Hunter, MSKCC Get Green Light for Medical Complex

NEW YORK CITY-A 1.1-million-square-foot medical complex to be built on the Upper East Side has gotten the go-ahead from the city. Manhattan's Borough Board, consisting of City Council members and community board chairs, on Thursday approved the plan by Hunter College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, following the completion of the land use review process in October. The next step will be the $226-million sale of the city-owned land on which the Hunter/MSKCC joint venture plans to construct its two-building project.

Hunter president Jennifer Raab calls the JV “one of the most important projects in the history of our great institution. After more than a decade of hard work in partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, our students and faculty will soon see this ambitious project begin to take shape on 74th Street. This approval represents yet another step in our ultimate goal of improving the health and well-being of New Yorkers.”

The 66,000-square-foot lot on which the project will reside is located on East 74th Street between York Avenue and FDR Drive. The college and MSKCC will build adjacent towers; Hunter's 403,000-square-foot Science and Health Professions edifice will house its nursing and physical therapy schools and science research labs. MSKCC will occupy the site's eastern side, building a 750,000-square-foot, 23-story Outpatient Cancer Care Center, with the aim of freeing up space at its main campus for outpatient services.

From Hunter's standpoint, the 74th Street site is seen as ideal for a new science and health professions building due to its proximity to the main Hunter campus on 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. Further, the college says the location will allow it to deepen its ties with the UES's “world-renowned medical and research institutions,” which include Rockefeller University, New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical College and the Hospital for Special Surgery in addition to MSKCC.

Crain's New York Business reported that paying for the site will involve a land swap. To pay for its portion of the parcel acquisition, Hunter traded a college-owned parcel on East 25th Street with the city, which plans to build a sanitation facility there. The Hunter nursing school currently located on the East 25th site will move to the UES tower once it's completed. MSKCC is paying 60% of the acquisition cost, since its tower will occupy that much of the 74th Street parcel.

In hearings before the City Council in September, Hunter officials stressed the importance of putting up the new Science & Health Building. “It is hard enough to compete for the scarce funds available today when you have a modern facility,” David Foster, a biology professor, testified before the council. “It becomes next to impossible when you do not have the facilities to compete when granting agencies are insisting we do things that cannot be done in antiquated facilities. With this new building, that will never again be the case.”