How to pay the $16 million-a-year costs to run Brooklyn Bridge Park has been vexing Brooklyn since a 2002 agreement between the city and the state decided that the park would have to fund its maintenance budget without touching the city's coffers. One highly-charged option has been to build a few 20-30 story luxury buildings on the park's edges to pay the maintenance fees. But because of intense opposition to the idea Brooklyn Bridge Park has been exploring other options with the help of consulting firm Bay Area Economics (BAE). The first draft of their proposal was presented yesterday (you can read it below) and it isn't exactly going over well.
Because the deal with the city and the state restricts the park from tapping into city funding directly, BAE settled into exploring nine options, many of which had been suggested at community meetings last fall: A Business or Park Improvement District (BID) that would pull in money from nearby businesses to pay for the park (potentially raising between $1-$4 million a year), fee-based recreational facilities (worth $603,000 a year according to BAE), event facilities (another $288,000), more concessions ($40,000-$365,000), making those planned luxury buildings commercial instead ($257,000), advertising and sponsorships (value still TBD), fundraising and philanthropy ($0-$1 million) and parking revenues ($233,000-$438,000). The ninth idea, which they didn't delve too deeply into, would be to gain money from the currently tax-exempt Watchtower properties when the Jehovah's Witnesses finally sell them. So according to BAE, the grand total in revenue those alternative sources could collectively produce would be anywhere from $2,421,000 to $6,951,000... still short of the needed $16 million.
But there is another hitch. That BID idea that would theoretically raise all that money? “The Park Improvement District they proposed is not going to happen,” state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Brooklyn Heights) told the Brooklyn Paper. And you don't want to even think about getting the neighboring businesses, who would be part of said district, started on the idea. Unlike Bryant Park (whose BID is well funded by nearby corporations), the area simply doesn't have the corporate culture such a thing requires.
The great hope for a Brooklyn Bridge Park sans luxury buildings, as far as Squadron and others are concerned, are the potential revenues from the eventual sale of the Watchtower properties which encompass 2.8 million square feet of real estate. BAE says it didn't look very closely at the idea since the Jehovah's Witnesses "weren't warm to moving fast enough on the plan to meet construction timetables."
Despite the low numbers in the report, Squadron at least seemed mostly happy with result. “Between what’s included and what’s been left out, this draft shows it’s possible to fund the park without … building new on-site luxury housing,” he said yesterday.
So what is next for the plan? For the next 60 days BAE will be accepting comments on the draft (deadline April 23, you can send your thoughts to [email protected]). There will also be a public hearing at St. Francis College Auditorium, 180 Remsen Street, on Monday, March 31 at 6:00 p.m.. When the comment period is over, BAE will issue its final report within 30 days. Then there will be another public hearing before the Brooklyn Bridge Park Committee on Alternatives to Housing which will vote on what alternatives to actually present to the full board. And then those ideas will be voted on at another public meeting. Which is to say, nothing is going to happen fast.
We still think a couple luxury buildings are the park's best bet.
