This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • New York
  • News
    • Newswire
  • Features
    • Projects
    • Companies
  • Top Lists
  • Current Issue
  • Blogs
  • Submit Your Photos
    • People
    • Projects
    • Events
  • Resources
    • Proposals & Bids
    • Industry Jobs
    • Subscribe
    • eNewsletter
    • Events
    • Advertise
    • Reprints and Plaques
    • Staff Directory
    • Construction Cities
  • ENR Home
  • Other Regions
    • ENR Home
    • California
    • MidAtlantic
    • Midwest
    • Mountain States
    • New York
    • New England
    • Northwest
    • Southeast
    • Southwest
    • Texas & Louisiana
Home » Court Approves Eminent Domain for $6.3 billion Columbia U. Expansion
New York Construction NewsNew York

Court Approves Eminent Domain for $6.3 billion Columbia U. Expansion

August 1, 2010
Reprints
No Comments

The second major eminent domain decision in 13 months for the New York State Court of Appeals has Columbia University poised to move ahead on a $6.3 billion expansion in the Manhattanville neighborhood of Harlem.

Columbia University can move forward with its $6.3 billion expansion following a court ruling allowing it to seize the property it needs in Harlem’s Manhattanville neighborhood through eminent domain.
Columbia University can move forward with its $6.3 billion expansion following a court ruling allowing it to seize the property it needs in Harlem’s Manhattanville neighborhood through eminent domain.
div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB"
div id="articleExtras"

In a unanimous decision, the state’s highest court overturned an earlier ruling that prevented the state from seizing by eminent domain a small amount of property currently home to private businesses. Columbia already owned most of the land in the proposed 17-acre development area.

The ruling came just more than a year after another major battle over eminent domain was decided in May 2009 by the same court regarding the $4 billion Atlantic Yards mega-development in Brooklyn.

“The proposed project here is at least as compelling in its civic dimension as [Atlantic Yards],” the court said in its opinion, written by Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick. “The advancement of higher education is the quintessential example of a ‘civic purpose.’

The university announced in 2002 plans to expand its campus through the construction of 16 brand new science, business and arts buildings between West 125th Street and West 134th Street and from west from Broadway to the Hudson River. Warehouses, auto shops and dormant factories currently dominate the area. Plans also include the renovation of an existing building and a multi-level, below-grade support space over about 6.8 million sq ft, which will also include about two acres of open public space a retail market and widened sidewalks.

The expansion plans have been controversial from the start. After being initially opposed by tenant groups and community boards, the Empire State Development Corporation [ESDC] in 2008 declared the expansion zone blighted and approved the use of eminent domain, clearing the way for the university to seize properties from the remaining private landowners who had not reached deals with Columbia.

Work on the expansion project is set to begin this year and is expected to create 14,000 construction jobs over the next 25 years, according to the ESDC.

ENR Subscribe

Related Articles

Update: Groups Sue City for Approving NYU Expansion Plan

NYU’s Updated Expansion Plan Revealed

Post a comment to this article

Report Abusive Comment



Top Lists

Top Design FirmsTop Design Firms
Innovation Drives Success for Top NJ, NY Design Firms


Top ContractorsTop Contractors
New York, New Jersey Revenue for Top Builders Keeps Growing


Top Specialty ContractorsTop Specialty Contractors
Individual Strides Highlight Firms' Top Specialty Contractor Survey Results



Industry Jobs

Videos

ENR Proposals and Bids


ENR Twitter
Tweets by @ENR__NY

ENR

ENR Digital Edition Cover

Dec 9, 2019

A joint venture of Skanska, Corman Kokosing Construction Co. and McLean Contracting Co. is moving toward an early 2020 construction start for a $463-million replacement for a 79-year-old bridge across the Potomac River, south of Washington, D.C.

View More Create Account
  • Resources
    • advertise
    • contact us
    • about us
    • photo submissions
    • customer service
    • digital edition
    • Survey And Sample
  • Subscription Center
    • Subscribe
    • Website Registration
    • Privacy Policy
    • eNewsletters
    • FAQ
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Slideshows
    • Photo Contest

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing