GREEN-WOOD - Cuesta Verde Development Corp., the real estate firm best known for a planned community in suburban California that experienced what the company describes as "unscheduled settling issues" in 1982, has completed its purchase of Green-Wood Cemetery in Sunset Park, the company announced Friday.
The 478-acre site will be cleared to make way for The Groves at Green-Wood, a 2,400-unit residential complex featuring two rooftop pools, a dog spa, coworking lounges, and a 24-hour concierge desk staffed by attendants trained in basic exorcism "as a precaution."
The cemetery's roughly 570,000 current residents will be relocated to a 40-acre parcel in Ronkonkoma, near the Long Island MacArthur Airport. This time, the company says, the bodies are coming too.
"We understand there's some history there," said Dana Whitlock, Cuesta Verde's vice president for community relations and site preparation, at a press conference held outside the cemetery's Gothic main gate. "On our previous project, we moved the headstones. In hindsight, that was an error. We've done a lot of internal reflection since then, and we're confident we now understand the full scope of what 'moving a cemetery' means."
Whitlock declined to say whether the reflection had been prompted by the 1982 incident, in which several homes in the California development reportedly experienced levitating furniture, hostile trees, and at least one swimming pool filling with what residents described as "previous tenants." She did confirm that the company's insurance premiums "have been a factor."
Under the terms of the sale, Cuesta Verde has agreed to a binding "Full Relocation Covenant," a 140-page document that uses the word "bodies" 1,312 times and the word "headstones" only in a footnote clarifying that they are "not, by themselves, sufficient."
The company has also hired an independent auditing firm to verify the move and will publish a running tally on its website. As of press time, the counter read 0 of approximately 570,000.
"We're aware it's a big number," Whitlock said. "We're going to count every one. Twice, if necessary. Some of them move around."
The Green-Wood Residents' Association, which represents the cemetery's interred population, issued a statement through its longtime president, Josiah Pell (d. 1847), a former shipping clerk who spoke to the Herald by way of the planchette at the Fort Hamilton Parkway entrance.
"WE HAVE BEEN HERE SINCE BEFORE THE BRIDGE," Mr. Pell spelled. "RONKONKOMA IS NOT BROOKLYN."
The cemetery's famous colony of monk parakeets, which nests in the spires of the main gate, declined to comment but was observed shrieking at a Cuesta Verde surveyor for approximately forty minutes.
At a packed Community Board 7 meeting Thursday night, living residents raised a different set of objections. Of the complex's 2,400 units, 20 percent will be designated affordable, defined as housing for households earning 130 percent of the area median income. A further 15 percent will be set aside under a "right of return" provision for displaced former residents of the cemetery, who may enter a housing lottery once they have completed the relocation process and submitted two forms of identification.
"It's the same story every time," said one Sunset Park tenant organizer. "The people who've been here the longest get pushed out first. They're just usually not this long."
The City Planning Commission approved the necessary rezoning on a 9-1 vote earlier this month. The lone dissenting commissioner, asked to explain her vote, said only, "Every movie," and left the chamber.
Exhumation is scheduled to begin after the holidays. Cuesta Verde said it has hired 300 additional workers, eleven clergy of various faiths, and a consultant it would identify only as "a very small woman with a lot of experience."
Pre-leasing has already begun. Several listings for The Groves include a disclosure, required under state law, noting that units may contain "pre-existing occupants, unresolved."
Cuesta Verde will host an open house Sunday. Visitors are asked to remain on marked paths and to report any cold spots, unexplained television static, or children speaking to the television to on-site staff immediately.