East River Science Park

[billyblancoNYC]

Talked about for a while, very important and exiting...


MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION PRESIDENT ANDREW M. ALPER UNVEIL PLANS TO DEVELOP COMMERCIAL BIOSCIENCE CENTER IN MANHATTAN

New Science Park to Attract Top Life Sciences Companies to New York City


Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Economic Development Corporation (EDC) President Andrew M. Alper today announced the proposed development of the East River Science Park, a bioscience research and development campus on a City-owned portion of the Bellevue Hospital Center. EDC issued a Request for Proposals to develop the site, which is located in the Kips Bay neighborhood on the northern portion of the Bellevue Hospital Center, just south of the New York University Medical Center between East 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive. The project is a major component of the City’s effort to make it a center for the growing life sciences and biotech sectors, and is expected to be the flagship location for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields, creating an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. Rockefeller University President Sir Paul Nurse, Memorial Sloan-Kettering President Harold Varmus, Health & Hospitals Corporation President Dr. Benjamin Chu, Bellevue Hospital Executive Director Carlos Perez, Henry Kravis and Russell Carson, Co-Chairmen of the New York City Investment Fund, a private civic investment fund committing up to $10 million toward the development of the center, joined the Mayor at Rockefeller University, one of the world’s leading medical research institutions and the nation’s first academic center dedicated solely to biomedical research.

“The East River Science Park will become a state-of-the-art scientific research and development campus that will provide expansion space for New York-based bioscience companies and help us attract new ones to the City,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We are committed to expanding this important industry’s presence here to take advantage of New York City’s tremendous scientific base and our world-class research institutions that offer commercial bioscience companies unparalleled opportunities for development and growth. One of the pillars of our economic development strategy is to diversify our economy by strengthening other critical sectors that will increase jobs and investment throughout the five boroughs. This project will help us achieve that goal by accelerating the development of the commercial bioscience industry in the City. Great science has always come out of New York City, and our scientists and companies will now have additional space to flourish so they can expand and increase our job base.”

“New York City offers considerable competitive advantages to the life sciences industry,” said EDC President Alper. “Our world-renowned medical and research centers, our large pool of scientists and healthcare workers, and the country’s most diverse clinical trial population all make New York City the perfect location for bioscience and pharmaceutical companies. The East River Science Park will provide these companies with much-needed space to expand while offering New York City the ability to capture our share of this rapidly growing industry.”

The East River Science Park is poised to become an attractive, cutting-edge facility that will capitalize on its prime location on the East River and its proximity to many prestigious healthcare institutions including Rockefeller, Beth Israel, Weill Cornell, Mount Sinai, Memorial Sloan Kettering and NYU. When completed, it will encompass about 4.5 acres with more than 870,000 square feet of scientific research and development, office and small-scale retail space. The campus will have at least 46,600 square feet of open space and take advantage of the East River waterfront. The campus does not include the former Bellevue Psychiatry Building, located at 492 First Avenue, which will be leased to NYU, which plans to renovate the building in 2006 for hospital and medical school related uses.

Development proposals for a mixed-use bioscience campus must include plans for a research lab and related office space that can accommodate multiple tenants of varying sizes including major pharmaceutical companies and/or contract research organizations, along with space for bioscience companies in the start-up and post-incubator phases. Plans for the campus would ideally include conference and meeting spaces for use by other tenants as well as for possible use by outside healthcare, bioscience and community organizations. In addition, the project offers a number of benefits to Bellevue Hospital, including additional revenue from the prospective developer, 400 dedicated parking spaces, access to facility space and updated maintenance areas and utility lines that would be replaced if they are incorporated into the East River Science Park.

The New York City Investment Fund, an affiliate of the Partnership for New York City that invests in businesses that fuel the local economy, will invest up to $10 million toward construction and financing of the East River Science Park. Capitalized at $100 million, the Fund has helped finance more than 60 projects that focus on new job creation, revitalization of distressed areas, minority-owned enterprises and innovative ideas that position New York at the forefront of growth sector industries. The Fund has already committed significant resources to encourage the growth of the bioscience industry by establishing a consortium that includes the City’s top 12 medical research institutions, as well as prominent venture capitalists, bankers and private equity investors.

“New York City is already a leading center of bioscience research; the East River Science Park will ensure that we become one of the nation’s foremost commercial bioscience industry clusters as well,” said Kravis, Co-Chairman of the Investment Fund. “This $10 million commitment marks the largest investment that our Fund has made. We hope it will help the City attract a top notch developer, private investors and world class tenants to bring this venture to completion very quickly.”

EDC has undertaken several initiatives to attract life science companies to New York City. Through its Life Science Industry Desk, EDC has intensified its domestic and international outreach efforts to pharmaceutical and bioscience companies and contract research organizations. EDC has met with more than 150 companies, including many of the top global pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In addition, the agency has developed a marketing campaign to emphasize the City’s existing bioscience cluster and to recruit companies to anchor several possible City bioscience developments.

New York City and the surrounding region are home to extraordinary academic medical research and health care assets. These include 15 top academic medical research institutions and medical centers, the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the U.S., 40,000 licensed physicians and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. New York receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities. Finally, more than 50 bioscience companies and two biotech incubators are located in the City, with as many as 30 companies spun out of local research institutions each year.

Link (http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c70 1c789a0&epi_menuID=13ecbf46556241d3daf2f1c701c789a 0&epi_baseMenuID=27579af732d48f86a62fa24601c789a0& pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=htt p%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2004b%2 Fpr310-04.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1)

[tmg]

http://www.nycedc.com/RFP/ERSP/erspindex.htm

[Derek2k3]

About time...
http://www.eekarchitects.com/indprjdoc_eek.cfm?Action=ProjectDoc&webprojcatid=2 20&projectid=18148&categoryname=Urban%20Design%20% 26%20Master%20Planning

http://www.morelloart-design.com/arch_display.asp?ArtID=6

[kliq6]

This project is moving ahead soon. The city, from a inside source has sent out a RPF for a construction manager already, they want to move this foward

[Stern]

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Forensics DNA Biology Laboratory is under construction.

