Projects would redefine retail scene.

Two complex real estate proposals currently on the table for different city properties are innovative in their quest for delivering entertainment and education, along with ways to spend money.

Both Discovery Circle - proposed for the Coliseum site - and Atlantis New York proposed for Piers 92 and 94 - creatively take currently bland vanilla spaces and transform them into environments that will attract city dwellers and tourists alike, while focusing on educating children of all ages.

The city, state and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) may have garnered world-wide interest in redeveloping the Coliseum site at Columbus Circle, but only nine proposals - all from locals and some with other American partners - were received.

The coveted site demands a landmark complex agree New Yorkers - something special for that corner of Central Park that is also, by the way, very sensitive to the surrounding and vocal West Side community.

The design architects, in fact, are almost all responsible for other famous projects, and were totally aware of the special nature and impact of what will end up on the site while creating their edifices.

As three community boards touch the site, its articulate leaders have demanded something that also blends in, and doesn't stick out or cast vast shadows. They already dissed the space-age Moshe Safdie design proposed for the site Mortimer Zuckerman and held anything at all up through years of renegotiations and years ago by Mortimer Zuckerman and held anything at all up through years of renegotiations and two other RFPs through law suits.

Today, while a prominent architectural critic may laud a newer, industrially influenced techno-pop design, a community activist decries its clear glass Lincoln Log effect.

And though most of the proposed designs are masonry-oriented to echo the residential nature of Central Park West and South, the bronze glass Trump International Tower and its huge chrome globe are already focal parts of the Circle.

The white marble Huntington Hartford Museum, expected initially to be demolished, is also the recipient of nine other city requested proposals, but only two call for it to be torn down and replaced. That decision is now in limbo, waiting for the cornerstone project of Columbus Circle to be decided.

What becomes the envelope for the new Coliseum will probably be debated long after a developer is designated, but what goes inside the resurrected structure and its economic impact is also supposed to be given great consideration.

Although the community has been most concerned with the took and bulk of the building, its insides too will become an integral part of the knobby fabric that makes up the Upper West Side.

One thing to remember is that he who gets the development nod will also get the tenants. So no one in the real estate community should be surprised to hear that a game of "musical tenants" is being quietly played as the name brand tenants solicit competing developers, and when the music stops, the one that wins the beauty contest will likely also walk away with whatever the community or the government wants most inside.

Indeed, the RFP is clear that in the end, the government can do whatever it wants on the site and too bad to everyone else. That includes taking a proposal that is not officially proposed, or combining elements or developments or developers.

So the choices for the choosers are really multitudinous. Eastdil has been hired by the MTA to provide economic feasibility impact supper and has interviewed the development teams.

Leaving aside the tower or towers, which are proposed variously and in combinations mostly to the full permitted height of 750 feet for residential, office and hotel use, the podium will here be the focus.

Should the space be used for the stuffy Sotheby's auction house that wants to be there so badly it has climbed on board with several developers and asked the others to consider it if they win?

Should there be a Sears department store, which in a brilliant lobbying stroke, recently proposed opening dozens of stores all over the state as a way to curry favor with the governor?

Should it be an elegant and expensive hotel, right next door to another elegant expensive hotel, albeit with more public restaurants, banquet space and lobby space?

Or house in part an expensive sports club, a few blocks away from another expensive sports club?

Should it hold cinemas, just down Broadway from other cinemas? Or entertainment venues and retail shops in various combinations? Indeed, the RFP demands street-level retail on nearly all sides and most developers have complied by providing shops and great glass galleries to suck in wandering pedestrians and subway scurrying New Yorkers.

Should it be a media and communications center?

Or should it be a site almost exclusively for television and film studios, that by their very nature, either allow studio audiences only at certain times, or else no one at all, ever, to watch, thus cutting off hundreds of thousands of square feet from public use?

Actually, the city is faced with a similar choice at Piers 92 and 94, where a six month conditional designation has recently been awarded to a nascent studio plan.

