Wollman Rink has been an iconic destination in Central Park for decades, with the magnificent Manhattan skyline gleaming above the treetops as skaters glide around the ice rink.
But for decades, Wollman has been run by for-profit entities whose main goal is to extract profits. While the city receives modest fees, the corporate interests reap big profits and exploit huge branding opportunities.
Today, Wollman Rink is at a crossroads: its management agreement is up for renewal for a 20-year term, raising anew the question: Should the city turn it back again to a private developer? Or should the iconic site be completely re-envisioned and improved, and run on a not-for-profit basis in a manner that puts people ahead of profits?
Unfortunately, the Adams administration has already signaled its intent to go the corporate route and hand Wollman to a private consortium led by the Related Companies, a global real estate developer, under a deal that the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee is due to consider this week. The term of the contract is 20 years, meaning Wollman will be in private hands for decades to come.
There is a better way.
Last year, well before the bidding began, the Central Park Conservancy offered to invest $120 million of private funds to reimagine the entire southeast corner of Central Park, including Wollman. It must be one of the largest private gifts ever offered to the city, but it was declined.
By contrast, Related has committed to only $10.9 million in capital improvements — less than one-tenth of the Conservancy’s offer. The deal also calls for Related to pay between $3.4 million and $5.9 million annually to the city in concession revenue, while it takes millions more out of the park in profits.
Our plan would finally fix disability access in and around Wollman, repair failing stormwater infrastructure, dredge and restore the nearby Pond, and ensure Wollman is integrated into the park’s natural setting rather than looming over it.
Under our plan, the city would also be asked to make a modest but necessary capital commitment in the neighborhood of $30 million (it is, after all, public property) which would unlock the raised funds, a formula that has been spectacularly successful for the Conservancy for decades.
We are not alone in thinking that running Wollman on a nonprofit basis would be better. Recently, Council Member Gale Brewer, joined by 18 of her fellow elected officials, wrote to Mayor Adams urging him to negotiate directly with the Conservancy and not go the private route.
If anyone doubts the Conservancy’s ability to deliver, they need only look uptown to the park’s north end. There, on the site of the old Lasker Rink, the Conservancy just completed one of the most complex projects in the park’s history: the new Davis Center.
The old Lasker was falling apart — leaking, crumbling, blocking natural streams, and standing as a hulking eyesore at the edge of the Ravine. In its place, the Conservancy created a stunning new facility that serves as a pool in the summer and a skating rink in the winter, seamlessly integrated into the surrounding landscape.
As the Daily News Editorial Board wrote earlier this year, “The best proof of the Conservancy’s ability to bring in a rebuilt and renewed Wollman on schedule and on budget is at the park’s northern end.”
For decades, private operators of Wollman Rink have charged sky-high prices: $38 to skate, $120 an hour for pickleball. That is not the spirit of Central Park, a place meant to be free and democratic.
We’d keep prices affordable. We’d offer free and low-cost programming to schools and community groups. We’d open more bathrooms and a bigger restaurant to the public, not just paying customers. And we’d reinvest every dollar earned back into the park.
Some have suggested that the Conservancy should have entered the competitive bid process against the likes of Related and the Trump Organization, which also bid on the project. But it makes no sense to bid to give a gift. We are a nonprofit that has stewarded the park for decades, in partnership with the city. Asking us to compete against major multi-national corporations is not fair and not how partners should treat each other.
City Hall can still hit the brakes on this deal and leave it to the next mayor to compare all offers in the full light of day. Doing so could ensure Wollman Rink remains what it was always meant to be: a public good, not a private cash register.
Smith is president and CEO of the Central Park Conservancy.
