The campus, to be designed by architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP, will comprise laboratories, teaching and resource space, student housing, incubators and accelerators, research and development space and a conference center for campus visitors and public events. Cornell and Technion have agreed to a 99-year lease agreement for the Goldwater site, and plans to open an off-site location in 2012 before construction begins. The first phase of the project is expected to open no later than 2017, and by 2027, the campus will be built-out to 1.3 million square feet.

As a result of the new plans, the economic impact of the project is even larger than the city originally projected when it issued its RFP, Bloomberg said. According to a new analysis from the New York City Economic Development Corp., the NYCTech Campus will generate more than $7.5 billion and more than $23 billion in overall economic activity over the course of the next three decades, as well as $1.4 billion in total tax revenue.

In addition to 20,000 construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs, the campus is expected to create 600 spin-off companies surrounding the university, which is estimated to create an additional 30,000 jobs from the school’s intellectual capital-–its students and graduates.

“This is not a touchdown dance for Cornell or Technion. This is a time for a touchdown dance for New York City,” said Cornell president David J. Skorton. “For the people who are dreaming to get ahead, we are going to open our arms and our activities to the K-12 system, CUNY and the SUNY systems and other fine institutions of higher education. This is not an exercise of exclusion or winning, but this is an exercise of inclusion of having all the ships rise in this fine city. “

The campus—centered around three interdisciplinary hubs— will also establish a $150 million revolving financing fund that will be solely devoted to New York City-based start-ups. The goal, university officials say, is to attract new industries surrounding the school. “We envision a ring of companies around the campus,” said Technion president Peretz Lavie. “This new interaction of industry and academia will be something innovative and new.”

During the first phase of construction, the school’s first academic building will also be among the city’s greenest. Upon completion, it will be first academic building to achieve net-zero energy in the eastern US by harvesting energy from solar power and geothermal wells. It will generate 1.8 megawatts daily and a 400 well geothermal field, which uses the constant temperature of the earth to cool buildings in the summer and hear them in the winter.

The announcement comes three days after Stanford University dropped out of the race due to a lack of mutual goals between the city and the school. Shortly after, Cornell announced on Dec. 16 it would invest $350 million in the establishment of the campus based on funding from an anonymous donor.

This is the first selection announcement for the Applied Science NYC initiative. Productive discussions are ongoing with other respondents: Carnegie Mellon, Columbia and New York University-led consortium—and the possibility of additional science and engineering partnerships in the city is still open.

“As elected officials, we need to focus on the day-to-day, but as with everything else, we are working to diversify and strengthen our economy and take a long-term view,” Bloomberg said. “That’s what this campus represents. It really is a game-changer.”