BPCA Resiliency Analysis Sees Two-for-One Return on Budget Outlay
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has issued a report on its ongoing resiliency efforts, which projects a payback of $2.16 for each dollar invested in the massive undertaking The analysis, titled The Case for Resiliency: A Benefit-Cost Analysis for Battery Park City Resiliency Projects, asserts that the project will generate $3.5 billion in economic and fiscal benefits for New York City.
The two remaining phases of the Battery Park City resiliency project are the reconstruction of Wagner Park (costing $296 million and scheduled to reopen later this year) and the North/West phase: a 7,900-foot-long flood barrier, stretching from a point near Bowling Green, then north along the Battery Park City esplanade, and terminating at a high point on Greenwich Street in Tribeca. This part of the BPCA’s resiliency effort is slated to break ground later this year and continue construction through 2030, costing $1.625 billion.
The analysis indicates that area to be protected within Battery Park City contains 30 residential buildings, seven commercial structures, and five public buildings (valued at $3.5 billion, $3.2 billion, $488 million, respectively). The inland areas of Lower Manhattan beyond Battery Park City that the project aims to shield from flooding – in the Financial District and Tribeca – are home to 33 residential, 15 commercial, and 15 public buildings (valued at $2.8 billion, $5.4 billion, and $476 million, respectively). The indoor area of all buildings in the protected zones totals 22 million square feet within Battery Park City and 25 million square feet in Tribeca and the Financial District.
This appears to mean that the Battery Park City Authority’s expenditures on resiliency will benefit the Financial District and Tribeca slightly more than the community itself, with 54 percent of gross square footage and 55 percent of property value protected in the two adjacent neighborhoods. That noted, the costs of the projects are borne by the BPCA (which is issuing billions of dollars in new bond debt), with no financial contribution from property owners in Tribeca or the Financial District.
“More severe and more frequent storms are an unfortunate reality, and we must act with increased urgency in the face of our changing climate,” said BPCA president Raju Mann, who added that the report “provides the clearest evidence yet that all of what we’re protecting with our coastal resiliency projects – residents’ health and well-being, jobs, parks, infrastructure, property value, and more – is well worth the years of planning, design, and construction impacts required for implementation.”
The report notes, “this analysis is conservative, and the dividend associated with [Battery Park City resiliency] could extend beyond a BCR [benefit-cost ratio] of 2.16 as evidenced by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s ‘The Preparedness Payoff’ report that finds that every $1 invested in resilience and disaster preparedness saves $13 in economic impact, damage, and cleanup costs following an event.”
The predicted benefits outlined in the report are specified as costs that will be avoided but otherwise would be insured if the Battery Park City resiliency projects were not built, including fiscal revenue losses ($724 million), damage to parks and infrastructure ($238 million), human impacts ($202 million), economic losses ($166 million), property value losses ($953 million), and damage to buildings ($1.92 billion).
The “Case for Resiliency” excludes two additional categories of benefits that are expected to accrue from the Battery Park City resiliency projects – “environmental & recreational benefits” and the “economic & fiscal impact of construction” – because, “they are not monetarily quantifiable or because they represent a different conceptual benefit that cannot be added directly to benefits.”