St. John's brands 51 (or 101) Astor Place

St. John's University continues to prep its new 71,000 square feet of space for its Manhattan campus here at 51 Astor Place/101 Astor Place/the IBM Watson Building/Death Star, etc.

According to a release about the move from December:

The new location will house St. John’s School of Risk Management, a key division of the University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business and a global leader in risk and insurance education and training.

The School of Risk Management contains the Kathryn & Shelby Cullom Davis Library, which comprises the world’s largest collection of risk and insurance literature, policies, and related documents, and serves as a center for study and research for students of risk management, insurance, and actuarial science around the world.

The location will also be home to The Language Connection, St. John’s intensive English language institute, and to continuing professional education and other academic programs.

St. John's plans to be ready for the fall semester. The new site replaces the school's Manhattan campus in Tribeca, which the University sold for $223 million in July 2013.

Meanwhile, we've already spotted several students walking to their new campus...


[Random photo from last week by Derek Berg]

St. John's coming to 51 Astor Place?

St. John’s University is looking to lease space at 51 Astor Place, Lois Weiss at the Post reports today. As she notes, the building needs to rent about 50,000 square feet to a school to fulfill zoning requirements.

Not a done deal, though.

But sources said the cost for the Fumihiko Maki-designed space is roughly $90 a square foot, and is not sitting well with some of the school insiders, who have been mortified by financial scandals that rocked the school over the last year and feel the high tab is not in keeping with its Catholic roots.

The school is selling its campus location in Tribeca, Weiss reported.