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New Columbia Expansion Idea: Relocate an Entire Building?

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The rezoning of 125th Street in Harlem can't have all the fun, not when the little matter of Columbia University's $7 billion mega-expansion is still in play. One landowner has filed suit because he says there wasn't a proper environmental review of the two million square foot bathtub under the planned campus. Now, an owner of a different building in the campus footprint wants the university to move her building four blocks to the south instead of selling it to them. The owner sent out a press release yesterday in which she is quoted as saying, "Moving the building would let Columbia have the land and would let me keep on using the architecturally beautiful and historic building which I love." (The release came from the Manhattanville Preservation Alliance, Former Sheffield Farms Stable in "Old West Harlem.") The building houses a moving and storage business and used to be part of thriving dairy empire. Today's amNY picks up the narrative, which started with an effort to save the beaux-arts façade and progressed to preserving the building, albeit by relocating it. There's no price tag, but a Columbia official labels the idea "dream land stuff," which sounds like a "no."
· Harlem biz owner wants building relocated [amNY]
· Harlem Landowner Sues Over Columbia Expansion [Sun]

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