Public Lives: Pushing Back as Columbia Moves to Spread Out By Robin Finn

Read The New York Times article written by Robin Finn and first pulished in the January 11, 2008 edition about Nick Sprayregen, known developer in Manhattan and getting to be known in Yonkers.

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NICHOLAS SPRAYREGEN, the Upper Manhattan property owner who has dueled to a standoff with an acquisition-minded Columbia University in the real estate version of a “whoever has the most toys, wins” competition, knows better than to ask for a sympathy vote.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” he says, crouched behind a desk in his windowless office at 3261 Broadway. Photographs of Bruce Springsteen, whom the lean and hirsute Mr. Sprayregen marginally resembles, dominate the decorating scheme. Don’t worry, Mr. Sprayregen, no pity for you.

This is true even before you mention that you have scored seventh-row seats to the Boss’s summer concert at Giants Stadium, sat next to Mr. Springsteen’s mom at one of his Seeger sessions gigs, and attended six shows during his 10-night stand at Madison Square Garden for “The Rising” tour. Do you really have to drag out that photograph of you and the Boss posing at a Bridgehampton ice cream shop, the shot used as a screen saver on all your electronic gadgets? Did you really name two of your companies, Rising Development Company and Rising Publications, in honor of Mr. Springsteen? Does the final line on your one-page résumé read: “Number one Bruce Springsteen fan in Harlem,” even though you and your wife, Jaynee, live on the Upper East Side? Yes, yes and yes.

“I am very obsessive in general, and I tend to do things to an extreme,” he admits. In him, this somehow manages to be an endearing quality.

Mr. Sprayregen, 44, is a multimillionaire thanks to Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage, the family business he took over in 1990. What was once a hulking orange-and-black brick building on an unattractive stretch of Broadway at 131st Street (it now bears a banner with the message “Stop Eminent Domain Abuse”) has morphed into five storage warehouses. It’s hard to work up a tear for a fellow who owns one million square feet of commercial properties in New York and New Jersey, has acquired 18 choice parcels in the heart of Yonkers, and last year diversified himself further by purchasing Westchester’s largest chain of weekly newspapers.

Hard to proffer condolences to a guy who drives, proudly, “a gas-guzzling Chevy Suburban,” an act of political incorrectness he attributes to being the father of four busy children from his first marriage. Conveniently, he has his own oversize parking spot in this hulking warehouse, the building that was the genesis of his family’s self-storage business in 1980 and that Columbia is now bent on bulldozing to make room for a complex designed by Renzo Piano.

GIRDED by the recent City Council-stamped rezoning of the Manhattanville neighborhood, and contingent upon the result of a blight study conducted by the Empire State Development Corporation, Columbia is poised to acquire four properties owned by Mr. Sprayregen that are in the path and plans of the university’s 17-acre expansion.

Mr. Sprayregen, a businessman so obsessed with fitness that he has raced and finished 20 marathons and so obsessive about gaining a pound that he has not weighed himself since college (no need to), is relishing the tangle with his Ivy League neighbor over the precious asset that constitutes, he says, “ the bread and butter for 15 members of my family.”

Columbia may covet his property, but surrender is not in his repertoire. He’s given up running marathons to devote himself to winning, or at least finishing, what will inevitably be a bruising and expensive legal marathon. (He estimates he will spend more than $2 million in court fees.)

“I’m a mere mortal and they’re an institution,” he says, “but when they started buying up this neighborhood three years ago, it bothered me, and now it infuriates me.” He is likely to stay mad for years.

“I would have never thought four years ago that I would get involved in a civil rights issue; I had never before considered myself as part of a minority that was being stamped upon.” He does now. “This is about the powerful growing more powerful at the expense of those who have less. Columbia is not a public university; what they’re doing by threatening to use eminent domain is as unethical from a business perspective as anything I’ve ever come across. Property rights abuse is running rampant, but what’s unique in this instance is that eminent domain always seems to be used against the down-and-out, people who can’t afford to fight back in a meaningful way. I can. But I think it’s anti-American that I’m probably on the losing side.”

Mr. Sprayregen, with help from the civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel, vows to take Columbia all the way to the Supreme Court to prevent it from seizing his property.

Mr. Sprayregen, who grew up in New Rochelle and has an M.B.A. from New York University, actually applied to and was accepted by Columbia’s Graduate School of International Studies while working in management and acquisitions for a Chase Manhattan subsidiary from 1987 to 1989. He wound up running the family business instead.

“People like to say this is just about money, that Columbia is the future and me and my business are so yesterday, but this is about right and wrong. Why should Columbia get to take my property? And why, now that there has been a change of zoning, shouldn’t I be able to stay here side-by-side with Columbia and develop my own properties?”

So one way or another, Tuck-It-Away is history? Mr. Sprayregen nods. No tears here.

Comments

Schools should be in the business of education and not the real estate business. That's why college education costs so much.

Perhaps he should team up with Jerka and sue everybody.

Seriously though I think he is right. Columbia as fine a school as it is, is a private college. There are plenty of unused derelict parcels to buy and build on.

[banard]

Nick, I really wanted to see you goto the Supreme Court. Columbia woulda blinked.

