NEW YORK CITY-Bellevue Hospital, New York University MedicalCenter and Beth Israel Medical Center, to name a few, cluster alongManhattan’s so-called “Hospital Row,” an East Side corridor thatalso includes New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell MedicalCollege, Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine, MemorialSloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University. Yet thecity’s longstanding potential as a center for commercial biosciencehas thus far been largely untapped, due mainly to a lack of labspace.

That may change with the advent of the Alexandria Center forLife Science, a biotech campus that marked the completion anddelivery of its first phase Thursday. At a launch ceremony Thursdaymorning, Robert Steele, deputy mayor for economic development,described the project as “the first endeavor like this in New York,and it’s just the first.”

The 3.7-acre campus at 450 E. 29th St. near the East River,which will contain up to 1.1 million square feet when built out, isthe city’s maiden commercial biotech venture on such a scale. Italso marks the initial foray into the New York market by lifesciences REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities.