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