JANUARY 2010 www.nycfuture.org MAKING THE MOST OF MANHATTANVILLE The battle over eminent domain has dominated discussion of Columbia’s planned expansion into West Harlem, but the ultimate success of this project will hinge on whether it simply results in a By David Hochman larger campus or if, like with other recent expansion projects by U.S. universities, it triggers additional economic development for New York and the community UNTIL EARLY DECEMBER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HAD SEEMED poised to move ahead with its $6.3 billion plan to develop its third ma- jor campus (complementing the university’s main complex at Morningside Heights and its medical center at 168th Street) in Manhattanville, the light- ly populated and mainly deindustrialized blocks of West Harlem sprawling between Broadway and 12th Avenue in the low 130s. The city had approved the requested zoning changes. The state had agreed to exercise eminent domain over holdout commercial proper- ties. And despite ferocious neighborhood opposition to the development stretching back nearly a decade, area politicians had signaled acquiescence after Columbia signed a “community benefits agreement” (CBA) that pro- vides many protections for low-income residents and a rich pool of benefits for the entire area. However, the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court has now at least temporarily put a halt to the university’s expansion plans, rul- ing that the state cannot use eminent domain to take property on Colum- bia’s behalf. The matter will ultimately be settled in a higher court. But even if the state prevails, the battle over eminent domain should not be the final word on this project. There are still important pieces missing from the plan that, depend- ing on how they are addressed, will determine the size and scope of the economic benefits of this promising project for New York City and West Harlem. If done right, the end result will not just be a larger campus for Columbia, but a range of positive economic outcomes for the surrounding community: the university’s own investments could prompt private com- panies based on advanced science and engineering technologies to set up shop nearby, boosting the city’s long-faltering innovation economy while creating a range of high-value, fair-wage jobs for local residents. 2 What’s missing from the Manhattanville discussion their global research partners to locate within a close There’s no question about the project’s potential ben- walk of students and faculty. efits. Already one of the city’s largest employers, Co- The issue is salient because the Audubon Biomedi- lumbia will rebuild 17 acres of Manhattanville to create cal Science and Technology Park at Columbia’s medical an “educational [or academic] mixed-use development” campus in Washington Heights—which was “sold” polit- that will include in its first phase a new neuroscience ically to city and state funders in the 1980s as the path initiative and relocated headquarters for the univer- to growing a biotech industry in the City—has failed to sity’s schools of business, arts, and international and deliver on that promise. The “park” includes just one public affairs—as well as university housing. Unques- smallish commercial building with less than 60,000 tionably a project of transformative scope, the final plan usable square feet of business incubator space. (Two projects 6,000 permanent jobs and promises a bevy of other academic research buildings have been built on business opportunities and civic or cultural amenities. this campus.) To this day, not one major corporate re- It should also bolster the city’s largest and arguably search partner of Columbia has space at the Audubon most important higher education institution in the end- site. The lack of true capacity for industry partnership less competition for the federal research funding that close to Columbia makes the lacunae of the Manhat- drives American universities—and helps amplify their tanville plan especially troubling. local economic-development impact. Federal grantors It’s also an important point because the city’s pre- now favor large-scale, interdisciplinary collaborations mier academic research institutions have not helped that integrate departmental silos and invite collabora- spark the growth of a larger local innovation economy, tion with industrial research and development (R&D) as have similar institutions in other regions. Despite a organizations. That’s a tall order for campuses config- healthy complement of standout universities and oth- ured in the last century or earlier, and so universities er centers of research, New York City has no nexus of New York City and State, and Columbia itself, have sometimes acted as if the final approval of the Manhattanville plan (including the eminent domain request) were the end game. But these additional private-sector job opportunities will not develop by themselves: leadership is required. across the United States are expanding or—if land- academic institutions and innovative businesses com- locked, as Columbia is at Morningside Heights—are parable to the clusters around Stanford and MIT, for creating entirely new districts for overflow or reloca- example. tion. Over the long term, New York has a lot at stake in What’s different about Manhattanville, however, is reversing this trend, given the need to diversify the that to this point the plan has included no discernable city’s economy and identify new engines of growth. emphasis on jobs other than in the university itself and The final Manhattanville project plan approved by the in retail or service businesses that mostly offer low state makes oddly confused assertions on industrial wages and limited advancement potential. By contrast, partnership. On the one hand, it acknowledges that the many new campus plans nationally (see table, page 6) mixed-use district “should serve as an engine of private make it possible for businesses that are research part- economic growth where more companies will want to ners of the university to operate cheek-by-jowl with be the first to translate research breakthroughs.” But new academic space, sparking the growth of a sus- on the other, it promises plainly that “Columbia would tainable regional technology cluster and the creation not permit occupancy of the Project Site for conduct of jobs that pay relatively well. Even other campuses of scientific research as a commercial enterprise,” with landlocked by residential neighborhoods with virtually the exception of “ancillary” uses, possibly another tech- no developable space (e.g., Carnegie Mellon in Pitts- nology oriented business incubator. While that’s better burgh) have developed standalone buildings that allow than nothing, it’s much less than what it should be. 3 How we took our eye off the ball likely would have inflamed concerns that Columbia’s Columbia determined very early that its new interdis- success would come at the cost of displacing low-in- ciplinary space had to be all in one place (unlike NYU, come residents from the surrounding areas. Every ad- which reached the opposite conclusion when it sub- ditional argument in support of eminent domain—even sequently set its own expansion plans). Spurning the if fully consistent with state law—produced an opposite alternative Community Board 9 plan for modest infill reaction of rage, and raised the “price” that the univer- development, Columbia opted instead for an aggres- sity would ultimately pay in the CBA. Therefore, de- sive clearance and buildout to its entire projected space velopment for private-sector partners was simply not need literally decades hence, well beyond the horizon discussed after the earliest stages in project planning. of what’s known with certainty now. Moreover, to assure efficient use of lot size within What to do now the anticipated height restrictions and facilitate what Columbia has a superb design and engineering team the project plan repeatedly calls an “integrated, mod- working on a powerful and (to me) elegant physical ern, open campus,” the university planned for two mil- plan, and it has signed a CBA that, whatever one may lion square feet of underground utility space, requiring think of the process that produced it, does includes control over the entire site. Since they did not wish to many significant and useful commitments to genuine compromise on full site control, administrators knew university/community partnership. But we’re still be- they would also ask for eminent domain powers. Un- hind on understanding how to leverage Manhattanville der state urban development law, any project sponsor for significant economic development. asking the state to exercise these powers on its behalf Beyond the 17 acres being developed by Colum- must demonstrate a plan to remediate substandard or bia, there were about another 18 acres considered by insanitary conditions and to address educational, cul- the City Planning Commission as part of the overall tural, recreational, and community needs. planning area. This comprised two parcels of land: the When you’re a large institution operating in a com- underdeveloped lots surrounding Fairway market be- munity that is deeply suspicious and fearful of your tween 12th Avenue and the City-developed West Har- motives to start with, whose buildout plan is necessari- lem Piers waterfront park; and the low-lying quasi-in- ly a bit foggy because you’re asking for more space than dustrial district southwest of City College, sometimes you need right now or have specific ideas for, and the known as “New Amsterdam.” law you want the state to use on your behalf requires In its smart and thoughtful memorandum of de- you to argue that the community was decrepit to start cision reconciling Columbia’s plan with the CB9 plan, with, and these same state laws says you must justify the City Planning Commission recommends contin- your plan by meeting community and civic needs, then ued commercial zoning for these spots, albeit with en- conditions are ripe for a pretty toxic negotiation.