Columbia Files Plans For 34-Story Harlem Residential Building

HARLEM, NY — Columbia University has applied for permits to build a large residential tower on Harlem's 125th Street near the ivy league school's new expansion campus in the neighborhood, according to public records and reports.

Columbia's new development will rise 391-feet-tall on 600 W. 125th St. near the corner of Broadway. The 34-story tower will replace a one-story McDonald's restaurant and contain 142 apartments for Columbia students and faculty, according to plans filed with the city Department of Buildings.

The Morningside Heights-based school paid McDonald's $2.7 million in 2004 for the property, according to public real estate records. The burger chain will return as a retail tenant in Columbia's new building, the Real Deal first reported.

Columbia representatives told the Real Deal that construction on the new building is expected to begin in 2020 and be complete by 2022. The new student housing should reduce the number of Columbia students seeking housing on the local market, the school's reps told the real estate publication.

The new residential development isn't considered part of Columbia's Manhattanville campus, but it's located just blocks away. Columbia recently bought another Harlem building — 3,300 Broadway located between West 133rd and 134th streets — in a deal valued at $33.6 million.

Columbia's Manhattanville campus is quickly taking shape. The 17-acre campus' third building, The Forum, opened in late 2018 joining the Jerome L. Greene Science Center and the Lenfest Center for the Arts. The expansion was launched in 2003 and is Columbia University's largest capital project since the 19th century construction of its campus in Morningside Heights.