Its a cool white modern building with only about 15 storeys but allows the consolidation of three seperate existing laboratories into one 336,690 foot building. Architects are Perkins Eastman and Larsen Shein Ginsberg.

[billyblancoNYC]

Biotech/science/R&D/medicine might be the single most important area for NYC to try to bolster. The intellectual capital, monies, and institutions are more than there. It jsut needs to come together. There is no reason for NYC not to be close to #1 with Cali and Mass. I really hope the city steps up like it should. And cut some damn taxes.

[kliq6]

I hope so but cutting taxes is something they wont do for industries like Finance that are already here, so to assume they will do it for a industry that is not is just not good

[Gulcrapek]

I think this is it...

East River Biotech, three buildings
~13-15 floors
Architect: Hillier

http://www.hillier.com > projects > civic > Lower Manhattan Urban Design

[kliq6]

This is the site yes, if it goes thru it will be a good start

[kliq6]

The EDC has selected a developer, a California based company, justgot this info and wanted to pass along, official announcement soon

[kliq6]

California REIT to develop city bioscience center
by Catherine Tymkiw
The city chose California real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. to develop the 870,000-square-foot East River Science Park near Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan.

The first phase of development calls for building two laboratories and office towers totaling 542,000 square feet. The project, which has been in the works for three years, is slated to break ground in 2006.

The privately-financed $700 million East River Science Park project is expected to create more than 2,000 permanent jobs and 4,000 construction jobs over the next ten years. The New York City Investment Fund, the economic development arm of the Partnership for New York City, said it would invest $10 million in the project.

The new bioscience center will attract “both start-up firms and established bioscience companies to New York City,” Alexandria and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

One building will house 14 floors of laboratory and related office space, a conference center and a café. The second building, which will be located on the site of the obsolete Bellevue laundry building, will accommodate laboratory and office space, street-level retail space, a glass-enclosed Winter Garden and 43,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space.

The second phase of the project calls for building a 330,000-square-foot laboratory and office building on a parcel of land north of the site that is currently occupied by the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Alexandria, based in Pasadena, Calif., owns about 127 office and laboratory properties in nine states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The East River Science Park is its first New York project. Tenants in Alexandria’s portfolio of 8.2 million square feet include Quest Diagnostics, Merck & Co. and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

[billyblancoNYC]

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES DEVELOPER TO BUILD LARGEST BIOTECH CAMPUS IN NEW YORK CITY
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?epi_menuItemID=c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c70 1c789a0&epi_menuID=13ecbf46556241d3daf2f1c701c789a0&epi_baseMenuID=27579af732d48f86a62fa24601c789a0&pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fht ml%2F2005b%2Fpr314-05.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

New Science Center to Attract Top Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Companies and Create Thousands of New Jobs

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the selection of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. to develop the East River Science Park into the largest commercial bioscience center in New York City. The new 870,000-square-foot-facility, which will be built on a City-controlled site on Bellevue’s campus that the City will lease to Alexandria, is expected to jumpstart the City’s commercial bioscience sector by attracting the world’s leading healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, and providing needed expansion space for the City’s existing companies. The privately-financed, $700 million project is expected to create more than 2,000 permanent jobs and 4,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. The total economic impact of ongoing operations of the development project is expected to be more than $350 million a year. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development & Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff, Economic Development Corporation (EDC) President Andrew M. Alper, Health & Hospitals Corporation Acting President Alan D. Aviles, Bellevue Hospital Executive Director Linda Curtis, Alexandria CEO Joel S. Marcus, and Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, the City’s leading business group that committed up to $10 million toward the project through its New York City Investment Fund, also attended the event.

“Since the beginning of our Administration, a key component of our economic development strategy has been to diversify New York City’s economy and create new jobs,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The development of the East River Science Park will help us accomplish that goal by transforming New York City, already a leading center of bioscience research, into one of the nation’s primary commercial bioscience clusters as well. This state-of-the-art facility will allow us to take advantage of our enormous scientific base and world-class research institutions to attract both start-up firms and established bioscience companies to New York City.”

“Today is the culmination of a three year effort by our Administration to capitalize on the enormous life science assets we have in New York City and grow our bioscience industry,” said Deputy Mayor Doctoroff. “Building this world-class facility will help us attract top companies, create valuable jobs and make our City the bioscience capital of the world. I want to commend the staff at EDC, led by President Alper, for moving forward expeditiously with plans to develop the East River Science Park.”

“Despite our tremendous scientific assets, New York City has never captured its fair share of the commercial bioscience industry,” said EDC President Alper. “The development of the East River Science Park will help us reverse this trend by offering companies room to expand right here in the City. Developing a commercial biotech cluster will allow our institutions to forge stronger ties with the bioscience industry, help our academic institutions attract top talent and create many new high-paying jobs.”

The East River Science Park will capitalize on its prime East River location and its proximity to many prominent healthcare institutions such as Beth Israel, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, New York University (NYU) Medical Center, Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell. EDC issued a Request for Proposals in November 2004 to develop the City-owned site, located in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood on the northern portion of the Bellevue Hospital Center, just south of NYU between East 28th and 29th Streets, and First Avenue and the FDR Drive.

In the project’s first phase, Alexandria will build two laboratories and office towers totaling 542,000 square feet of space. The first 242,000-square-foot building on the site’s southeast corner just north of Bellevue’s hospital tower will include 14 floors of laboratory and related office space, a conference center and café. The developer plans to start the second 300,000-square-foot building four months after construction of the first building begins. This second building will be located on the site of the obsolete Bellevue laundry building, and will include laboratory and office space for early-stage companies, additional office space for bioscience venture capital firms and street-level retail. The plan also calls for a glass-enclosed retail area with 43,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, including a riverfront esplanade. The developer will build a parking garage below the two buildings to accommodate 520 parking spaces, with 400 reserved for Bellevue. Alexandria plans to break ground in 2006, with initial tenant occupancy of the first building in 2008 and the second building in 2009.

