Demolition of Coney's Sunlite Pool begins, despite efforts to buy it from symphony

Demolition of Coney Island's Sunlite Pool began Thursday, despite advocates’ efforts to raise money to buy the iconic Cincinnati structure and get elected officials to help save it.

Save Coney Islanders, which said this week that it had more than $146,000 in pledges to buy Sunlite, lamented the development on its Facebook page.

“Thanks to all of those people who were passionate about saving the pool and gave it their best shot,” one commenter wrote. “Disappointed in those that are wealthy and in power in Cincinnati that could have stepped up and provided financial funding for the pool.”

Other posts urged readers to call Anderson Township officials to get them to intervene.

One post was simply emojis.

A spokesperson for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which bought the Coney property in December with its events subsidiary, confirmed that workers began taking out Sunlite Pool on Thursday.

“Phase one of development of the new music and entertainment campus has begun,” Rosemarie Moehring said via email.

Save Coney Islanders were still planning to attend a Thursday night meeting of the Anderson Township Trustees. They’d earlier hoped to speak during a public comment period to ask trustees to support their efforts to buy the pool from the symphony.

Save Coney Islanders kicked off a fundraising campaign to buy the pool earlier this week, hitting its goal in less than 48 hours. It attracted more than 80 pledges to raise at least $146,454. It considered that amount the "fair market value" for the Sunlite Pool, considering the orchestra paid $8 million to buy the entire 100-plus-acre Coney Island site in December.

Officials with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and its events arm said from the start that the pool was not for sale and would be removed to make way for a new music venue.

Save Coney Islanders went forward with its offer nonetheless.

"It seems only reasonable that the CSO should consider this offer or make a counteroffer," the group said in a press release, which also suggested the symphony donate the pool to Anderson Township. "CSO, show your gratitude to the citizens of Cincinnati and sell Sunlite Pool ... so that we can preserve our community pool for future generations."

'Start the negotiations'

Save Coney Islanders put their purchase offer together last weekend, launching it on their Facebook page on Monday morning.

They sent it to orchestra administrators and board members but did receive a reply, group organizer Victoria Vogelgesang said. "We just wanted to start the negotiations," she said.

The group also said Anderson Township officials were interested in buying the pool.

On Facebook, organizers said "the township" had told them: “We’ve made it clear to the CSO that we are interested in the property within Anderson Township, which obviously includes Sunlight (sic) Pool.”

Township Trustee Joshua Gerth included that language in a March 8 email he sent to a group member, which the group provided to The Enquirer.

This week, however, Anderson Township Administrator Vicky L. Earhart said the township's board of trustees "never expressed a desire to acquire Sunlite Pool through purchase or donation."

Gerth and fellow trustees did not respond to requests for comment.

The symphony had made clear it is not interested in selling the pool or other Coney property, Earhart said via email. As such, township trustees "sought only to discuss opportunities where the township could be involved should the CSO determine that not all its property in Anderson Township would be needed for its use."

Officials of the symphony and its event-booking arm, Music and Event Management Inc., told The Enquirer the same in an interview earlier this month. Plans for an expanded music campus at Riverbend Music Center, on the eastern border of Coney, would require use of the Sunlite Pool property, they said.

“We are proceeding with the development of the property into a state-of-the-art music and entertainment campus,” Moehring said in response to the Save Coney Islanders' campaign. “The property is not for sale.”

Symphony needs pool acres for new venue

Not all of Coney's acres are usable, symphony officials said earlier. That includes land on the banks of the Ohio River and Lake Como, at about 20 acres, at Coney's entrance. The symphony is aiming to retain the lake and entrance, and possibly Coney's Moonlite Gardens dance hall.

But the symphony could not save the pool structure because "there's just not enough land to do what we need to do,” Mike Smith, president of Music and Event Management, said earlier.

Exactly what will go on the site of the pool – it could be parking or part of the new music venue – remains to be determined, Smith said.

Save Coney Islanders said they could find people to run Sunlite Pool if they could get the symphony to sell it.

"It could be its own entity," Vogelgesang said, noting that former pool staffers and community volunteers are all interested in running the facility.

The Save Coney Islanders Facebook page urged supporters to write elected officials, sign a petition, donate to another fundraiser and buy merchandise. In addition to suggesting a pledge of $500 toward buying the pool, it listed $100, $1,000 and $10,000 options.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What happened to Sunlite Pool?