The New York group of the ACU was established in 1961 at a Manhattan townhouse near Columbia University. The most significant accomplishment in the early days of the New York group was the organization of an ACU-wide Congress attended by around 50 ACU engineers and architects in August 1967, which led to the formation of an ACU-owned professional business and ACU-led missions to the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Colombia. As the years passed and the Agrupados spread out to the suburbs, the New York group evolved from a primarily student-focused entity, meeting at or near university campuses, to a mostly professional body, that today holds an annual retreat directed by Father Llorente and meets as two separate Caná groups of married couples in the New Jersey and New York suburbs.