The project’s second phase calls for a 330,000-square-foot laboratory and office building located on a parcel of land north of the site. Construction of this building can only begin after the site is vacated by the City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Additional open space and 200 more parking spaces are also planned for this phase.

Alexandria is a leading real estate investment trust focused principally on the development and acquisition of properties with office and laboratory space. Alexandria focuses on the principle of “clustering,” with assets and operations strategically located in all major life science hubs. Alexandria’s clients consist of some of the world’s leading edge research and commercial entities, such as universities and not-for-profits, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life science product, service, biodefense research entities and government agencies. Alexandria owns and operates 127 properties comprising more than 8.2 million square feet of office and laboratory space.

“We are honored to be partnering with the City of New York and the other key stakeholders, and to be the vanguard for the creation of the first commercial life science cluster location within the heart of Manhattan,” said Alexandria CEO Joel S. Marcus. “Alexandria is proud to be the designated developer for this truly unique and innovative commercial life science destination. Together with the City, EDC and the New York healthcare community, we look forward to carrying out the vision of forming a bioscience community that will be equipped with all of the components to foster the great medical discoveries of the future.”

New York City’s initiative to grow its bioscience sector is led by EDC’s Client Services division, established by Mayor Bloomberg in 2002 to serve as a much-needed link between the City and the business community. So far, EDC’s bioscience group has met with more than 350 companies, including many of the top global pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia to encourage them to locate, expand and invest in New York City. In addition, the agency has developed a marketing campaign to emphasize the City’s existing bioscience assets and to recruit companies to anchor several possible bioscience developments in the City.

New York City and the surrounding region are home to extraordinary academic medical research and healthcare assets. These include 25 medical research institutions, more than 70 hospitals, 40,000 physicians, 128 Nobel Laureates, and more than $1.3 billion a year in research funding from the National Institutes of Health. New York is home to more than 90 bioscience companies and two biotech incubators, and more than 30 new biotechnology companies are launched in the City each year.

The New York City Investment Fund, the economic development arm of the Partnership for New York City, has committed $10 million in funding to support the East River Science Park. The Fund has worked closely with the Bloomberg Administration to encourage development of the City’s bioscience industry. It has organized a consortium of the City’s top academic medical research institutions, as well as prominent venture capitalists, bankers and private equity investors to support this project and other initiatives to generate jobs in the bioscience sector.

“Today’s announcement of Alexandria Real Estate Equities as the developer of the East River Science Park is the culmination of a highly competitive process that demonstrates that New York is finally emerging as a world center for commercial bioscience,” said Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. “We look forward to working closely with the City and the developer to ensure the success of this project.”
MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES DEVELOPER TO BUILD LARGEST BIOTECH CAMPUS IN NEW YORK CITY

New Science Center to Attract Top Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Companies and Create Thousands of New Jobs

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced the selection of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. to develop the East River Science Park into the largest commercial bioscience center in New York City. The new 870,000-square-foot-facility, which will be built on a City-controlled site on Bellevue’s campus that the City will lease to Alexandria, is expected to jumpstart the City’s commercial bioscience sector by attracting the world’s leading healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, and providing needed expansion space for the City’s existing companies. The privately-financed, $700 million project is expected to create more than 2,000 permanent jobs and 4,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. The total economic impact of ongoing operations of the development project is expected to be more than $350 million a year. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development & Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff, Economic Development Corporation (EDC) President Andrew M. Alper, Health & Hospitals Corporation Acting President Alan D. Aviles, Bellevue Hospital Executive Director Linda Curtis, Alexandria CEO Joel S. Marcus, and Kathryn Wylde, President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, the City’s leading business group that committed up to $10 million toward the project through its New York City Investment Fund, also attended the event.

“Since the beginning of our Administration, a key component of our economic development strategy has been to diversify New York City’s economy and create new jobs,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The development of the East River Science Park will help us accomplish that goal by transforming New York City, already a leading center of bioscience research, into one of the nation’s primary commercial bioscience clusters as well. This state-of-the-art facility will allow us to take advantage of our enormous scientific base and world-class research institutions to attract both start-up firms and established bioscience companies to New York City.”

“Today is the culmination of a three year effort by our Administration to capitalize on the enormous life science assets we have in New York City and grow our bioscience industry,” said Deputy Mayor Doctoroff. “Building this world-class facility will help us attract top companies, create valuable jobs and make our City the bioscience capital of the world. I want to commend the staff at EDC, led by President Alper, for moving forward expeditiously with plans to develop the East River Science Park.”

“Despite our tremendous scientific assets, New York City has never captured its fair share of the commercial bioscience industry,” said EDC President Alper. “The development of the East River Science Park will help us reverse this trend by offering companies room to expand right here in the City. Developing a commercial biotech cluster will allow our institutions to forge stronger ties with the bioscience industry, help our academic institutions attract top talent and create many new high-paying jobs.”

The East River Science Park will capitalize on its prime East River location and its proximity to many prominent healthcare institutions such as Beth Israel, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Mount Sinai, New York University (NYU) Medical Center, Rockefeller University and Weill Cornell. EDC issued a Request for Proposals in November 2004 to develop the City-owned site, located in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood on the northern portion of the Bellevue Hospital Center, just south of NYU between East 28th and 29th Streets, and First Avenue and the FDR Drive.

