West Harlem

Columbia has paid $14.8 million for a warehouse in the footprint of its planned West Harlem expansion, closing on a deal from 2007 with the owners of Despatch Moving & Storage, according to property records. The sale price equates to about $235 per square foot, based on figures from the real estate tracking service PropertyShark, which puts the size of the building at 62,200 square feet.  read more »

"Any neighborhood in Manhattan that is home to several warehouses including 'Tuck-It-Away self storage' definitely deserves to be called 'blighted.' This guy is a selfish joke. How inconsiderate Columbia must be to pay him millions of dollars for dilapadated warehouses and replace them with state of the art medical facilities, schools and dormitories. Shame on you, Columbia." ["Columbia Holdout: Eminent Domain 'Not Necessary or Appropriate'"]

The last remaining major private landowner in the footprint of Columbia University's planned West Harlem expansion issued a lengthy critique of the state's use of eminent domain to acquire his property, laying the groundwork for a legal battle that will likely lie ahead.

Nicholas Sprayregen, owner of Tuck-it-Away Storage, released the critique as the state today holds its second of two hearings on the proposed use of eminent domain. A wealthy landlord and developer who said he expects to fund a lengthy challenge, Mr. Sprayregen owns multiple warehouses in the footprint.

In the documents submitted to the Empire State Development Corporation today--the state agency that uses eminent domain--Mr.  read more »

On Tuesday, the Empire State Development Corporation held its first public hearing on its outline for Columbia's 17-acre expansion into West Harlem.

One of the first speakers was the daughter, a senior in high school, of the Singh family, owner of a gas station at 129th Street. The gas station is one of two hold-out properties still at odds with Columbia; Nick Sprayregen's storage company is the other.

"If Columbia has to take [our property] away using eminent domain, I am sad to say, our future is looking very grim," the Singh daughter told the audience at City College.  read more »

Nick Sprayregen, the landowner leading the final hold-out against Columbia's 17-acre West Harlem expansion, has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal. In it, Mr. Sprayregen (profiled by The Observer in July) attacks Columbia's threatened use of eminent domain to take his storage company's property.

In the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the government is permitted to take private property only for "public use."

This clause was once limited to true public projects such as the construction of highways, fire houses and public libraries. But over the last 50 years it has been bastardized by the powerful (in collusion with compliant politicians and the acquiescence of the courts) into a weapon used routinely to forcibly take other people's property for nonpublic uses. What is occurring in West Harlem today is a prime example of this abuse.

Columbia University has closed on the purchase of a lot in West Harlem, with plans to build an apartment building that would house residents displaced by its 17-acre expansion into the neighborhood, property records show.  read more »

Nick Sprayregen, one of the last property owners resisting Columbia’s expansion into West Harlem, has rarely had nice words to say about the university. But today, following a 50-minute meeting, it sounded like he had found new friends—or, more accurately, potential business partners.

“The subject of the conversation moved to my swap idea, and they were interested in discussing it, which was the whole point of them calling the meeting,” Mr.  read more »

Columbia University said today it was back-tracking on its plan to remove the Cotton Club at 656 West 125th Street and make way for a small park as part of its West Harlem expansion today after getting negative feedback. (Get it? Feedback?)  read more »

Nick Sprayregen and Columbia University, who have been staring each other down over the ownership of four properties in West Harlem, are going to talk again tomorrow, Mr. Sprayregen said.

It would be the first time in more than three years. At that time, Mr. Sprayregen made it clear he did not want to sell his properties to make way for the university’s expansion as long as Columbia was threatening eminent domain.  read more »

On Monday, as the City Planning Commission gave its nod to Columbia University, the school tried to give a little good news to West Harlem as well. Columbia promised to build another 160 housing units on its new campus to offset gentrification pressures its employees would bring to the surrounding neighborhood.  read more »

Columbia University’s proposed expansion plan received the City Planning Commission’s approval handily today, but it wasn’t as easy as some expected.

For one, there was the constant heckling of the commissioners before, during and after the meeting.  read more »

The city Planning Commission voted early this afternoon to approve the expansion of Columbia University into West Harlem. The vote was 10 to 1, with one abstention. The plan next moves to the City Council for approval or rejection.

We'll have more on the Planning Commission vote very soon.

As the deadline for City Council action on Columbia University’s expansion comes closer, the local development corporation established to negotiate the all-important community benefits agreement has asked the school to donate an amount “well in excess of $100 million” toward creating more affordable housing in the neighborhood, according to an individual source familiar with the negotiations.

The affordable-housing fund is one of several outstanding issues, but may be the hardest to resolve before Dec. 19, when the Council breaks for the holidays. University spokeswoman La-Verna Fountain said Columbia would not comment on the negotiations.

The source said that the school, while it had not offered its own number, understood it had to contribute more, and in a more timely way, than the $20 million that Borough President Scott M. Stringer secured through an agreement in September.