[Manx]

A spectacular new book called For You is one of the best Bruce Springsteen books ever published. What's real special about this is that it's all about Bruce and his fans. The 208-page book is a collection of recollections from fans about Bruce from the early 1970s to present. This marvelous collection of hundreds of fan tales, testimonials and memories also features tons of fan photographs of Bruce and the E Street Band over the years. Many of these photographs have never been published.
It's the photos that really impressed me. So many great shots of Bruce over the years, from his Steel Mill days in 1970 to even the Magic Tour. Only 2,000 copies of the book were made. The stories by fans really capture how Bruce Springsteen and his music has touched our lives over the past 30-plus years. This is a 'must have' for any Springsteen fan."

Lets hope Sprayregen practices what he's preaching here in Yonkers:
NO EMINENT DOMAIN
Here with the administration's help he's becoming a major developer...will he care about the "little guy" when the shoe is on the other foot?

18 properties. I'd sure like to see a list of them all.

Is this the Bridges group that got 100 k from CBDG ??

Appeal of REVEREND FR. BRIAN D. CANNADY, SR., on behalf of SHARON R. CANNADY, from action of the Board of Education of the City School District of the City of Yonkers regarding residency.

Decision No. 13,989

(August 17, 1998)

Banks, Curran & Donoghue, attorneys for respondent, Suzanne Johnston, Esq., of counsel

CATE, Acting Commissioner.--Petitioner appeals the determination of the Board of Education of the City School District of the City of Yonkers ("respondent") that his sister, Sharon, is not a resident of the district. The appeal must be dismissed.

Sharon had lived with her parents within respondent's district and attended respondent's schools for 16 years, beginning with kindergarten. Her parents moved outside the district in March 1997 and, at that time, she apparently began staying at the home of petitioner, her brother, who resides within respondent's district. Respondent permitted Sharon to complete the 1996-97 school year at its schools, including the 1997 summer session. By letter dated June 19, 1997, respondent informed Sharon's parents that Sharon would no longer be allowed to attend its schools on a tuition-free basis because she was not a district resident. This appeal ensued. On September 5, 1997 the Commissioner denied petitioner's request for interim relief.

Petitioner contends that Sharon's parents are temporarily residing outside the district and will be moving back into the district as soon as they locate suitable housing. Petitioner alleges that Sharon's parents have temporarily surrendered parental control over Sharon, that Sharon sees her parents daily and that they provide financial support for Sharon. Petitioner contends that Sharon's parents want her to complete her 1997-98 school year in respondent's schools. Petitioner requests a determination that Sharon is a resident of respondent's district and, therefore, entitled to attend its schools tuition free.

Respondent contends that the petition should be dismissed because it is untimely, petitioner lacks standing to bring the appeal, Sharon's parents should have been joined as necessary parties and because Sharon is not a resident of its district.

The appeal must be dismissed as untimely. An appeal to the Commissioner of Education under §310 of the Education Law must be brought within 30 days of the action complained of, unless excused by the Commissioner for good cause shown (8 NYCRR §275.16). Petitioner initially attempted to commence this appeal by letter dated July 25, 1997, more than 30 days from respondent's June 19, 1997 letter informing Sharon's parents of its residency determination and petitioner has offered no explanation for the delay. Therefore, the appeal is dismissed.

Even if the appeal were not dismissed as untimely, it would be dismissed on the merits. Education Law §3202(1) provides, in pertinent part:

A person over five and under twenty-one years of age who has not received a high school diploma is entitled to attend the public schools maintained in the district in which such person resides without the payment of tuition.

The purpose of this statute is to limit the obligation of school districts to provide tuition-free education and related services to students whose parents or legal guardians reside within the district (Appeal of Simond, 36 Ed Dept Rep 117; Appeal of Brutcher, 33 id. 56; Appeal of Curtin, 27 id. 446). A child's residence is presumed to be that of his or her parents or legal guardians (Appeal of Gwendolyn B., 32 Ed Dept Rep 151; Appeal of Pinto, 30 id. 374). However, this presumption may be rebutted (Appeal of McMullan, 29 Ed Dept Rep 310). To determine whether the presumption has been rebutted, certain factors are relevant, including a determination that there has been a total, and presumably permanent, transfer of custody and control to someone residing within the district (Appeal of Simond, supra; Appeal of Brutcher, supra; Appeal of Garretson, 31 Ed Dept Rep 542). Where the parent continues to support the child the presumption is not rebutted and the child's residence remains with the parent. Moreover, when the sole reason the child is residing with someone other than the parent is to take advantage of the schools of the district, the child has not established residence (Appeal of Brutcher, supra; Appeal of Ritter, 31 Ed Dept Rep 24; Appeal of Pinto, supra; Appeal of McMullan, supra).

Petitioner admits that Sharon's parents have only transferred custody to petitioner temporarily so Sharon can attend respondent's schools. Petitioner also admits that Sharon's parents continue to provide her with financial support. On this record, I cannot find that respondent acted arbitrarily by determining that Sharon is not a resident of its district.

In light of the foregoing, it is unnecessary for me to address respondent's remaining contentions.

THE APPEAL IS DISMISSED.

[bernard]

read this article from the summer. Its about nick

http://www.westchestercountybusiness.com/archive/082707/0827070001.php4