New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger announced an agreement between the City and Columbia for creating a new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering.
Photo – columbia.edu
This is the third Applied Sciences NYC partnership agreement entered into by the City, bringing the total economic impact of all three projects combined to more than $33 billion.
The City will provide $15 million in financial assistance, including discounted energy transmission costs, partial debt forgiveness and lease flexibility leading to the development of the Institute. Columbia will contribute at least $80 million in private investment.
The institute will generate $3.9 billion of economic growth across the five boroughs over the next three decades. This includes 4,223 permanent jobs and 285 construction jobs. In addition, 170 companies are expected to spin-off in the City as a result of the project during this time.
This $3.9 billion, along with over $23 billion for the Cornell-Technion project on Roosevelt Island and the $5.5 billion for NYU-led consortium building the Center for Urban Science and Progress in Downtown Brooklyn brings the total projected Applied Sciences NYC economic impact so far to a huge $33.2 billion.
All three projects put together will create 48,241 permanent and construction jobs, and 945 spin-off companies by 2046.
The announcement was made by Mayor Bloomberg and President Bolinger at the Morningside Heights campus, with plenty of other officials in attendance including New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) president Seth W. Pinsky.
“This historic partnership is newest element in the applied sciences initiative that is, by far, the largest and most far-reaching economic development effort City government has undertaken in modern memory,” said Mayor Bloomberg.
“Through this Applied Science initiative Mayor Bloomberg has energized the conversation about the essential role of universities in our City’s economic future,” said President Bollinger.
“When we officially launched this groundbreaking initiative in 2010, among our stated goals was to achieve a critical mass of applied science and engineering activity here in New York City,” said NYCEDC president Seth W. Pinsky. “This newest partnership, with one of the finest academic institutions in the world, is another important step towards achieving that goal.”
The City is not resting on its laurels, though. Negotiations for more such initiatives are ongoing with Carnegie Mellon and some of the other institutions that had responded to the original Applied Sciences NYC Request for Proposals (RFP) put out by NYCEDC in July 2011.
Kathryn Wylde, president & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, summed it up nicely. “Within a decade, our city will likely eclipse Silicon Valley as the nation’s largest concentration of diverse engineering talent and technological innovation, thanks to the vision of the Bloomberg Administration and the commitments of Columbia, Cornell, The Technion, NYU Polytechnic and the City University of New York to create a cluster of new applied sciences institutions here,” said Wylde.
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