Valuing Central Park's Contributions to New York City's ... - Appleseed

Investments in new construction and renovation at various sites around the Park have a
direct impact on the City’s economy. Combined, the sample of real estate investments
in Table 10 represents about $3 billion in sales and $4 billion in construction and
renovation spending. Using the IMPLAN model, we estimate that $4 billion in
construction and renovation spending directly supported 13,000 person-years of
employment in construction and related industries.
Just as important in the long run, these investments confirm the position of the area
around the Park as America’s most valuable concentration of real estate.
“Although the committee
do not think it proper for
municipal corporations
to purchase lands on
speculation, yet it cannot
be concealed that the
Central Park has been,
and will be, in a merely
pecuniary point of view,
one of the wisest and most
fortunate measures ever
undertaken by the City of
New York. It has already
more than quadrupled the
value of a large extent of
property in its vicinity.”
From New York State Senate Report, 1861
in Frederick Law Olmsted, “Forty Years of
Landscape Architecture: Central Park,” 1928,
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 173.
(Reproduced from Volume 2 of Frederick Law
Olmsted, Landscape Architect, 1822-1903;
Forty Years of Landscape Architecture; Being
the Professional Papers of Frederick Law
Olmsted, Sr.)