The City University of New York’s Hunter College announced back in 2012 it planned to build a 300,000-square-foot nursing school on the Upper East Side, but it turns out Gov. Andrew Cuomo still hasn’t budgeted any money for it.
CUNY’s partner on the project, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is moving ahead with its own 500,000-square-foot development on the shared site, at 525-529 East 73rd Street on the Upper East side, but CUNY’s own project remains in limbo, Politico reported.
The combined project was billed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg as “easily one of the largest real estate transactions city government has ever been involved in,” at a press conference announcing the plans back in 2012.
Cuomo, however, wasn’t involved in the preparation for the press conference, and was only invited at the last minute. The governor didn’t attend, and, afterwards, a top aide, Larry Schwartz, called CUNY officials to angrily complaint about the situation, Politico reported, citing sources.
The partners paid the city $226 million for the site, New York’s 10th largest development site deal in 2015, according to an analysis by The Real Deal. [Politico] – Ariel Stulberg