The search is over.

Five months after Pat Foye, downstate chairman of the state's main development agency, resigned, Governor Paterson has found a new leader for the Empire State Development Corporation. Today he announced that Citigroup executive Marisa Lago will take the role of president and CEO of the agency, which oversees major development projects such as the redo of Penn Station, the creation of Brooklyn Bridge Park and the expansion of the Javits Center.

Ms. Lago, chief compliance officer for Citi Markets and Banking, was previously the chief economic development officer in Boston and worked at the city's Economic Development Corporation as its general counsel.  read more »

For more than three years, Nicholas Sprayregen has kept his word to Columbia University.

The largest private landowner in the footprint of the university’s planned 17-acre West Harlem expansion, he has vowed time and again to fight the university’s attempts to oust him, so long as the school threatens the use of eminent domain.

Now, as the bulk of the area’s politicians have endorsed the expansion, community opposition has gone from a boil to a simmer and all but one other private-property owner has agreed to sell to the university, the fight’s final chapter is poised to be strictly a legal one between two parties: the university and Mr.  read more »

It seems the second blight study commissioned for Columbia University's planned West Harlem expansion did not come at extra cost to the state, as the Empire State Development Corporation's spokesman confirmed today that Columbia picked up the report's $217,000 tab.

The state's major development agency, ESDC, yesterday declared the 17-acre expansion footprint as blighted, a necessary step before using eminent domain. Prior to yesterday, it was unclear whether a blight study the state commissioned would have run into legal obstacles, as a state appellate court earlier in the week was critical of the state's use of contractor AKRF to complete the study.  read more »

The state's main development agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, kicked off the public process for eminent domain for Columbia University's 17-acre West Harlem expansion today, starting a final chapter in the approvals for the contentious $7 billion initiative.

In announcing the process, ESDC President Avi Schick unveiled two unexpected nuggets of news surrounding the plan: yet another concession package from Columbia and a second blight study.

The concessions, which come on top of two multi-million dollar concession packages negotiated last year with Borough President Scott Stringer and then with the other local elected officials and members of the community, included $20 million for community development initiatives, $1 million for CUNY, a mobile dental center, and undergraduate scholarships.  read more »

The major landowner fighting Columbia University's expansion, Nick Sprayregen, today came out victorious over the state's Empire State Development Corporation today in an appellate court ruling on a case involving the Freedom of Information Law.

The case concerned the release of documents and correspondences between the state and its contractor AKRF, mostly surrounding the creation of a blight study (slated for release Thursday).

Mr. Sprayregen, represented by attorney Norman Siegel, defeated the state at the first level last year, with the court offering criticism that the same contractor, AKRF, was used for both the blight study and the environmental review.  read more »

Just when news started to slow for the summer on the development front, New York's Empire State Development Corporation dropped this bombshell in the agenda for its monthly meeting [PDF]: Columbia University "Land Use Improvement Project and Civic Project Findings."

Translation: the state will unveil the blight study, the first step in the use of eminent domain for Columbia's 17-acre West Harlem site.

The one major holdout left in the footprint is Nick Sprayregen, owner of Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage, which has numerous properties in the area. Mr. Sprayregen has bankrolled much of the opposition to the project, particularly on the legal front, and has previously vowed to challenge the use of eminent domain.  read more »

Lots of shuffling at the state’s major development agency: Ken Schoetz, currently the upstate COO of the Empire State Development Corporation, has today been named acting upstate CEO, according to one person with knowledge of the situation.

Mr.  read more »

Governor Paterson has named the CEO of Buffalo-based M & T Bank, Robert Wilmers, as the new chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, according to two people familiar with an announcement expected this afternoon.

Updated 4 p.m.

Mr. Wilmers, 74, will take a new consolidated role as chairman of the state’s major development agency, which oversees incentive programs and projects such as Moynihan Station, Atlantic Yards, and the Javits Center expansion.

Mr. Wilmers, who will not take a salary, is a major political donor and served on Eliot Spitzer’s transition team just after he was elected governor. Campaign finance records show he gave $40,000 to the Spitzer-Paterson campaign between 2005 and 2006, and $50,000 to the state Senate Republicans earlier this year.

He has served on numerous boards and organizations related to business and economic development, and has been a strong advocate for the revitalization of the upstate economy. He has supported the group Unshackle Upstate, which has blamed Albany’s inattention to upstate for economic problems in the region.  read more »

The upstate chairman of the state’s major development agency has resigned, Governor Paterson’s office announced this afternoon. Taken with the resignations of downstate chairman Pat Foye and downstate president Avi Schick in March and May, respectively, the Empire State Development Corporation has lost its top three officials with no new leader yet announced.

Unclear to us, for now, is whether the departure of Dan Gundersen, the upstate chairman, was his choice or that of Mr. Paterson. Mr. Paterson said in early May that he was planning to reverse the Spitzer administration and consolidate ESDC to only have one chairman (i.e. Mr. Gundersen would suddenly have a new boss, assuming that the one chairman wasn’t him). The structure was criticized as the three leaders frequently clashed.
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Governor Paterson is moving closer to picking a chief for his main economic development agency, the Empire State Development Corporation, a body that has sat without a clear leader since its downstate chairman under Governor Spitzer, Pat Foye, announced his resignation two months ago. The agency oversees many of the state’s large, high-profile development projects including Moynihan Station, Atlantic Yards and the Javits Center.

A committee of mostly business leaders and led by Sandy Weill is due to recommend a new chairman to Mr. Paterson in one to two weeks, at which point the governor will have the final say, according to multiple people familiar with discussions.  read more »