New York City Tries to Sell Cemetery

Staff Writer, May 21, 2009

According to a recent article in the New York Times, the city of New York has been trying for the past 25 years to sell one particular piece of property- the Canarsie Cemetery in Brooklyn. Thirteen acres, including 4.5 which are undeveloped are available for purchase from the city. More than 6,500 filled graves are located in the cemetery.

New York City inherited the cemetery when it merged with the town of Flatlands. The boroughs merged in 1898 and the city tried to hand it off to a variety of agencies. In the mid-1990s, the Giuliani administration tried to auction off the property, but it did not receive a single bidder.

The Department of Citywide Administrative Services recently made a request for bids and hopes to have a more successful outcome this time. It is rare that a municipal cemetery is put up for sale. Often, cemeteries will switch hands from church groups, but such a sale from a city is hardly ever seen.

The state of New York defines a cemetery as a non-profit business, so the potential buyer must be a non-profit, must already own cemeteries and must already have cemeteries in the state of New York to be eligible for purchase.