In the project’s first phase, Alexandria will build two laboratories and office towers totaling 542,000 square feet of space. The first 242,000-square-foot building on the site’s southeast corner just north of Bellevue’s hospital tower will include 14 floors of laboratory and related office space, a conference center and café. The developer plans to start the second 300,000-square-foot building four months after construction of the first building begins. This second building will be located on the site of the obsolete Bellevue laundry building, and will include laboratory and office space for early-stage companies, additional office space for bioscience venture capital firms and street-level retail. The plan also calls for a glass-enclosed retail area with 43,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, including a riverfront esplanade. The developer will build a parking garage below the two buildings to accommodate 520 parking spaces, with 400 reserved for Bellevue. Alexandria plans to break ground in 2006, with initial tenant occupancy of the first building in 2008 and the second building in 2009.

The project’s second phase calls for a 330,000-square-foot laboratory and office building located on a parcel of land north of the site. Construction of this building can only begin after the site is vacated by the City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Additional open space and 200 more parking spaces are also planned for this phase.

Alexandria is a leading real estate investment trust focused principally on the development and acquisition of properties with office and laboratory space. Alexandria focuses on the principle of “clustering,” with assets and operations strategically located in all major life science hubs. Alexandria’s clients consist of some of the world’s leading edge research and commercial entities, such as universities and not-for-profits, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life science product, service, biodefense research entities and government agencies. Alexandria owns and operates 127 properties comprising more than 8.2 million square feet of office and laboratory space.

“We are honored to be partnering with the City of New York and the other key stakeholders, and to be the vanguard for the creation of the first commercial life science cluster location within the heart of Manhattan,” said Alexandria CEO Joel S. Marcus. “Alexandria is proud to be the designated developer for this truly unique and innovative commercial life science destination. Together with the City, EDC and the New York healthcare community, we look forward to carrying out the vision of forming a bioscience community that will be equipped with all of the components to foster the great medical discoveries of the future.”

New York City’s initiative to grow its bioscience sector is led by EDC’s Client Services division, established by Mayor Bloomberg in 2002 to serve as a much-needed link between the City and the business community. So far, EDC’s bioscience group has met with more than 350 companies, including many of the top global pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia to encourage them to locate, expand and invest in New York City. In addition, the agency has developed a marketing campaign to emphasize the City’s existing bioscience assets and to recruit companies to anchor several possible bioscience developments in the City.

New York City and the surrounding region are home to extraordinary academic medical research and healthcare assets. These include 25 medical research institutions, more than 70 hospitals, 40,000 physicians, 128 Nobel Laureates, and more than $1.3 billion a year in research funding from the National Institutes of Health. New York is home to more than 90 bioscience companies and two biotech incubators, and more than 30 new biotechnology companies are launched in the City each year.

The New York City Investment Fund, the economic development arm of the Partnership for New York City, has committed $10 million in funding to support the East River Science Park. The Fund has worked closely with the Bloomberg Administration to encourage development of the City’s bioscience industry. It has organized a consortium of the City’s top academic medical research institutions, as well as prominent venture capitalists, bankers and private equity investors to support this project and other initiatives to generate jobs in the bioscience sector.

“Today’s announcement of Alexandria Real Estate Equities as the developer of the East River Science Park is the culmination of a highly competitive process that demonstrates that New York is finally emerging as a world center for commercial bioscience,” said Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City. “We look forward to working closely with the City and the developer to ensure the success of this project.”

[ZippyTheChimp]

August 11, 2005

Proposed Science Park Hopes to Lure Biotech to New York

By THOMAS J. LUECK (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=THOMAS J. LUECK&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=THOMAS J. LUECK&inline=nyt-per) and JIM RUTENBERG (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JIM RUTENBERG&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JIM RUTENBERG&inline=nyt-per)

A California real estate company has agreed to build a $700 million complex of commercial health care laboratories on the campus of Bellevue Hospital Center, a venture that city officials hope will spur the growth of the biotechnology industry in New York.

The East River Science Park, as the complex would be named, would cover four and a half acres owned by the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation between 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. Officials said it was being created to attract the kind of the small start-up companies that are routinely spun off from academic research projects at the city's universities and hospitals and to appeal to established biotechnology companies now clustered in places like Silicon Valley.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who announced the deal yesterday, said Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a real estate investment trust in Pasadena, Calif., that specializes in medical laboratories, had agreed to build the complex even before it had lined up commercial tenants.

Mr. Bloomberg said the city was already a leading center of bioscience research, and could become "one of the nation's primary bioscience clusters as well" with the new East Side complex.

Work on the first phase of the complex, about 540,000 square feet of laboratories, offices and conference space, is to begin in 2006, with occupancy in 2008, officials said. A second phase of the project, 300,000 square feet of laboratories and offices, is expected to begin after the first phase is complete, and only after a part of the site is vacated by the office of the city medical examiner.

Alexandria owns more than 100 commercial laboratories in nine states, and its tenants include Merck, Quest Diagnostics and other health care companies. Andrew P. Alper, president of the city's Economic Development Corporation, said Alexandria was selected from among five large developers that responded to a request for proposals issued in November.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alexandria is to pay the city about $3 million a year in rent for the Bellevue property, and about $1.7 million a year in other fees, known as payments in lieu of taxes.

"This is really a great vote of confidence in the city," Mr. Alper said. "We actually have a developer willing to build on spec, and to pay rent as well."

Joel S. Marcus, the chief executive of Alexandria, who appeared at a news conference at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center yesterday with Mr. Bloomberg and other city officials, said, "We know this market pretty darn well."

Mr. Marcus said his company would draw upon its broad contacts and experience in biotechnology and health care to attract tenants. He said the Manhattan location, with its proximity to several of the nation's most important academic laboratories, would make it easily marketable to commercial tenants.

The announcement came after decades of efforts by a succession of mayors and their economic development deputies to lure the kinds of medical research and development that have largely bypassed the city, despite its academic resources.

