NYC colleges, including NYU, to expand

New York City is already home to more students than any other city -- and over the next 25 years, major universities will expand by at least 320 acres within the five boroughs.

On Monday, the city announced that a New York University tech campus will open in Brooklyn in 2017, the latest addition to a long list of major expansions by local universities.

Other plans include NYU's expansion in Greenwich Village, Columbia's massive development north of 125th Street and Cornell's anticipated campus on Roosevelt Island.

As part of an agreement with the city, NYU and eight academic and commercial partners will turn the derelict former New York City Transit headquarters at 370 Jay St. into the gleaming Center for Urban Science and Progress. The institute will focus on researching technology to address problems facing modern cities. NYU will pay up to $60 million to relocate MTA and NYPD equipment and offices currently at the site.

Educational institutions are widely recognized as an important engine for economic growth -- both the new Cornell campus and NYU's CUSP campus are part of the city's Applied Sciences NYC Initiative, which seeks to bolster New York's economy by establishing a "world-class" tech campus in the city. The NYC Economic Development Corporation expects that the CUSP campus will generate $5.5 billion in overall economic impact and 7,700 jobs over the next three decades; the Cornell campus is expected to generate $23 billion and at least 8,000 permanent jobs in the same time period.

Planned university growth

during the next 25 years

will include:

NYU's 6-million-square-foot expansion plan set to be completed by 2031, which includes 2.5-million-square-feet in Greenwich Village, buildings in Murray Hill, Governor's Island and Downtown Brooklyn.

Columbia's 6.8-million-square-foot expansion in Manhattanville

Cornell and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's 2-million-square-foot campus on Roosevelt Island.

Pace University's new 24-story dorm and 50,000-square-foot performing arts building, set to open this year in the Financial District.

Still, such expansions also threaten to alter the fabric of city living. Community members who fear the destruction of neighborhood character have protested various plans.

The Jay Street address "had a lot of local support -- I think that shows there is a right way and a wrong way to expand," said Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. "New York should grow economically, and universities can be a part of that."