Condo Board Battling NYU Over a Breezeway ... Or Is It a Beachhead?

June 9, 2014 — New York University  is fighting with its neighbors again — but this time, the miffed neighbor is a condo board. The New York Times is reporting that NYU is trying to connect its Institute of Fine Arts, on the Upper East Side, to a newly donated, ground-floor condominium apartment next door at 3 East 78th Street. The issue? The university wants to create a covered passageway — a breezeway — in an alley between the buildings. But the condo board objects, saying it suspects NYU is using the apartment as a beachhead to eventually buy up the whole building, and that having students as a permanent presence will hurt apartments' market values — said apartments being owned by the likes of the president of Dannon.

The fight, which by now also involves the Landmarks Preservation Commission and Community Board 8, is currently at a stalemate.