Mr. Alper said researchers at the city's teaching hospitals and university laboratories have been creating about 30 new start-up companies a year, but few have ended up in the city, setting up shop instead in less expensive places in New Jersey, California and elsewhere.

"We know that biotechs tend to cluster around great academic institutions, so why not New York?" said Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering.

Dr. Varmus added, "I hope this will change the city's image, and make people feel this is a place where biotech is and wants to be."

Mr. Marcus said living expenses and commercial rents in Manhattan, even if they are higher than elsewhere, would not deter biotechnology companies.

"Our experience in every major life science market in this country is that the cost of high-quality commercial entities is not the most critical aspect," he said. "It actually is location."

He said one reason the city had failed to keep pace with other centers of commercial biotechnology was the degree of caution among New York developers, and their insistence on having committed tenants before buildings go up.

In other areas where Alexandria has invested, "there is virtually no such thing as signing a tenant before you build," Mr. Marcus said. He said the company would approach its Manhattan project with the idea of building "a very flexible core and shell for a lab" that can be retrofitted for tenants' needs.

Mr. Bloomberg portrayed the project as an important part of efforts to diversify the city's economy and reduce reliance on Wall Street.

"Whether it's entertainment or finance or tourism or science, it is a very open world today and we cannot sit back and just say, 'Oh, we're New York, and people are going to come to us,' " the mayor said.

Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged that the city, at least for now, would be at a disadvantage when it came to attracting companies engaged in embryonic stem cell research. Some states, including Massachusetts and California, provide financing for such research, but New York does not.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/08/11/nyregion/11bio_lg.jpg
A rendering of the East River Science Park, as viewed from the F.D.R. Drive. Occupancy is planned for 2008.http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gifhttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gifhttp://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/spacer.gif


Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[kliq6]

This will help the city make a push for some of those NJ based firms that started out in NYC at places like Columbia and ran out of room

[billyblancoNYC]

It's about time NYC took back what it deserves. Long overdue.

Interesting, though, that this company has 8.2msf in 120 something buildings...this one development will be over 800K, or 10% of their current portfolio. I guess they have faith in the NYC market.

[kliq6]

Putting up $700 million of there own money is a sure sign of faith, now lets see if they can deliver any tenants


A good site to look at as well

http://www.nycbiotech.org/realestate.html

[kliq6]

The goal of the developer is to have many smaller, growing firms in this development as well as one larger "anchor" tenant with a developed track record in the Industry

[krulltime]

MANHATTAN BIDS FOR BIOTECH


http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/pictures/East_River_Science_Park_HillierArchitecture.jpg
The East River Science Park, to be built - after 20 years of institutional wrangling


Steve Garmhausen
NYC 12 20 05

Maybe it’s the fact that the East River Science Park will be New York City’s largest biotech campus. Or it could be that the $700-million project is being built on spec. Whatever the reason, its 872,000 square feet seems like an awful lot of space to fill.

Then again, if the planned science park fulfills the city’s goal of jump-starting a true commercial bioscience industry, the 3.7-acre campus, in the Kips Bay neighborhood between First Avenue and the FDR Drive, could start to seem very small to its tenants.

“Where do these companies go when they become bigger?” asks Patricia Ardigo, director of the life sciences group at CB Richard Ellis, who envisions the new park eventually spawning satellite research hubs in Long Island and Westchester.

It would be a nice problem to have, but the city, which will lease the site on Bellevue Hospital’s campus to Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., must first overcome challenges to landing tenants. Those include established competition in Boston and New Jersey as well as Manhattan’s high rental rates.

The good news is that recruiting work is well under way. The city has already spoken with 500 companies worldwide, says Bill Fair, managing director of healthcare and bioscience for the New York City Economic Development Corp, which was the major driver behind the project.

“Conceptually, people don’t think of New York as bioscience,” admits Fair. The city is playing up four strengths in its recruiting efforts: its deep, skilled employment pool; entrepreneurial talent; and access to capital for all stages of a company’s growth.

But the biggest muscle group in the city's armature is its collection of 11 major academic medical research institutions, including NYU and Columbia’s schools of medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Together, these institutions filed more biotech patents between 1992 and 2002 than the institutions of Boston, Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay area combined, says Fair. But because of the city’s dearth of lab space, the people behind those patented ideas are forced to go elsewhere to try to commercialize them.

“The great ideas are already here,” says Fair. “It’s just that the companies haven’t stuck here. We’re good at spinning out companies to places like La Jolla.” (He might have mentioned New Jersey as another popular destination; perhaps it’s too close for comfort.)

The feedback from biotech companies has been that these strengths could offset the high cost of setting up shop in New York City, Fair says: “Cost is definitely an important factor, but not the most important factor for companies making location decisions.”

Ramping up biotech in the city has been talked about for a good 20 years. But for various reasons?among them the rivalries between the research and academic institutions?it remained talk.

Upon taking office four years ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg commissioned a market study that identified all the ingredients for biotech success. The administration, determined to follow through, had a key assist from several business-world heavy hitters, including Jerry Speyer and Henry Kravis, who reportedly used some muscle on their own to persuade directors on the boards of the city’s universities and hospitals to put aside their turf concerns and form a consortium to bring biotech into the city.

When the city’s RFP process for East River culminated in August with the selection of Alexandria, mere talk had congealed into reality. The Pasadena, Calif.-based real estate investment trust is a pioneer in building, running and acquiring lab and office complexes; it owns 127 properties with 8.2 million square feet. Alexandria has the “deep pockets and the wherewithal for a long stay,” says Ardigo, who served on the EDC and New York City Partnership’s biotech task force that helped bring about the science park. (Read about Alexandria in the November Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report, available by subscription on our Publications page).

Bringing in a private developer also relieves the city’s institutions of driving economic development &emdash;which is not, after all, their mission. What’s more, the REIT is financing the park and building it on spec. What makes Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus, so confident that he took on blue-chip REIT Boston Properties for the right to build East River? Good question; he isn’t talking to the press. But his company’s bioscience parks are full of institutional users as well as corporations like Merck and Quest Diagnostics, and Alexandria should be focused on getting such heavy hitters to pre-lease space at ERSP.

