Marymount Manhattan College (MMC) had occupied the 13-floor residence hall since August 2015. (The building includes retail tenants Librae Bakery and Meet Fresh bubble tea.)
Despite multiple reports about Marymount leasing the space dating back 10 years, some residents thought it belonged to NYU's East Village dorm empire.
Well, it does now... as the NYU branding is already at the entrance...
The deal is joint venture between two Midtown-based real estate firms, Sherwood Equities and Bhatia Development, Crain's and PincusCo reported.
MMC's lease was reportedly terminated last month. This seemed like a bit of a hike for students of the private liberal arts college, which has its main campus on the Upper East Side.
Upon the dorm's grand opening nine years ago, 199 MMC students moved in, per a school news release at the time. The additional 73 spots were contracted out to Cooper Union.
The dorm sits on a lot previously occupied in part by 35 Cooper Square, the Federal-style building dating back to 1825. The closing of the Asian Pub in January 2011 at 35 Cooper Square set in motion a sequence of events that led to the demolition of the historic building in 2011, despite pleas from community activists and preservationists.
Neighbors weren't so supportive of all this, leaving signs calling developer Arun Bhatia "a destroyer of East Village history."
Crain's has more about NYU's real-estate empire:
NYU is considered one of the city's largest and wealthiest landlords, and, like other private colleges, it benefits from tax exemptions on its real estate. Last year NYU acquired a Kips Bay apartment building for $210 million — one of 2023's priciest transactions. And the total assessed value of NYU's holdings is about $1.8 billion, just below Columbia University's total, but NYU is taxed on just $120 million of that, thus enjoying nearly $1.7 billion in savings, according to a Crain's analysis in a piece from last fall headlined "City loses $788 million in property taxes as private colleges eat up 25M square feet of land."
Previously on EV Grieve:
14 comments:
IMO, NYU is (and has been for ages) much more in the real estate business than it is in the education business.
Wow, for an institution that claims to be a non-profit they sure do have a lot of money to spend. Maybe it’s time for them to start paying property taxes.
Is it just me or does it feel as if NYU has taken over the entire city with their endless real estate portfolio let alone the world with their campuses abroad?
Well, one thing for sure is that NYU destroyed the EV. Their dorms changed the nature of the EV from "different" to drunk... from people who didn't want to be their parents to people who wanted to be their parents. B-o-r-i-n-g.
13 floors can house a lot of people. Such a good use of space as it doesnt impact the initial footprint constraint. East Village zoning needs to change so that taller buildings can be developed and therefore house a lot more people.
"The School That Ate New York
By Gabriel Sherman". Published on 11/12/2010 in NY Magazine.
Like "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro", still relevant today:
"Near the end of our interview, I ask Sexton what would happen if NYU is thwarted in its campaign to build. Sexton told me that NYU can build on land it owns nearby when a building restriction expires in ten years. “We can grow anyway! I mean, we grew for twenty years before. If that’s denied, we have an as-of-right building that will be five feet away. Which we’ll do! Maybe we’ll be forced to add seven stories to the Catholic Center.”
Sexton says this with a smile, but his intention is clear. “What’s good for NYU is good for the city” is a slogan that, one way or another, New Yorkers are going to have to get used to."
https://nymag.com/news/features/69482/
I can only assume that you are a real estate developer. Your thinking is exactly what this neighborhood does not need
NYU's 1.9 billion while not chump change is nothing compared to the portfolio of Trinity Church which is worth around 6 billion. They've been raking it in tax free ever since Queen Anne gave them 200+ acres in 1705.
Agreed!
More. Of. This.
I was once told that the two biggest real estate holders in NYC were NYU and Columbia - according to Curbed they are still currently in the top ten: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/9/14/17860172/new-york-10-biggest-property-owners
It’s like the famous quip about Harvard, that “it’s a hedge fund with a school attached.” Except with NYU it’s real estate.
The irony of today’s youth lies in their passionate pursuit of trendy virtues—carrying eco-friendly water bottles, championing ethical businesses, and protesting for the latest social causes—while simultaneously supporting institutions like NYU, which epitomizes corporate greed and urban displacement. This duality exposes a deeper truth: everyone has a line where their principles waver, and they turn a blind eye to the contradictions in their actions. It’s a reminder that ideals, no matter how passionately held, are often compromised by convenience or personal ambition. Students attending nyu should be made to feel uncomfortable about their association with this racket
Nicely said. When I was younger we had CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City, which gave you a much better education, and they took up a lot space in the hood. They were more affordable too.
I meant to say a lot LESS space
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