An unexpected member of the Manhattanville resistance.

This morning, we happened upon a letter that Donald Trump, real estate mega-mogul, wrote to the Eye (!) in response that ten zillion word piece about PrezBo. His letter, a tirade against PrezBo and his real estate choices, included a handwritten note at the bottom: “Bollinger is terrible!” But how could anyone hate El Presidente?!

Trump is so very, very angry at PrezBo because Columbia was planning to buy land around Lincoln Center until Bollinger became president in 2002 and nixed the idea (But I mean, really, that’s even farther from Hamilton than Westside, Mr. Trump!). Trump owned that land and was apparently close to a deal with ailing Alfred Lerner when PrezBo stepped in and turned his sights on West Harlem for expansion.

Trump spoke to graduated Speccie Joy Resmovits at the WSJ and explained: “They could still have a beautiful campus, right behind Lincoln Center.” There is, in fact, already a college right behind Lincoln Center, but no matter.

PrezBo doesn’t have time for this. His comment, which may sound familiar: “All I can say is that we now have far more property for far less money in an area we care about and is proximate to our existing campuses, which is critically important to great academic research and teaching. The contiguous property has been rezoned and is ready to begin the process of creating the first new Columbia campus in approximately a century.”

More excerpts from Trump’s angry letter after the jump.

Columbia University had a great opportunity to build one of its finest and most spectacular campuses anywhere in the world…It would have given Columbia large acreage, fronting the Hudson River between 59th and 62nd Street directly behind Lincoln Center. It was [Alfred Lerner’s] vision to build Columbia’s Business School and School of Performing Arts there, and what a vision it would have been…

The new President of Columbia, Lee Bollinger, who came in from the University of Michigan, didn’t like the idea. Instead, he wanted to build Columbia’s new buildings in a lousy location on land which, in certain instances, he did not even own. Once the project was announced, it became virtually impossible to acquire the holdings because everybody wanted top dollar. He actually announced his project before buying the land—dummy!

In any event, Columbia Prime was a great idea thought of by a great man which ultimately fizzled due to poor leadership at Columbia. Just like the University of Michigan was lucky to get rid of Bollinger, so will be Columbia – someday in the future!

Photo via Flickr