NYC park partnerships

Many of New York City's parks are owned by the public but run, funded, or supported by private nonprofits or self-funding public corporations. Some examples.

Nonprofits that run the park

• Bryant Park. The Bryant Park Restoration Corporation (now Bryant Park Corporation) was founded in 1980 and has managed the park under an agreement with NYC Parks since the 1980s. Its budget comes from concessions, events, sponsorships, and assessments on surrounding property owners rather than the city's parks budget. Source: NYC Comptroller.
• Central Park. The Central Park Conservancy was founded in 1980, after the park's decline in the 1970s. It signed a formal management agreement with the city in 1998: the city keeps ownership and policy control, and the Conservancy handles day-to-day maintenance and operations. It raises the park's nearly $74 million annual operating budget and has overseen more than $1 billion of investment in the park. Source: Central Park Conservancy, press kit.
• Prospect Park. The Prospect Park Alliance was founded in 1987 and signed a 10-year operating agreement with the city in 2017. NYC Parks keeps basic maintenance, trash, and enforcement; the Alliance cares for 350 acres of natural areas, restores landscapes and buildings, and runs programs, on a budget of $17 million in 2024. Source: Prospect Park Alliance.
• The Battery. The Battery Conservancy was founded in 1994 to rebuild the 25-acre park at the tip of Manhattan. Under a 2024 license from NYC Parks it operates and maintains the park, funded in part by ferry-ticket, event, kiosk, and SeaGlass Carousel revenue. Source: The Battery Conservancy.
• The High Line. Friends of the High Line was founded in 1999 to save an abandoned elevated freight rail line from demolition. The park opened in 2009; the city owns it, and Friends of the High Line maintains and operates it under a license from NYC Parks, raising nearly 100% of the annual budget privately. Source: NYC Parks.
• Madison Square Park. Madison Square Park Conservancy has managed the 6.2-acre park since 2002 and raises 100% of its operating budget. Unusually, the city's concession fees from the park's café (Shake Shack) go to the Conservancy: $904,401 in 2023. Source: Madison Square Park Conservancy, 2023 financials.
• Little Island. A 2.7-acre park on piles in the Hudson River, which opened in 2021. The Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation paid for most of the more than $250 million construction cost and continues to fund operations; a nonprofit runs it under a lease from the Hudson River Park Trust. Source: Hudson River Park.

Public corporations that pay for parks with real estate

• Battery Park City. The Battery Park City Authority, a New York State public benefit corporation created in 1968, owns the 92-acre neighborhood and maintains its parks. The parks are paid for by the neighborhood itself: private building owners pay ground rent and payments in lieu of taxes to the Authority. Source: BPCA, FY2013 report.
• Hudson River Park. The four-mile park along the West Side Highway was created by a 1998 state law. It's run by the Hudson River Park Trust, a state–city public benefit corporation whose board is appointed by the Governor, the Mayor, and the Manhattan Borough President. Operations are funded entirely by commercial rents, concessions, the Pier 40 garage, and donations through Hudson River Park Friends; the Trust has never asked the city or state for operating money. At Pier 57, a Google-anchored development built a nearly two-acre public rooftop park. Source: Hudson River Park Trust, financing plan.
• Brooklyn Bridge Park. The 85-acre park is run by Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, a city-controlled nonprofit, and must pay for its own operations. It does this with ground rent and payments in lieu of taxes from condos and hotels built inside the park: $20.3 million of its $30.5 million operating revenue in FY2023. A separate Conservancy runs programs. Source: Brooklyn Bridge Park, FY2023 financials.
• Governors Island. The federal government sold 150 acres of the former Army and Coast Guard base to New York for $1 in 2003. The Trust for Governors Island, a city-created nonprofit, now runs it, and the city has invested nearly $400 million, including 43 acres of new parkland. The long-term plan is to fund the island from rents paid by educational, cultural, and commercial tenants. The remaining 22 acres are a national monument run by the National Park Service. Source: Trust for Governors Island.

Nonprofits that support a city-run park

• Riverside Park. Riverside Park Conservancy was founded in 1986 by neighborhood residents and had no formal relationship with the city until a 2006 agreement. It works alongside NYC Parks across six miles of parkland from 59th to 181st Street, and funded the first large-scale composting facility in a NYC park. Source: Riverside Park Conservancy.
• Staten Island Greenbelt. The Greenbelt Conservancy was founded in 1989 and supports conservation, education, and recreation across the 2,800-acre Greenbelt. Source: NYC Parks.
• Randall's Island. The Randall's Island Park Alliance, founded in 1992, maintains and programs the island's 330 acres, including more than 60 athletic fields. Source: Randall's Island Park Alliance.
• Forest Park. The Forest Park Trust was founded in 1998 to support the 500-acre Queens park, and has also supported Highland Park since 2007. Source: Forest Park Trust.
• Fort Tryon Park. The Fort Tryon Park Trust (now renaming itself a Conservancy) was founded in 1998 and funds extra maintenance staff, horticulture, and restoration across the park's 67 acres. Source: Fort Tryon Park.
• Bronx River. The Bronx River Alliance was formed in 2001 and works with NYC Parks to restore the river corridor and build the Bronx River Greenway. Source: Bronx River Alliance.
• Freshkills Park. The Freshkills Park Alliance was founded in 2010 to support the conversion of the former Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island into a 2,200-acre park. Source: NYC Parks.
• Washington Square Park. The Washington Square Park Conservancy was founded in 2012 and signed its first formal license with NYC Parks in 2025. Instead of hiring its own crews, it funds 17 NYC Parks positions, so the workers remain city employees. Source: Washington Square Park Conservancy.
• Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park was founded in 2015 to raise money for the 897-acre park. Source: Alliance for FMCP.
• Van Cortlandt Park. The Van Cortlandt Park Alliance was formed in 2019 by merging the park's Friends group (1992) and Conservancy (2009). Source: 2024 annual report.
• Union Square. The Union Square Partnership, launched in 1984, was New York City's first business improvement district. It maintains, cleans, and programs the park and surrounding streets, funded by a roughly $4.2 million assessment on local property owners. Source: Union Square Partnership.

Citywide

• City Parks Foundation. Founded in 1989, it runs free arts, sports, and education programs in more than 330 parks, and with NYC Parks runs Partnerships for Parks, which supports neighborhood volunteer groups. Source: City Parks Foundation.
• Natural Areas Conservancy. Founded in 2012, it works with NYC Parks on research and management of the city's roughly 20,000 acres of forests and wetlands. Source: Natural Areas Conservancy.