Israel's Technion Wins Joint Bid for Technology Campus in New York

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to partner with Cornell in new entrepreneurship and technology center

By: David Shear
Published: December 19th, 2011 in Business » Local

ornell President Prof. David Skorton (R), New York official Seth Pinsky, and Technion President Prof Peretz Lavi celebrating winning bid for new science campus, Dec. 19, 2011Pic: Technion Press Office

Technion-Israel Insitute of Technology and Cornell University have won a joint bid to build an applied sciences campus in New York that officials hope will be the first step to building an east coast rival to California's Silicon Valley.

The winner of the multi-billion dollar project has not yet been officially announced but according to a person familiar with the decision, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce said winners on Monday.

Seven universities and consortium submitted bids to build the high-tech campus. The city of New York has promised nearly free city land and up to $100 million in city improvements in exchange.

Cornell announced on Friday that it had received $350 million from an anonymous donor for its plan should they be awarded. This gift is the largest ever given to Cornell in the university's history.

According to their proposals, Cornell and Technion have committed to having the program up and running before the end of 2012 in existing city space and moving it to the newly built campus once ready.

Related articles: Technion, Cornell, New York, Technology Campus, Silicon Valley