A Place of Final Rest Changes Hands
Soon, grave sites at the Canarsie Cemetery will be for sale again.
They have not been since 1993, when the city stopped selling dirt three feet under — the law in New York requires that bodies be buried at least three and not six feet deep — because the cemetery’s fate was uncertain. The city inherited the cemetery, which it did not want, when the five boroughs merged in 1898.
But now, a generation after the first sale attempt in 1982, the city has found a taker. Cypress Hills, a 225-acre cemetery in Brooklyn, has raised enough money to land the deal. The state’s Cemetery Board, which oversees all nonprofit cemeteries, is expected to approve the sale later this month.
Anthony Russo, the vice president of field affairs for Cypress Hills, said that some families buying plots at Cypress Hills said they wanted burials at Canarsie.
“We definitely see the potential for business in the cemetery,” Mr. Russo said. “There is an area that could be developed for graves that could help generate some income.”...
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They have not been since 1993, when the city stopped selling dirt three feet under — the law in New York requires that bodies be buried at least three and not six feet deep — because the cemetery’s fate was uncertain. The city inherited the cemetery, which it did not want, when the five boroughs merged in 1898.
But now, a generation after the first sale attempt in 1982, the city has found a taker. Cypress Hills, a 225-acre cemetery in Brooklyn, has raised enough money to land the deal. The state’s Cemetery Board, which oversees all nonprofit cemeteries, is expected to approve the sale later this month.
Anthony Russo, the vice president of field affairs for Cypress Hills, said that some families buying plots at Cypress Hills said they wanted burials at Canarsie.
“We definitely see the potential for business in the cemetery,” Mr. Russo said. “There is an area that could be developed for graves that could help generate some income.”...