For the owners of Studebaker Café, Columbia’s expansion plan is a welcome business proposal.
As part of its Manhattanville expansion, Columbia has renovated the historic Studebaker Building on West 131st Street, which houses the new Studebaker Café.
The café stands as a symbol of change in the area, and its location will be unaffected by the construction of Columbia’s new campus.
The construction of Columbia’s Manhattanville campus will involve the relocation of a number of businesses to accommodate the development. This has led to widespread concerns of gentrification within the historically diverse neighborhoods of Manhattanville and West Harlem.
Negotiations between the University and local businesses and tenants have been marked frequently by acrimony over proposed relocations. But in the case of Studebaker Café, which opened six months ago, these difficulties were nonexistent by default. The café, owned by siblings Abdul, Naser, and Zead Ramadan, is housed in a landmark building, a designation which prevents demolition or any construction other than renovation. The siblings leased the café space from Columbia in June 2007.
University spokesperson Victoria Benitez declined to comment on the negotiations with the Ramadans due to University policy. But, unlike Manhattanville holdouts such as Tuck-It-Away owner Nick Sprayregen, “We’re not in contention with Columbia,” Zead Ramadan said.
In fact, Ramadan said he looks forward to the added business the expansion will bring.
“The Manhattanville community is quiet. There’s not a lot going on here as far as people walking around,” he said. “Almost all of our clientele come from the storefront on 131st, so it’s difficult. We’re looking forward to more business.”
Built in 1923, the Studebaker Building first housed an assembly plant of the Studebaker Motor Company, famous in the Manhattanville area for manufacturing the Hornet car. In the late 1930s, the Borden’s Dairy company used the space as a milk processing plant. By the time the Ramadans leased the café space last year, the building had, at various times, been home to the Madame Alexander Doll Company and a Museum of Natural History collection of Polynesian antiques.
Three companies—Skanska, Full Spectrum, and Switzer Group—collaborated to convert the six-story building to an area that now houses several University administrative offices, including those of information technology, human relations, and finance. Renovations will be completed by fall 2009 at an estimated total cost of $90.3 million, according to the University Web site. Upwards of 600 Columbia administrators will staff the building.
The Studebaker Café is not the Ramadans’ first enterprise, as they also own the X Caffe, located in Washington Heights.
Zead Ramadan attributed Columbia’s request that he and his brothers open Studebaker Café to the success of X-Caffe. “We already had a relationship with the University,” he said. Officials “came to us and said, ‘We like what you did up there.’”
The Studebaker Café sits at the center of the Manhattanville project, its interior “laid-back and unimposing,” in the words of Ramadan, who said it offers a modest escape for longtime residents as well as for the new tenants brought in during recent years.
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The original version of this article contained a number of inaccuracies. It stated that the Studebaker Cafe was owned by Abdul, Naser, Zead, and Iman Ramadan; in fact, it is owned only by Abdul, Naser, and Zead. It also stated that the Ramadans "purchased the property" from Columbia; in fact, they leased only the cafe space. Spectator regrets the errors.