Columbia University pledged today to spend more than $32.5 million in West Harlem on affordable housing, a new park, landscaping for public housing complexes and the like. In return, the school’s expansion plan received the endorsement of Borough President Scott M. Stringer.

It was, if you think about it, a small investment to make, given that the new 17-acre campus, north of 125th Street and generally west of Broadway, is going to cost something like $6 billion.

President Bollinger, who shared the podium with Mr. Stringer at a press conference this afternoon in the borough president’s offices, said, however, “We want to do our part… This is not a trivial amount.”

Mr. Stringer’s endorsement is not binding; only the City Planning Commission, the City Council and the Mayor have a real say in rezoning. But it helps turn around a narrative that has been dominated by community opposition to the plan, including the local community board’s 31-2 vote against Columbia.

Some $20 million will be devoted to an affordable housing fund that will partially offset the indirect displacement that the new campus is expected to cause outside the footprint.

But given the fact that it costs, conservatively, somewhere around $400,000, and sometimes as much as $1 million, to build an affordable apartment in Manhattan, the contribution would only go so far in alleviating the indirect displacement. The draft environmental impact statement, for instance, says that “approximately 3,293” nearby residents would be forced out because of gentrification.

In addition, Columbia said it would turn a piece of its campus into a park, pay for its maintenance, and make other improvements around the area, including $11.25 million over 25 years to keep up a new waterfront part nearby.

Mr. Stringer said he would recommend against the use of eminent domain in the plan, but did not make that a condition of his support. (The university has already forsworn eminent domain to take residential property.)

Nick Sprayregen, owner of storage facilities in the footprint who could see his properties taken by eminent domain (albeit with "just compensation”), e-mailed to say, “Mr. Stringer is now in effect backing Columbia’s continued forced relocation of tenants and the threatened use of eminent domain against all who refuse to sell to Columbia with the threat of condemnation hanging over their heads.”

It doesn’t seem like the West Harlem Community Board cares much for anything: In August, they broadly rejected Columbia University’s proposal to expand. Thursday night, the Columbia Spectator reports, the board voted against a plan put forth by Nick Sprayregen, the property owner who has been fighting the university’s expansion effort, which would have rezoned his storage warehouses for residential, office and community uses.

“The longer, larger implications are unclear because there was an anticipation that the City Planning Commission was not going to vote in favor of the proposal in any case,” Richard Lipsky, Mr. Sprayregen’s lobbyist, told The Observer. He said that Mr. Sprayregen would continue to pursue the proposal.

Columbia University is continuing to hammer away at the objections to its expansion plan as it goes under review, this week announcing that it found a spot to move 27 of the 132 households it would have to displace from buildings that it wants to take over for a new campus in West Harlem.

The school said it would construct a new 42-unit elevator building at 148th Street and Broadway—about a mile away from where the families are currently living—which would be large enough to accommodate the displaced families and then some.

The replacement housing has been virtually a precondition for getting the Bloomberg administration's backing on the expansion and the university has long pledged to find it. The tenants are participating in a city program known as Tenant Interim Lease, or TIL, in which renters in city-owned buildings can buy their buildings and turn them into co-ops. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development said it agreed to the switch because it would take less time for Columbia to construct a new building than it would for the city to rehabilitate the old ones, which is a precondition for the turnover.  read more »

In a measure of just how much of an impression the Rev. Calvin O. Butts' statements Thursday night on NY1 made on Columbia University's president, Lee Bollinger, a spokeswoman has e-mailed to say:

President Bollinger has a longstanding relationship with Rev. Butts and was therefore surprised to hear his comments. But he has called the Reverend to find out what his concerns are. More generally over recent years and especially in recent months, Columbia has engaged in hundreds of meetings with community groups, associations, individuals and the Local Development Corporation in West Harlem in shaping its proposal for long-term growth in the old Manhattanville manufacturing zone.

The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, the pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, is starting to speak out against Columbia University’s expansion—which is exactly the opposite of what is supposed to be happening now that political consultant Bill Lynch is trying to get a coalition of local supporters together.

On NY1’s “Inside City Hall” last night, Rev. Butts said “Columbia is moving in a way that is really alientating a lot of the community members who have been really interested in working with them to develop a good plan, particularly in the area of affordable housing.”

We’re waiting to hear back from Mr. Lynch’s office and from Columbia.

Columbia University announced today that it will not seek to take over people’s homes through eminent domain, a huge step in addressing one of the most controversial aspects of its expansion into West Harlem.

“Columbia University will not ask the state to invoke eminent domain to evict tenants living in these 132 residential units,” Robert Kasdin, the university’s senior executive vice president, said in a press release. The announcement came two days after the school presented its proposal to rezone 17 acres of West Harlem to make way for classroom buildings and research labs—and also two days after the community board unanimously approved an alternative plan that, among other items, strongly argued against eminent domain.  read more »