Meyer's Shake Shack Paying Considerably Less Than Other Park Concessions

Line for Shake Shack(Amnestic_Arts/flickr)

...consider this article by Patrick Arden in Next American City, asking "whether the city’s reliance on private-funding schemes was creating disparities between parks in wealthy and poor neighborhoods," WNYC's Arun Venugopal writes. 2009 Shake Shack collected revenues of $4.9 million; $220,256 of that went to the city and $348,389 to the park. C

In 2009 Shake Shack collected revenues of $4.9 million; $220,256 of that went to the city and $348,389 to the park. Concessions in other parks pay as much as 20 percent of their take to the city, but not [owner Danny] Meyer, whose company adds to its profits by catering private parties in the park for $15,000 an hour. When Meyer opened his fast-food stand, he was the director and co-founder of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that oversees the public park.

oncessions in other parks pay as much as 20 percent of their take to the city, but not [owner tArden gives numerous examples of the "big business" that public parks have become:

Few may object to the $364,000 salary paid to Central Park Conservancy president Douglas Blonsky, because his group is responsible for raising 85 percent of Central Park’s $27 million annual operating budget....

But those two parks now exemplify how lucrative the conservancy model can be. The Bryant Park Corporation took in more than $8.8 million in 2007 and its executive director, Daniel Biederman, picked up $210,000 for overseeing its 9.6 acres. Over at the Madison Square Park Conservancy, president Debbie Landau pulled in $185,000 — and her sister Maggi made $114,962.

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Shake Shack $$$: Bad for City Parks?

WNYC - September 14, 2010 - By Arun Venugopal