NEW YORK CITY-In a powerhouse combination of academia and the city’s growing tech sector, Google will donate space at its Manhattan headquarters to CornellNYC Tech while the university completes its new two-million-square-foot campus on Roosevelt Island. Under the arrangement, Google will initially provide Cornell with 22,000 square feet of classroom and office space free of charge for five years and six months, or until the completion of Cornell’s campus on the island. It will become effective on July 1.

“We’re about to find out what happens when you marry one of the world’s most innovative companies with one of the most innovative economic development strategies any city has undertaken,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a ceremony on Monday morning. “When we first envisioned the Applied Science initiative, we hoped the winning school would establish strong relationships with the tech sector. But this kind of synergy is beyond anything we could have imagined.”

The new off-site location will allow Cornell to build its presence in New York in close proximity to other tech companies and entrepreneurs while construction on the new campus commences. 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.