But there are more imaginative and energetic plans in the wings for both Piers 92 and 94, as well as for the Coliseum site, that already have their bucks and ingenuity in delightful and unifying world order.

Atlantis New York

The Atlantis New York project has been designed to enliven the bland City-owned Piers 92 and 94, now mostly vacant or rented for small exhibitions like flower and antiques shows.

The site stretches from 55th to 59th Streets well into the Hudson River and is adjacent to the spot where the raised Miller Highway meets the street level West Side Highway and motorists play a lively game of don't bump the other cars.

The roadway itself, a/k/a Route 9A, is slated for an upgrading and "boulevarding" through the efforts of the Hudson River Park Conservancy, along with Federal, City and hopefully, State funds that have already been promised.

As a community-oriented entertainment retail project designed to encourage learning and promote inclusion, the proposers of Atlantis have been sensitive to the RFP and the residential community's desire for access, as well as allocating $6 million into the creation and beautification of Clinton Cove Park, where now only cement trucks reside.

The park is being designed by the Atlantis folks for bicycle and roller skating paths, pedestrian walkways, sunny lounging spots, shade trees and a small games area, as well as "imaginative water features," all accessible through a new safety-glass enclosed overpass that will straddle the highway.

Strollers will include mimes, musicians, jugglers and clowns that will entertain as well as inform passersby of the goings on inside the refreshed and re-designed piers and headhouse.

Jumping off the watery theme and total access - with a silent nod towards Disney's EPCOT international exhibition center that surrounds its own lagoon - there will be internationally themed dining yachts, a small marina, jet and water skiing activities, sailboat instruction and ferry slips.

A centerpiece laser lit exploding volcano and waterfall re-enactment of the destruction of the fabled Atlantis civilization will arise out of a uniquely designed educational marine aquarium.

Through the efforts of Newmark's retail expert and co-proposer Edward A. Friedman, many of the interior pier shops are expected to be worldwide recognized names like Harrod's of London, Tang's of Bangkok, Grace Brothers of Australia and Matsuda of Toyko. There will be also be areas reserved for local craftspeople and the artisans of host New York.

The one world exhibition, unified by the water of life theme, will be complimented by appropriate restaurants and cafes as well as a foreign film theater.

"It will be family-oriented," said Friedman, who also holds the title of executive vice president of Atlantis New York. "There's no doubt that it's the whole purpose."

The proposers aren't stopping there, also envisioning a small cineplex including an educational IMAX-like theater.

A legitimate theater is planned by co-proposer and theater developer Steven Minskoff that will focus on plays and troupes from New York as well as the rest of the world.

Young people will be encouraged to perform at events and at concerts and the special activities at Atlantis will encourage learning, say the Atlantians.

To make life easier for both shoppers and area residents, a day care facility is planned that will stimulate and challenge the minds of its adolescent charges.

And of course, the young and old alike can have a turn at virtual reality through the latest in arcade hand, eye and stomach coordinating amusements.

Atlantis President Henry J. Eng was the originator of the city's World Yachts, and after selling out a few years ago to Circle Line, is now eager to get back into action with even better boats and cuisine and the creation of an internationally flavored South Street Seaport-type project a cannonball's shot from the tourist targeted Intrepid Air & Space Museum.

The Atlantis project is expected to cost upwards of $400 million, create 1,500 construction jobs and 4,000 new permanent jobs, bring in $59 million a year in sales taxes along with $700,000 plus in rent per year and $3 million in payments in lieu of real estate taxes.

The developers will encapsulate the pier pilings to protect them from damage, remove asbestos, and run 16 shuttle buses to major cross streets and hotels.

Besides, there is parking for 900 autos that will generate another $3 million in taxes and enable the developers to entice suburban and urban auto owners to dine and shop with parking vouchers, something the downstream Chelsea Piers operators should learn.

Eng, Friedman, Minskoff and Atlantis Senior Executive Vice President Kin Ming Lam, however, are disappointed. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on FRCH architects, commissioning planning and economic feasibility studies to meet or exceed all community and RFP requests, particularly by creating a setting that would become a magnet for community and tourist involvement, a strategic meeting with a high level city official - whom Eng declined to identify - was cancelled and he and his partners never got their "oral exam."

