A huge draw to NYC for really smart people that this school wishes to draw is living and working in Manhattan, esp. the southern part (near Greenwich Village) where NYU is located also not far from Silicon Alley (Union Square) or Google (Chelsea). This part of the city is very multi-cultural and fun to live in and "very high value" for making contacts in the words of Richard Florida. Instead, they are going to put the school outside of Manhattan on a separate island (boring, boring, boring).

Second, Technion, the partner school has a very, very low tuition(e.g. a few thousand dollars equiv). This school will be charging $45K per year or so. Even in the US some of the best engineering schools (e.g. U. Illinois/Urbana) is less than $20K in state. By charging such a high tuition, the school will be selecting for high wealth families that can afford a $250K education. Instead, they should be charging tuitions along the lines of City University of New York (CUNY).