Columbia University

A local activist group is planning to gather outside Columbia University’s Morningside Heights campus tomorrow evening to protest the university’s $6.3 billion expansion plan, putting officials on the defensive.

“Hey Columbia, where are the jobs?” taunted a statement by the Coalition to Preserve Community sent to members of the press this morning. The group alleges that Columbia, which in December received the U.S. Supreme Court’s green light to proceed with construction at its 17-acre Manhattanville site, had falsely touted the creation of 7,000 jobs in order to get the plan approved. But now that construction has begun, the CPC says it’s been repeatedly rebuffed in its efforts to obtain employment statistics from the Columbia University Employment Information Center, which opened five years ago near the expansion site.

In a statement provided to The Real Deal, a Columbia spokesperson said the university has hired 900 local residents for full-time, part-time and temporary positions since the employment center opened. [more]

President Barack Obama (top right) and images from his former apartment at 142 West 109th Street

President Barack Obama may call the White House his home this President’s Day, but during his Columbia University years, a two-bedroom in Morningside Heights was his abode of choice, according to the New York Daily News, which took a look inside the apartment, in honor of the holiday. The apartment, unit 3E at 142 West 109th Street, has seen extensive renovations since Obama lived there three decades ago. The $1,900-a-month apartment between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues was leased up last August. [NYDN] [more]

A sustained increase in mortgage rates over the past several weeks could signal the end of the historic lows seen in 2010, analysts told the New York Times. The popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 4.17 percent on Nov. 11, the lowest in mortgage giant Freddie Mac’s nearly four-decade history of tracking rates. But since then, rates have ticked upward to 4.83 percent, which the government-backed company recorded Dec. 16. Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts an increase in 30-year fixed rates to 5.1 percent by this time next year and 5.7 percent two years from now. [more]

Columbia University can move forward with plans for a $6.3 billion expansion after the U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by local businesses whose properties may be subject to eminent domain, Crain’s reported. The justices refused to question findings by a state development agency, Empire State Development Corp., saying that the area is blighted and that the expansion has a legitimate public purpose. The 17-acre site in Manhattanville would add more than 6.8 million square feet to the university. [more]

A petition for certiorari filed by Harlem property owners in the eminent domain case concerning the proposed expansion of Columbia University into Harlem by way of the Empire State Development Corporation will be consider by the Supreme Court of the United States today, with a decision to grant or deny to be released Dec. 13. Similar to the Atlantic Yards case, the property owners in the Columbia case have disputed the ESDC’s findings, which say that their properties are blighted. The ESDC is the same agency that enabled Forest City Ratner to take private homes and businesses for the Atlantic Yards arena. The blog of the Supreme Court has also included the Columbia University eminent domain case on its list of “Petitions to Watch.” [No Land Grab] [more]

A new rezoning plan organized by the Department of City Planning and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is taking shape in West Harlem, where an expansion in Manhattanville by Columbia University is underway. “We had to create a balance between helping a university that will have such a positive impact for New York City, in terms of jobs and economic opportunities,” Stringer told the Observer. “At the same time, we have to make sure we return the favor to West Harlem and protect the people who have always been there.” [more]

Columbia University has green-lighted a new gender-blind student housing program for upperclass undergraduate students, according to the Columbia Spectator. The program, which will be made available in six residence halls, will allow students of opposite genders to live in doubles — single rooms in which two students reside. Roughly 50 other U.S. colleges and universities have adopted the housing option, including Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth and two separate University of California campuses. Sean Udell, the Columbia College Student Council 2011 class president said is something “the vast majority of students [are] interested in,” and noted that the introduction of gender-blind housing would be a “controlled rollout.” The program will begin during the spring housing lottery, according to school officials, which applies to the academic year 2011-2012. [Columbia Spectator]

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A three-building property manager pleaded guilty on charges of grand larcency and scheme to defraud, after stealing more than $879,000 from three separate corporations that owned the buildings, the Manhattan district attorney announced today. Luis Nunez, the sole property manager for the three buildings, located adjacent to Columbia University, was charged with collecting rent money from tenants and depositing it into his personal checking account between June 2005 and April 2009. Nunez carried out his scheme by telling tenants that they should make rent checks payable to him and not the companies that owned the buildings. Nunez could face up to 19 years behind bars. TRD

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An ambitious $44.6 million plan from the Harlem Community Development Corp. to revitalize La Marqueta in East Harlem is not gaining support among public officials, Crain’s reported. In a sign of the city’s shifting economic development strategy, this latest attempt to transform the market would extend it to East 132nd Street from 116th Street, creating up to 4,000 jobs and giving a jump-start to budding food manufacturers. With projects like Willets Point, Atlantic Yards and Hudson Yards stalled or scaled back, the Economic Development Corp. has shifted its focus from major real estate development to small-scale efforts. The goal is to reinvent the city’s economy through the promotion of emerging sectors like green building and biotechnologies. But critics say the new approach isn’t doing enough to help small businesses. “Too few of our immigrant businesses grow beyond the mom-and-pop stage,” said Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future. However, large investments are still coming from the private sector, such as Columbia University, which spends $2 billion a year in the New York area and has 14,000 employees and whose presence encourages developers to build in the area. [Crain's]

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Despite numerous setbacks that have delayed development, Columbia University officials say they’re moving full steam ahead on the school’s Manhattanville expansion project, in the wake of the State Court of Appeals ruling in their favor June 24, according to Crain’s. The court’s decision, which authorizes the use of eminent domain in Columbia’s proposed $6.3 billion project, officially gave the school the green light on its 16-building expansion, which will stretch from Broadway to 12th Avenue and from 125th to 133rd streets. But the protracted court fight to gain development rights through eminent domain came with a price for Columbia: the school says it’s now years behind schedule, and swift action is needed to get back on track. The first phase of the project, a four-building cluster, for example, will miss its target completion date by five years, with estimates now showing it may not be finished until 2020. [Crain's]

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