“They have to go after large users right out of the box,” says Peter Waldt, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, and a veteran of city government, who notes that the bioscience plan in the Giuliani era focused on institutions, while Bloomberg’s plan expands the mix to include corporate tenants. By contrast, the 100,000-square-foot Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, part of Columbia University Medical Center and housed in the historic Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated, is mostly filled with incubator-sized companies and organizations.

The science park will also provide lower-cost lab and office space for entrepreneurs, who would now find a dry well, says Fair: “If someone called my office today, I’d have no place to put them.”

Subsidies are sure to be key to filling the space. The New York City Partnership has pledged $10 million to help small and medium-size companies fit out their space. Labs’ specialized needs&emdash;everything from extra-thick walls to emergency wash stations&emdash;add a tidy premium to their costs, explains Bob Von Ancken, the head of consulting and evaluation at Grubb & Ellis, which is conducting a pricing study for the EDC.

The state aid needed to compete with well-subsidized life science space like that in New Jersey may be hard to squeeze out of Albany because biotech companies&emdash;even though they create high-quality jobs&emdash;tend to be loss leaders, often investing for years before seeing any profit, notes Ardigo.

The park’s first phase, slated for groundbreaking in 2006, includes two laboratories and office towers totaling 542,000 square feet, with the first tenants anticipated in 2008. Designed by Hillier Architecture, It’s to include a glass-enclosed retail area with 43,000 square feet of public open space, including a riverfront esplanade, and 520 underground parking spaces. The second, 330,000-square-foot phase is slated for completion by 2009, and it will have additional open space and 200 more parking slots.

There’s a potential snag for the second phase. The city’s office of the chief medical examiner must first vacate the site; that is problematic because the office is storing 9,000 unidentified remains of victims from the September 11 attacks there. The remains are to be moved to the planned memorial at the World Trade Center site – whenever that is completed.

But if all goes well, the second phase will have a line of would-be tenants waiting to move in. The EDC’s Fair acknowledges that the city’s plans for biotech are not unique. In fact, all 50 states have biotech initiatives in their economic agendas. But unlike most of them, New York actually has what biotech firms are looking for, he says.

“Most places pin their hopes on biotech as a hot, sexy area, thinking they’ll see great stock increases, lots of employees and cures for diseases,” he says. “What we’re doing is the opposite of the way most places approach biotech.”


(c) 2003 - 2005 The Slatin Report.

[kliq6]

Quest Diagnostics is the top firm on Alexandria Real Estate Equities list to move there HQ and a testing faclility from Jersey to this site, stay tuned

[krulltime]

Great news!

Are they actually building something on the site yet? Anyone knows?

[kliq6]

clearing out the building owned by the hospital now to prepare for some demolition and exavation

[antinimby]

Quest Diagnostics is the top firm on Alexandria Real Estate Equities list to move there HQ and a testing faclility from Jersey to this site, stay tunedIs that one of the 5 headquarters you were talking about?

[krulltime]

Here is a much better rendering (alternative?)...

http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/60268224.EastRiverSciencePark.JPG

http://www.fogartyfinger.com/

[kliq6]

no that list was from last year and that was a NYC EDC initiative. Alexandria RE is the top firm in building these types of biotech centers and Quest is there top client, so it makes sense they will look at a internal client first that they are use to.

FYI, the list were these firms, all of which had presence in the city and the city wanted them to switch HQ locations

Alcoa
Starwood Resorts
Xerox
CIT Group
Federated

[krulltime]

Bioscience Center Moves Forward


By Barbara Jarvie
July 6, 2006

NEW YORK CITY-City officials have approved a straight-lease transaction for the Alexandria Real Estate Equities in connection with the construction, furnishing and equipping of buildings to be known as the East River Science Park. It will be located on a 4.26-acre on city-owned land at Bellevue Hospital Center.

The campus will be located in the Kips Bay neighborhood, just south of the New York University Medical Center between East 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive. It will be along Manhattan's medical/life sciences corridor, which is home to Beth Israel Hospital, Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mount Sinai, New York Hospital, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The project is a major component of the city’s effort to make it a center for the growing life sciences and biotech sectors. The city hopes it will attract companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields as well as create an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. Alexandria was chosen after the city issued a Request for Proposals for the project.

When completed, it will encompass about 4.5 acres with more than 820,000 square sf of scientific research and development, office and small-scale retail space. The campus will have at least 46,600 sf of open space. The site will be built in three phases, with construction on the first phase expected to begin this year. The first building will be ready for occupancy by the end 2008.

The New York City Investment Fund has committed to invest up to $10 million in the ERSP alongside the private developer. The project will also get financial assistance including exemptions from city and state mortgage recording taxes and/or city and state sales and use taxes.

The Pasadena, CA-based Alexandria Real Estate is focused principally on the ownership, operation, management, acquisition, redevelopment and selective development of properties containing office/laboratory space. It has approximately $3.9 billion total market capitalization.


Copyright © 2006 ALM Properties, Inc.

[antinimby]

From GlobeSt.com:


East River Science Park Takes Step Forward

January 9, 2007 (http://www.globest.com/news/818_818/newyork/151988-1.html)

NEW YORK CITY-The East River Science Park, a bioscience research campus, took an important step toward development today when a ground lease was signed. The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation agreed to lease the 3.5-acre space to an affiliate of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., the projects developer. At full build-out the campus will have more than one million sf of office, lab and retail space.

In November 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for proposals to develop the privately-funded, $700 million East River Science Park, which is meant to put Manhattan on the bioscience map. The Mayor said the campus would be built between 28th and 29th streets, First Avenue and FDR Drive; south of New York University Medical Center and north of Bellevue Hospital Center.

