Real Estate
CUNY is soliciting developers interested in a John Jay College building on Amsterdam Avenue.
CUNY looks to boost coffers through real estate
BY RACHEL HOLLIDAY SMITH
AND GABRIEL SANDOVAL
THE CITY
This story was originally published
on OCT. 11 by THE CITY.
The fi nancially strapped City University
of New York is looking to
mine another valuable asset: its
prime Manhattan real estate.
The city’s public university system
put out a call last week asking real estate
developers to suggest projects for
a site within shouting distance of Billionaires’
Row.
The former shoe factory at 1 Amsterdam
Ave. at 59th Street, last occupied
by John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
has been nearly empty since the school
relocated in 2011.
CUNY is asking developers to submit
proposals that would supply at least
300,000 square feet for college operations,
to be sold or leased to the state
Dormitory Authority.
That would leave up to about
500,000 more square feet of space a
developer could devote to other purposes
— and wring as much money out
of the property as possible, according
to the solicitation.
The development must “maximize
the fi nancial return to CUNY,” the
document states.
CUNY has previously identifi ed 1
Amsterdam Ave. as a home for the
relatively new Guttman Community
College, currently in rented space near
Bryant Park.
Frank Sobrino, a CUNY spokesperson,
said only that the university is
“looking to see how we might be able
to make better use of an underutilized
asset.”
Red Ink and Big Bucks
Real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller
said the four-story, 1950s-era John Jay
building may be one of the last large
development parcels west of Columbus
Circle, following a development boom.
“Many property owners, long-term
property owners, don’t realize how
valuable some of the assets they possess
are today versus when they acquired
them decades ago,” he said.
The city acquired 1 Amsterdam Ave.
in 1980 through a foreclosure action,
deed records show.
The John Jay project comes as CUNY
has weathered years of budget cuts and
copes with aging facilities. An independent
audit prepared for the university
last year shows CUNY had a nearly
$700 million net defi cit.
CUNY has previously teamed with
private partners to build dorms in
Queens, Staten Island and Manhattan,
and moved its law school from Flushing
to Long Island City, thanks to a partnership
with Citigroup.
The John Jay plan stands out as an
PHOTO : RACHEL HOLLIDAY SMITH/THE CITY
effort to not only build a new CUNY
facility but also extract potentially signifi
cant sums from university-owned
real estate.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been pushing
CUNY for years to consider selling
or using its properties to generate revenue
for the university system, which is
funded primarily by the state.
In his 2017 fi nancial plan, Cuomo
called for the sale of 450 West 41st St.,
the location of Hunter College’s Master
of Fine Arts program, and encouraged
consideration of sales of other CUNY
properties, POLITICO New York reported.
Proposals from developers for the
John Jay site are due back to CUNY by
Nov. 20.
This story was originally published
by THE CITY, an independent, nonprofi
t news organization dedicated to
hard-hitting reporting that serves the
people of New York.
30 October 17, 2019 Schneps Media