as soon as possible.