According to a release at the time, “The project is a major component of the City’s effort to make it a center for the growing life sciences and biotech sectors, and is expected to be the flagship location for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields, creating an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years.”

In August 2005, Alexandria was named developer of the project. At the time, Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus said in a release, “Alexandria is proud to be the designated developer for this truly unique and innovative commercial life science destination. Together with the City, EDC and the New York healthcare community, we look forward to carrying out the vision of forming a bioscience community that will be equipped with all of the components to foster the great medical discoveries of the future.”

Plans have changed slightly since Alexandria was chosen. Now the East Rover Science Park will be built in two phases. Part one, which is due to break ground in the near future, will include two office/lab buildings, totaling 670,000 sf. Tower one will be 16 floors and house a conference center, cafe, space for clinical drug operations and other translational uses. The second tower will also have a ground floor retail component. In the first phase, a glass-enclosed Winter Garden will be built. The garden will has a riverfront esplanade as part of the open space design.

In phase two a third office/lab building, totaling 420,000 sf, will be built. There is no timeline yet for completion of either phase. Initially, when Alexandria was named developer the firm put a 2008 deadline on the first tower in phase one.

In November 2006, Alexandria acquired a Massachusetts’ bio-tech building, the 184,577-sf Life Science Square in Cambridge, for more than $95 million from the Beal Cos. LLP, as GlobeSt.com reported. Earlier in the year, the company purchased the seven-building Technology Square, also in Cambridge, for $600 million.

Copyright © 2007 ALM Properties, Inc.

[Derek2k3]

Here's the permit for one of the buildings
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobDetailsServlet?requestid=3&allisn=0001291021&allboroughname=&allnumbhous=&allstrt=

[krulltime]

Bioscience Park Ready To Rise on East River


http://www.nysun.com/pics/48930_main_large.jpg
The city’s first major bioscience office park aims to
attract bioscience companies to New York, as well as
to give them access to resources at Bellevue Hospital
and NYU’s medical school.



BY JAY AKASIE - Special to the Sun
February 20, 2007

A recent survey that went out to 600 of the world's top bioscience engineers and entrepreneurs reported that being around top academic institutions and accessing talented workers top the list of concerns companies consider when deciding where to set up shop.

It's a bit frustrating for the managing director of health care & biosciences for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, William Fair, when he hears that the North Carolina Research Triangle and Cambridge, Mass. perennially top the destination list for such firms. "We've got the brand-name schools and top talent here in New York City," he said. "But sometimes it's tough for an emerging industry make itself known when there's so much going on in this city."

But Mr. Fair, an aggressive graduate of Stanford University and the Kellogg School of Management, has already laid the groundwork to quintuple the amount of space in New York City devoted to the high flying businesses in the bioscience field. He's just announced the East River Science Park will hold some 535,000 square feet of sleek, high-tech office towers, laboratories, and public spaces that will connect to New York University's medical school complex and Bellevue Hospital.

This area stands now as a patch of dirt bounded by First Avenue and FDR Drive and between 28th and 30th Streets. The trailers set up on the edges of the plot, near the First Avenue side, hold the remains of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Mayor Bloomberg has promised victims' families that those remains will not be moved until they are interred in the memorial, according to Mr. Fair. A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment.

The project will involve two phases, the latter of which covers the area occupied by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where the remains are stored. Mr. Fair said he is confident that Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to allow private enterprise to play a larger role in the city's economic development will manifest itself with the completion of the bioscience park. "The fact that so much of this city's initial boom in the biosciences will be based in one place, on a campus showplace on the East River, is huge," he said.

Of the 226 publicly traded bioscience firms on the NASDAQ exchange, 14, or 6%, are based in New York City. Only 24 (3%) of the nation's 750 private firms are domiciled here. Experts say that much of the reason for the dearth in such companies in New York is the challenge to find decent, affordable space — a concern, not surprisingly, that affects many nascent industries here.

"The mayor has a private sector approach to how we approach and build up this industry," the copresident of the NYC Investment Fund, Maria Gotsch, said. "What we faced was a lack of real estate for academic spin-offs. How do you build up an industry when real estate is the first and driving concern?"

To that end, the NYC Investment Fund secured $10 million to get the project going, said Ms. Gotsch. She said she is confident investors will see a satisfying return on their investments in the bioscience park.

The CFO of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Joel Marcus, said his California firm has been looking to develop a significant property in Manhattan for some time.

"We're using what we like to call the cluster concept," Mr. Marcus said. "We use sophisticated, proprietary products to bring together a confluence of commercial activities. Each of these components will be critical to the success of the complex here in New York."

In the 1970s, urban decay and rising crime rates forced institutions like Bellevue and NYU to build campuses that looked inward. Now, they're opening up their campuses and will use the science park to link many of their existing buildings. That's a boon to the kinds of start-ups that developers expect to call the various building of the East River complex home. The idea is to tie private equity firms and scientists together with the doctors, patients, and medical school students already in the area.

"It's an effort to recapture the East River," Mr. Marcus said. "It's going to have some high-quality public access, with dramatic lighting and spectacularly inviting spaces."


© 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.

[kliq6]

This may be the most important comercial project in NYC right now, this may give us a chance to get a inroad into this sector!

[Derek2k3]

Some photos of a curtain all mock-up on Sota Glazing's website....Seems to use fins rather than bars for some sunshading.

http://www.sotawall.com/site_pages/USA_sites.html

[TonyO]

WNYC reported that this projected officially began today. I walked by the site and it is very busy, a lot of action going on. It's hard to see from the street but they are tearing down an older building in the middle of the site.

[TonyO]

Bloomberg and Silver Say Biotechnology Center Will Become an Economic Boon

By Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 16, 2007

A highly anticipated $700 million biotechnology center is beginning to take shape along the East River. The project, which is being developed on city-owned land, will include 1.1 million square feet of commercial space and research labs when complete. At a groundbreaking yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said the project will be a major economic boon because it will help establish New York, which already has a wealth of medical talent, as a bioscience hub.

