Brooklyn park ridiculously expensive

$16M A YEAR FOR PLANNED B'KLYN PARK
By RICH CALDER, NY Post

The controversial Brooklyn Bridge Park will cost $16.1 million a year to maintain - making it the city's second-most-expensive park per acre to operate.

Officials yesterday overseeing construction of the 85-acre waterfront park revealed a new financing plan that estimates the park will cost $346.3 million to build - more than double the $150 million price set in 2002.

Only $231 million has been budgeted, so the project is being built piecemeal.

A Post analysis found the park is now slated to receive $189,458 an acre annually for maintenance and operations, trailing only Manhattan's Bryant Park ($643,833 an acre).

The city spends an average of $9,555 an acre to maintain parks, so the best ones - like Bryant and Central - are usually in elite areas that supplement their budgets with private dollars raised by well-funded conservancies.

The annual maintenance of Brooklyn Bridge Park is supposed to be funded through revenues raised through the construction of more than 1,200 controversial high-rise condos.

The Post reported last week that plans to build 780 of them - along with a hotel - are on hold.

Regina Meyer, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp., said the huge operating expense is largely due to the fact that the park includes piers that are costly to maintain.