Stakeholders Begin to Stake Out Agendas for BPCA Fund with Nine-Figure Balance
The Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) has accumulated $135 million in its Joint Purpose Fund (JPF), according to BPCA Chief Financial Officer Pam Frederick, and has been negotiating for more than a year with City officials about how to use these funds. At the same time, various elected officials and local community leaders have begun to propose ideas for how to commit this money.
The BPCA’s Joint Purpose Fund is a repository for a share of the monies collected from payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) and ground rent payments, both of which are remitted to the Authority by commercial and residential property owners in the community. In 2010, the Mayor and the Governor agreed to extract $861 million from the JPF over the course of the following years, much of which was used to fill budget gaps for City Hall and Albany. (By law, money from the JPF can be allocated to almost any purpose agreed upon by the BPCA, the Mayor, and the City Comptroller.) The final payouts toward that $861 million commitment were made in 2022, and the Fund has begun again to accumulate a rising balance. Since the JPF resumed accruing funds, the only disposition of this money has been a commitment of $5 million to underwrite the creation of additional affordable apartments for the planned residential tower at Five World Trade Center.
Earlier this month, City Comptroller Brad Lander issued a report, “Building Blocks of Change: A Blueprint for Progress at NYC’s Housing Preservation and Development,” which noted, “the Joint Purpose Fund of the Battery Park City Authority has historically been used to fund the development affordable housing.”
According to the Comptroller’s report, an average of $40 million is expected to be added to the JPF each year. “These funds should continue to be used for targeted affordable housing purposes for which other funding is not available,” the report states.
Two days ago, on February 27, Community Board 1 (CB1) enacted a resolution demanding “transparency and community representation in the decision-making process for determining the expenditures from the Joint Purpose Fund,” while calling upon the Mayor and Comptroller “to issue public reports on at least an annual basis identifying the specific uses to which Joint Purpose Fund funds have been put, including (but not limited to) identification of the specific projects or programs on which the funds have been spent.”
This follows a January 2023 CB1 resolution that urged JPF funds be committed both to preserving affordable housing within Battery Park City and to capital improvements for the New York City Housing Authority. The same measure called for “at least one member of CB1 and at least one person whose primary residence is in Battery Park City,” to be included in all future negotiations for JPF allocations, because “Battery Park City residents’ direct and indirect payment of PILOT and Ground Rent are a main source of the financing of the Joint Purpose Fund.”
Authority spokesman Nick Sbordone responded, “BPCA is proud to contribute a share of its excess operating revenues—money left over after Battery Park City funds its own operations and capital investments—to the Joint Purpose Fund. Between 2010 and 2021 these revenues totaled $461M to build affordable housing for New Yorkers.”