The Alfred

Residents at the Alfred Condominium on West 61st Street near Amsterdam
Avenue, surrounded on three sides by Fordham University’s Lincoln
Center campus, will soon have to walk around the block to get to West
62nd Street. The University terminated a 20-year lease last weekend
that had allowed residents of the 38-story luxury high-rise to cut
through the campus via a private walkway. Soon, that walkway will be
gated shut, in a move Sidney Goldfisher, president of the Alfred’s
board of managers, called “vindictive” against the suit the board
brought against the University last week, which aims to halt Fordham’s
expansion plans. Fordham has proposed 50- to 60-story towers on either
side of the Alfred. The board says they violate a 1957 agreement that
says the University would use the land for academic purposes. The
proposal also includes a new law school and dormitory in the current
location of the walkway. The University had originally agreed to build
a replacement once the new buildings are constructed, but it was not
included in the master plan approved by the City Council and the City
Planning Commission in March. Residents fear that when Fordham closes
the current walkway, it will be gone for good. [NYT]
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