Privately owned public spaces, or POPS, are a quintessential New York real estate amenity that grants building owners zoning bonuses if they open part of their properties to the public. At Trump Tower in Manhattan, for instance, the developer was able to add roughly 20 extra floors for the 66-story building by including a public atrium, additional real estate worth at least $500 million today.

...

I decided to check out some of the spaces, using a little research, some firsthand visits and a large pizza.

First up was 40 Broad Street. A 25-story office building completed in 1982, it once had three geometric planter-and-bench installations at the back of the property, offering a quaint-for-downtown public oasis.

Some two decades later, the seating was removed to allow for a condominium conversion, which ran into financial trouble. All that remains are their outlines, visible in the concrete that fills the gaps where the planters were jackhammered out.

Not only was there nowhere to sit, but people, including members of the building staff, also began using the now-barren plaza as a parking lot, all but eliminating any possibility of public use. Asher Zamir, the developer, said he did not know anything about the planters and referred questions to his management company, FirstService Residential, whose representatives did not respond to inquiries last week.

Sometimes a public space can get lost inside the city’s bureaucracy.

A spokesman for Morgan Stanley said it had shuttered its space for security reasons, and noted that the closing was approved by the city’s Department of Buildings. But it is another agency, the Department of City Planning, that regulates privately owned public spaces. That agency said that it was unaware of the closing until I contacted it, but that it was now investigating the matter.

“We expect public space to be managed as such,” Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in an email. “The city has taken operators to court in the past to get compliance, and if necessary, will do so again.”