With financiers lining up to provide this primarily minority-owned company with over $400 million, Eng is worried the six-month wait for the Riverview studio's conditional designation to lapse will end up burying his project as well.

"The other plan is industrially-oriented with virtually no public access," he noted, encouraged by support for Atlantis from community activists who usually are foes of developers. "The people have a right to choose, and you are talking about a project that will affect the people of this city for next 100 years."

Discovery Circle

The most important decision the people and politicians of the MTA, state and city are facing, however, is the choice for the Coliseum site.

Over the last three years, Discovery Circle's creators have fine-tuned their program for the inside of the Coliseum's base to concentrate on education through entertainment. Driving creative force David Plattner has dubbed this concept "edu-tainment".

His inspired vision for the Coliseum's podium has converted retailing king, Melvin Simon, and meticulous developer, Gerald Hines, to his corner, while a half dozen major cities are either working with or courting Plattner to bring new economic life to their towns with similar concepts.

Both major US developers are bringing their credit and pocketbooks to the table for the proposal for Discovery Circle, designed by Gensler architects, that combines a simple, slender residential tower with Plattner's multi-dimensional podium for the people.

Their energies have been directed towards a safe, environmentally sound and educationally inspiring place for children, that coincidentally will be just as interesting for their parents.

From the virtual and real aquarium that acts as a focal point along the curved outdoor facade, to the walk-through wilderness environment, to the gravitational challenges of body surfing, visitors to Discovery Circle would be entranced, enlightened and of course, enriched, even as they are adding to the economic bottom line of New York City and State as they happily part with their dollars.

Education doesn't come cheap, but then again, neither does the Magic Kingdom. Entrance to Discovery Circle, however, will be free, along with many of the events and entertainment. Of course, there is "pay for play" at certain attractions, and shop 'til you know what at others.

In creating his collaborative company, Original Ventures, Plattner has joined with others, including Jaron Lanier, the blond, dredlocked master inventor and coiner of the term "virtual reality," to bring the learning aspects of the center to the edges of the envelope.

Both Lanier and Plattner have roots in the recording and entertainment industry - we even listened to Lanier play simple pipe instruments from around the world at a music convention some years ago - and will also nurture the cultivation of world music.

Children visiting Discovery Circle can operate a Cybercenter linked to every school in New York via a "tele-virtual - Voomie Theater," or perhaps be able to operate robotic arms working in outer space.

Lanier has met with City Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew, who told him that Discovery Circle meets the cultural needs of public school children, who could visit and see innovative attractions that reflect the diversity of the city and world, and be inspired by successful role models.

Just as the Coliseum recently hosted school bus-loads of children who were in awe at the historical Smithsonian traveling museum exhibit, Discovery Circle's creators envision school and tourist bus loads of visitors flocking to their body enveloping learning environment.

Not to mention normally jaded New York families and their kids who complain "There's nothing to do." How about hanging out at Discovery Circle rather than Bethesda Fountain?

High-tech at Discovery Circle will meet with open minds and open wallets. "The information super highway finally intersects with the real estate business," said Plattner, who believes the interactivity of mind and body here will meet the needs of the new techno-public, turned on by gadgets and computer science applications.

OK, this is not your father's shopping center. Just as Simon Properties pushed retailing's edge with the likes of Camp Snoopy and seven acres of amusements in the 4.7 million square-foot Mall of America, its Rainforest Cafe would be welcome in Discovery Circle's six-level podium, along with its volcanic eruptions, animatronic animals and a virtual rainstorm that has already found a home in Disney's Village Marketplace.

And recall that developer Gerald Hines, along with creating New York's Lipstick building, was the originator of the Galleria in Houston that ushered in this rush to the retail entertainment world with an indoor ice skating rink surrounded by stores.

"New York City deserves this kind of continuous changing programming which will command repeat visitations," said Plattner. "This is our interpretation of an urban utopia."