Thursday, August 13, 2015

Marymount Manhattan College's Cooper Square dorm opens on Aug. 28


[Photo by Jim Rogers]

It has almost been three years to the date since when we first learned that a dorm was in the works for Cooper Square…. at the former 35 Cooper Square at East Sixth Street.

And now the dorm is ready for students starting on Aug. 28.

Here's part of the official news release that we received yesterday:

Marymount Manhattan College (MMC) is pleased to announce the opening of its brand-new student residence at 200 East 6th Street, in the thriving downtown East Village community known as Cooper Square.

“MMC’s expansion into downtown Manhattan is an expression of our commitment to fully engage with all corners of the city, as part of our “city as a campus” philosophy, while also offering students an intimate community and academic experience,” explained Dr. Kerry Walk, President of Marymount Manhattan College.

MMC worked closely with developer Arun Bhatia from The Arun Bhatia Development Organization to conceptualize the building plans and construct a residence that would serve the college for many years. The completed building meets the needs of MMC’s urban students with 24/7 security, on-site MMC Residence Directors, an outdoor terrace space, a 24-hour study lounge, laundry facilities, bike storage, a modern fitness center, as well as wireless Internet throughout the building.

“We are thrilled to expand our student residence footprint in Manhattan to accommodate our growing student population, within the dynamic East Village neighborhood just a short commute to MMC’s main campus,” said Emmalyn Yamrick, Director of Residence Life.

MMC is a private liberal arts college with its main campus on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, at 221 East 71st Street.

Per the release, the Cooper Square Residence Hall will accommodate 272 students in total. This year, 199 MMC students will be moving in ... while the additional 73 spots have been contracted out to Cooper Union.

No word just yet on the retail tenants for the space. Too bad that the Cooper 35 Asian Pub isn't still at 35 Cooper Square, where the dorm now stands — students may have liked that.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Something 28,998 square feet or so coming to Cooper Square (and goodbye Cooper 35 Asian Pub?)

Here's what's coming to 35 Cooper Square: 9-story dormitory

Proposed dorm for former 35 Cooper Square looks to be 4 floors taller

City OKs 13-floor dorm for Cooper Square

Updated: Here's what the newest East Village dorm will look like

Dig bottoms out on Cooper Square; here comes the dorm, here comes the dorm!

Your chance to lease the retail space in the new Cooper Square dorm

28 comments:

Walter said...

Great...we needed more douche bags in this neighborhood.

blue glass said...

just what we need
more drunk loud students
like we need more nail salons, raman, pizza, bars, and yogurt

Gojira said...

Oh good,like blue glass said, a whole fresh new infusion of drunken, whooping morons, who have all the substance and permanence of sea foam, but whose presence and demands for millennial services has almost completely obliterated the East Village of old. Simply wonderful.

NOTORIOUS said...

JUST what we need more of is "city as a campus." NEWSFLASH: The city is not your campus! You can see the negative impact these students have on the neighborhood with every bubble tea hut, fro-you tent, and dumpling pop up shop. The whole neighborhood is now either catering towards children or alcoholics. It's obnoxious. So PLEASE, don't be so proud about the socio economic damage you're doing.

Anonymous said...

This is fucking great. Exactly. Just what we need. A bunch of entitled, rich snobs, bros, and drunks roaming the streets. Barf. What happened to the East Village? From the facades of new buildings and new residents piling in, it feels like we are trapped in a suburb somewhere in the south. :(

Anonymous said...

Where did a non-ranked school with less than 2000 students and a $13 MM endowment get the money to build a large, luxury dorm in Downtown Manhattan?

Anonymous said...

News flash - NYU and Cooper Union and their students have been part of the east village a lot longer than you haters of college aged humans. Such vitriol for college students is frankly bizarre and I don't get it. Most towns/cities welcome the vitality colleges bring to the community. Yes they can be loud but we were all young once too.

Anonymous said...

I hate college kids. You don't learn how to read in college. Street smarts over book smarts, is what I always say. Rich kids with their fancy shoes going to school. I wonder who they think they are? They aren't better than me.

cmarrtyy said...

As I've said before... we're overwhelmed by dorms like some neighborhoods are overwhelmed by trash collecting depots. Why should we be abused? Where are are our politicians!? Where is the community board? Enough is enough!

NOTORIOUS said...

@11:26

1. NYC is not some sleepy town. We have plenty of vitality already thank you very much.

2. The amount of students being dumped into the eco system is disproportionate to non students, hence the whole neighborhood feeling like a campus, clearly by design.

Makeout said...

"The substance & permanence of seafoam". Wow. Fantastic Gojira.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 11:11

My understanding (sorry, don't have documentation at this time) is that developers can build dorms and receive a tax abatement for 10 years, after which they can convert the buildings into residential apartments.

