And Just 163,000 Hot Dogs Later (Or 446.6 A Day), The License Will Pay For Itself

The privilege of selling hot dogs in Central Park for one year exceeds the median price of a single-family home in many parts of the country*:

Vendors have agreed to pay up to $326,000 a year to peddle hot dogs in and around Central Park in the latest contracts awarded by the Parks Department, The Post has learned.

And that’s for a single cart!

Topping the list was north side of the steps to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, one of the most expensive commercial parcels on earth on a square-foot basis.

New York One LLC bid $326,000 for the right to continue selling $2 hot dogs, $1.25 sodas and 50-cent bags of chips from a 10-foot-by-5-foot cart next year. It has been paying $277,000.

In the third year of the deal, the price goes up to $330,000.

But the company balked at a 15 percent price hike — to an astonishing $375,000 — demanded by Parks for a companion cart on the south side of the heavily traveled steps. “We’re paying the city too much,” protested co-owner Thomas Makkos.

. . .

Makkos was tight-lipped about sales, except to say that he was providing a “great service” and bringing in “great revenue” to the city.

In fact, the city hauled in $3.48 million last year from Central Park cart concessions, much of it from Makkos’ company.

*See, for example.