Calls out Westchester County for repeated failures, use of obfuscating legal and PR tactics previously seen in expensive court defeat five years ago
Warns County’s actions will harm residents and visitors, employees, and taxpayers—and put 2025 opening of iconic Rye Playland at risk
RYE, N.Y., January 24, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Standard Amusements, operator of the iconic Rye Playland, today commented on its Notice of Termination of the Playland Management Agreement with Westchester County:
"For over a decade, we have tirelessly worked to revitalize Playland and restore it as a special place for residents and visitors for generations to come. We are proud of the progress we made towards achieving our vision, including improving rides and attractions, engaging local artists to enhance the park with their creativity, establishing new traditions through robust community programming, launching a seasonal ferry service, and much more to create dynamic opportunities and memorable experiences for our community.
But, fully realizing our vision required the County to meet the construction obligations necessary to complete improvements to the park. Despite spending over $150 million of taxpayer money— already surpassing their $125 million budget intended to cover completion of the entire project—the County has proven incapable and is nowhere near done. Accordingly, our contract, negotiated over the course of nearly a year with the assistance of a federal judge, was carefully structured with contractual deadlines for construction to ensure our extensive renovation plan stayed on track. And, in the event the County failed to meet those deadlines, the contract contained a detailed formula outlining precisely what the County would owe Standard Amusements in these exact circumstances.
The County, by its own admission, failed to meet those deadlines, over and over again, despite our consistent flexibility and patience, including a blanket one-year extension on all of their project deadlines. Our contract lays out plainly that we are entitled to terminate the agreement and the amount of damages that are due.
Nevertheless, upon receiving formal notice of termination this week, the County is ignoring these simple truths and opting to pursue two failed strategies we know all too well from our past legal battle: (1) inventing Standard Amusements defaults to muddy the waters in the eyes of the public; and (2) intentionally misrepresenting our agreement to cover up their own breaches. This strategy failed miserably years ago when their dishonest claims were rejected in court, and cost Westchester taxpayers nearly $10 million in legal fees. Sadly, the County seems determined to go down this ill-advised path again.