« Eminent Domain Threatens Brooklyn Financial Service Firm | Main | An amputation at 80 DeKalb makes way for a Forest City Ratner tower »
May 24, 2007
Columbia’s Harlem Lobbying Effort Gets Expensive
The NY Sun
By Eliot Brown
An article about Columbia University topping the list for lobbying public officials this year includes a comparison with Forest City Ratner. Both are using eminent domain to assemble seize property for their ambitious development plans:
Columbia’s spending on lobbying this year tops that of any major developer in the city, though the developer of Brooklyn’s $4 billion Atlantic Yards Project, Forest City Ratner, is listed as spending more than $300,000. In 2006, the Brooklyn-based development company ranked third in the state for lobbying expenses, spending more than $2.1 million leading up to the approval in December of the giant mixed-use project that seeks to build a basketball arena and residential towers near downtown Brooklyn.
Columbia is awaiting the completion of a state-administered blight study for the area, a required step for the use of eminent domain. A spokesman for the state’s development agency said the state is hoping to complete the study in June.
NoLandGrab: We wonder, has a "blight study" ever returned a no-blight finding?
Posted by lumi at May 24, 2007 9:14 AM