By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — New York University is considering a move into lower Manhattan as part of a 20-year expansion plan that would include moving into a tower at the World Trade Center site.
NYU Vice President Lynne Brown has requested a meeting with the Port Authority and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to find out which sites are available for new NYU classrooms, campus housing and other services, the New York Post reported.
The university is planning to add six million square feet of new space, but can’t fit it all around it’s current Greenwich Village base.
“For that reason we would like to discuss lower Manhattan as part of out exploration of remote sites,” wrote Brown in a letter, the Post reported.
Brown said community officials recommended NYU move into the WTC’s Tower 5, on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building, to replace the controversial 40-story tower proposedon Bleeker Street.
"I raised this idea a number of weeks ago," Julie Menin, chairperson of downtown's Community Board 1 told the Post. "I'm very pleased they are taking this idea seriously."
"I think it makes sense for a whole lot of reasons. Tower 5 is perfect for them."
The move is part of NYU’s plan to grow by 40 percent over the next two decades, eyeing sites along First Avenue and in Downtown Brooklyn.
