The subway station off Surf and Stillwell Avenues, the gateway to Coney Island, is getting a retail makeover.

The MTA is giving nearly 7,000-square-feet of space at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station to the company behind Luna Park, Central Amusement International.

"It is a great, great gateway for people to be welcomed in Coney Island and enter the magic world of the amusement district," said Alessandro Zamperla, president of Central Amusement International.

The Luna Park operator has nine out of 11 retail spots there.

It's part of an MTA effort to create themed retail areas, rather than a hodgepodge of stores. It's modeled after the MTA's "Turnstyle" section of the Columbus Circle station.

The new vision for the Coney Island station: a video arcade with a restaurant and bar attached, a cafe, souvenir and clothing shops, and a beach store.

"We always with the underlying theme of authenticity link to the history and the legacy of Coney Island," Zamperla said.

Right now, there are a few chain stores in the station, like a Subway and Dunkin Donuts, alongside independent mom-and-pop shops, like two gift stores run by the family of Ahmed Hussain for the past decade.

Hussain grew up hanging around Coney Island, and saw the dramatic change first hand.

"I got to see the arcades. I got to go on the Astro Tower," Hussain said. "I pretty much rode everything."

Hussain hopes his family's stores can stay. Zamperla, the Luna Park operator, said he'd work with tenants.

"They do have a vision of Coney Island that matches what the vision of the old Coney Island from way back when and I guess they're trying their best to recreate it but it just seems like a corporate takeover, almost," Hussain said.

Coney Island visitors had some advice for the Luna Park operators.

"They can do better than the same thing that they have up on the boardwalk," one man said. "Let's use some imagination."

"As long as they don't just make it seasonal and whatever they own here becomes all year round, then I'm cool with that," a local Coney Island resident said.

"I'd like to see, like, more mom-and-pop's, for sure," a woman visiting Coney Island said.

Visitors to Coney Island will have to wait until next season - Summer 2020 - to see the new businesses coming to the subway station.