Columbia Expansion Clears Approval Hurdle

NEW YORK CITY-Columbia University’s long-planned new campus in West Harlem cleared what is apparently its final approval hurdle Wednesday afternoon when the state’s Public Authorities Control Board gave its okay. The PACB action follows the New York City Council vote in 2007 to rezone the old Manhattanville manufacturing district, a 2008 ruling by a Manhattan judge upholding that rezoning and the Empire State Development Corp.’s approval last year of the university’s $6.3-billion general project plan.

A Columbia spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that the university has “already begun essential pre-construction activity, such as the movement of affected utility lines underneath Broadway. We are moving immediately into other such pre-construction work and look forward to beginning site preparation.”

As described in the university’s plan, the 17-acre project calls for a build-out of 6.8 million square feet above grade and two million square feet below grade over the course of 25 years. It will encompass new scientific research facilities, other academic facilities and university housing in 16 new buildings and one adaptively reused existing structure. There will also be a two-acre public park at the west end of the Manhattanville campus. The ESDC last year determined that the Manhattanville area is blighted and is thus subject to property acquisitions through eminent domain.