A dorm was planned by this developer long before he actually had a school to commit to renting it. Since none of the existing dorm owners/renters wanted this building, he had to seek a college outside of the immediate area and hence: Marymount.

NOTORIOUS said...

Agreed! Good one Gojira! Acai bowl for you! :)

Anonymous said...

It's getting to the point where they'll soon be replacing CitiBikes with tricycles and outdoor seating with outdoor napping areas.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 11:26

I've been to many of those towns/cities. The areas that have been converted to student housing are mostly places where there were abandoned or run-down houses or apartment buildings, businesses that had been closed because they no longer had customers to cater to. Bringing in student housing did, indeed, revitalize these communities.

The East Village was a stable part of the city with families, ethnic and cultural diversity, thriving businesses, services available to all, etc. The overwhelming number of dorms and hotels has made this a transient community with fewer and fewer permanent residents to support our parks, library, elementary schools, block associations and community. There is less and less a sense of community, we no longer know who are neighbors are (and Airbnb certainly adds to this) and if we do run into a slightly familiar face, it's poised over a phone screen checking in with Facebook friends rather than getting to know a neighbor.

Anonymous said...

Colleges integrating with or taking over residential towns is nothing new, but since when do college students have the purchasing power to supercede the economic needs of the post-college adults who live there? That's the weird thing about all this. Do they have that much economic sway? I question it. I think the scourge is not really all the college kids. There is a pervading college mentality no doubt, but I think the people who are affecting this neighborhood and its economy are largely the post-college set.

Anonymous said...

The remarks people here make about college kids reminds me of when I was a kid, and came from John Birch-types. Same as now.

Anonymous said...

"Street smarts over book smarts" That's what keeps you on the streets.

How about street smarts AND book smarts? - That's what will help you succeed in life.

Anonymous said...

@2:41: You are a jerk. As was pointed out a week or two ago, the "kids" who come to live in the dorms in the EV number over 5,000 in EV - that is a HUGE hit for any neighborhood to take, and you'll notice that it's not happening on the upper east side.

Dorms: NYU North, NYU Founders Hall, New School, NYU Alumni Hall, NYU Palladium, NYU Coral Towers - do the math for yourself and figure out that this area is being overwhelmed by very entitled kids (supported by $$ from their very entitled parents). And this doesn't include Cooper Union students, nor Marymount students.

Anonymous said...

Vitality? Is that what you call college kids sitting all over the place staring vacantly into their iPhones and laptops? I call that sad.

Anonymous said...

I assume most of the young people in sports bars are over 21, possibly students, but I can guarantee you that the drunks on the balconies and rooftops and howling in the streets on weekend evenings are college students. Do they have money? Hell yes, how else could they afford to live in these newly renovated (not rent stabilized) apartments? We the many old geezers commenting here young once? You betcha. Did we have money to eat out most nights at foodie restaurants? Were the polish restaurants on Ave A get reviewed in the NY Times? Old timers usually like to complain and say how it was so much better in the past, but this is more than that. Our homes are under attack, many of us are being forced out either by our landlords, businesses which we use are closing due to greed and useful services and products are being replaced with overprice gimmick foods and loud bars which encourage heavy drinking.

Anonymous said...

Digital hobos.

blue glass said...

anonymous 11:26am here's a news flash
i was a cooper union student here in the 60s. there were NO dorms. we were mostly NYC folks and many of us lived around here. nobody roamed the streets in loud drunk packs. we went home quietly without announcing it. the residents and students were part of the community. the people that lived here were not temporary residents. businesses welcomed everyone as customers and prices were mostly reasonable.
the most obnoxious folks were the johns that drove up and down third avenue. even the insufferable dealers had more respect than the current hoards that visit or temporarily live here.
it was a time when there were jazz joints, local bars (in reasonable numbers), family businesses that had been here for generations, mostly ukrainian and polish restaurants.
the college students that lived here did so because the rents were reasonable and did not behave as the brainless neanderthals of today.

Anonymous said...

@7:55pm: Spot on in everything you said!

Yes, I was young once - and yet I did not behave like today's entitled young jackasses. Getting drunk was not a prerequisite for having fun.

Someone should do a public service announcement to inform today's kids that being stupid-obnoxious-drunk (as so many of them are) is NOT actually necessary - or, if it IS necessary, then here's where the nearest AA meetings are held.

Anonymous said...

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

Gojira said...

Thank you, Makeout and NOTORIOUS! xoxo

Michael said...

Who do these kids think they are? I am better than them. Us adults are far better than them. How is it that someone not as good as me is absolutely ruining my life? Screw you children.

Anonymous said...

The students in these dorms or lowering themselves to live in the Village. Just so you know they originally lived on the Upper East Side. Funny those snotty people didn't have a problem with them. Why should you East Villagers have an issue. Do we not remember the village was all about Love, Free Spirit at one time. So get down off your rent controlled soap box and deal with it or there are many non student areas that I'm sure your stuck up self would fit into.