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NYC Offers Free Real Estate For Science And Engineering Campus
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 19, 2011
Modified Jul 19, 2011
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 19, 2011
Modified Jul 19, 2011
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, Mayor Bloomberg said he'd love it if NYC had a big applied science and engineering campus, whether from a school or institution already here or a new one, so the Big Apple could effectively compete with Silcon Alley and today he formally announced that the RFP process is open—and said the city would offer real estate at essentially no cost plus $100 million in infrastructure upgrades.
Bloomberg bragged, "The fact is, New York was Start-up City before there were start-ups. When I created Bloomberg LP in 1981, no one called us a start-up. But that's what we were. We had an untested idea that relied on untested technology developed by a one-time engineering student and a few computer scientists. Of course back then, they weren't called scientists. They were called nerds. But I could never have built the business without them."
The three possible locations are the Navy Hospital Campus at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Goldwater Hospital Campus on Roosevelt Island, or on Governors Islands raised by the winner or winners themselves. Bloomberg, city officials and other politicians, such as Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, hope an applied science campus will attract and retain talent and spur job creation. According to the city's press release, the NYC Economic Development Corporation estimates, "Over the next 35 years, pthe campus] will generate an estimated $6 billion in overall economic activity across the five boroughs, with hundreds of new companies spinning out of the school directly. And it will help create more than 22,000 permanent jobs for New Yorkers with a variety of skill levels, 7,700 construction jobs, and roughly $1.2 billion in direct and indirect taxes for the City of New York."
Many schools have expressed interest and even submitted preliminary proposals a few months ago (like Stanford, Columbia and Cornell). Of course this effort offended some of Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences students and professors, including one who said Bloomberg should spend "more time exploring the great resource that is Columbia."
Here's the new RFP.
Tagged
applied sciences NYC
engineering
mayor bloomberg
science
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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