City draws 18 proposals for new graduate engineering school campus

The city’s opening offer for as much as $100 million in real estate to an academic institution that develops a new graduate engineering school campus has drawn 18 proposals in its first, invitation round, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today. The city said in December that it would contribute both capital and properties, like the former hospital sites at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Roosevelt Island, to a “top caliber” institution in order to attract more technology companies to the city. Among the array of international institutions that expressed interest in the project: Cornell University, Columbia University together with the City University of New York, the Cooper Union, Stanford University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. “Many of the world’s leading tech companies grew out of top applied science programs, and we want the next generation of companies and jobs to start up here in New York,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel. The city now plans to review the responses and issue a formal request for proposals come summertime, with a selection by the end of the year. TRD