Number 7: Joe Sitt

Since unveiling his audacious (and totally different from today) “glam rock” proposed makeover of Coney Island in 2005, Thor Equities founder Joe Sitt has been in the driver’s seat of the neighborhood’s redevelopment, whether the city likes it or not. Through voluntary sales, he owns most of the land within the amusement district, including that beneath the beloved Astroland and the boardwalk businesses (though he just lost the Wonder Wheel site to the city last week), and his willingness to negotiate with the city will determine what gets built in one of the most quintessentially, sentimentally New York neighborhoods. Bloomberg is handicapped by term-limits. Sitt also netted $100 million from selling the development rights to the former Albee Square Mall, of Biz Markie fame, and reportedly plans to bring more big box retail to the Revere Sugar Refinery. He seems to have a penchant for buying hallowed property and doing whatever the hell he wants with it.
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