In addition to $700 million that Alexandria Real Estate Equities is committing, the project will get $13.4 million in city capital money, $23 million from the state Assembly, $4 million from the governor's office, $2 million in federal funds, and about $16 million from several other sources. The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2009.

[investordude]

You know the parking garage in the LES on Delacey?

I think something like this would be great there - its reasonably near gentrifying neighborhoods, and lots of NYU students. I think it has the right characteristics for a larger biotech and technology urban campus. And as a bonus, its not behind a mental institution with crazy people walking around outside :)

[investordude]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10172007/postopinion/editorials/bribing_biotech.htm

Interesting take, although I think a fair evaluation needs to consider the value these labs may have to university researchers testing the economic viability of a medicine. There's a larger "gray area" between the obligation of profit and non-profit businesses in medicine than in the larger economy. But I'll agree with the post that the city shouldn't pick winners and losers economically outside these specialized areas like medicine, law enforcement, or environmental businesses.

[kliq6]

Bloomberg and Silver Say Biotechnology Center Will Become an Economic Boon

By Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 16, 2007

A highly anticipated $700 million biotechnology center is beginning to take shape along the East River. The project, which is being developed on city-owned land, will include 1.1 million square feet of commercial space and research labs when complete. At a groundbreaking yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and the speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said the project will be a major economic boon because it will help establish New York, which already has a wealth of medical talent, as a bioscience hub.

In addition to $700 million that Alexandria Real Estate Equities is committing, the project will get $13.4 million in city capital money, $23 million from the state Assembly, $4 million from the governor's office, $2 million in federal funds, and about $16 million from several other sources. The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2009.



It will only be a boom if they build millions more sf. One small development wont do much, I was hoping that the Hudson yards area could support some of this type of space since the floor plates are huge

[antinimby]

Millions more sf means bigger buildings but we know in this city, big is very hated word. Contemporary NY is content with aiming for mediocrity than anything too high.

[investordude]

I think in this case you can only build so high. Biotech labs typically have weird requirements about vibration and isolation, etc. I doubt you could successfully build a large skyscraper that met the needs.

That's why I think building in Seward Park would be good - extend the boom over a reasonably sized lot where skyscrapers probably wouldn't be built anyway.

[premas7]

am wondering if anyone has any specific information that the bellevue men's shelter at 400 east 30th st is going to be demolished. This is the old bellevue psychiatric hospital - not sure if it has landmark status. am assuming that it is amongst the 3.5 acres of land leased by alexandria, since it is directly across the street from the building site being excavated as we speak.

[NYCDOC]

Yes. The men's shelter will be closed and the building will be demolished. It is unfortuate in a sense . . . a beautiful building, but with a scary past. NYU had evaluated it for making it into resident housing, but the cost was too great. So along with many other New York buildings it will go the way of the wrecking ball!

[premas7]

appreciate seeing that in writing. i work in the building and noone has come out and told staff anything. no time frame, nothing. i've taken it upon myself to research this development and inform my staff as to what i find. i'm guessing that its the next building to undergo demolition, also that that may begin as soon as this summer. if anyone has any more specifics, would be grateful.

[antinimby]

premas, can you take pics of the building that is coming down?

[premas7]

i took some pics of the site, the building is already down. will forward tomorrow.

[premas7]

fyi the old bellevue psych building will not be demolished but renovated for medical offices by nyu. am still attempting to garner information regarding the timeframe for when it will cease to be a shelter (and where they are planning to place 800 men). i believe nyu takes official ownership at the end of the year.

[NYCDOC]

Really? The word around NYU is that it was evaluated and determined to be too expensive to renovate for the hospital's use. The back part of the building has already been torn off so I doubt that it is landmarked!

[premas7]

In the Jan 28, 2008 report by the city planning commission, approving plan 197-a (east river science park), it states on page 33 under preservation that "the commission suppports the consideration of the original buildings at bellevue...noting that the Landmarks preservation commission has indicated that the psychiatric building and the acs building are "eligible as potential landmarks".

logistically (and i know because i work in the building) i can definitely see how renovation would be much more costly...the walls are so thick, marble, there is little to no cell phone reception and certainly no wifi access. that being said, as far as i know the back of the building is still intact, they've removed the old laundry building next to the shelter.

frustratingly, the powers that be (dhs) are stating that we are here until summer of 09. that's hardly believable given the amount of money thats been sunk into ersp - but, all should take into account that it is the city's responsibility to place 800 men. where are they going to go?

again, appreciate any info that anyone has. kind of like being in limbo here.

[antinimby]

Steel Worker Falls 25 Feet From Building


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/30/nyregion/30fall.enlarge.jpg
The construction site on East 29th Street where a worker fell 25 feet to a concrete slab. The building is to be 15
stories high and is part of a complex known as the East River Science Park.


By THOMAS J. LUECK and COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: April 30, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/nyregion/30fall.html)

Just one day after thousands of workers gathered to mourn the loss of the 13 people killed in construction accidents in New York City this year, a steel worker was critically injured on Tuesday when he fell 25 feet from a building under construction on East 29th Street in Manhattan.

The authorities said the worker, Christopher Gunn, 28, was trying to maneuver a 20-foot steel I-beam being hoisted into place by a crane about 8:30 a.m. when he slipped and fell from the second story of the building, which is under construction between First Avenue and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.

What caused him to fall was unclear, but workers said that an early morning drizzle might have made the steel slippery, and that Mr. Gunn was seen grabbing for the I-beam to steady himself.

Mr. Gunn fell to a concrete slab, fracturing his safety helmet and losing consciousness, according to witnesses.

He underwent three hours of surgery at Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was in critical condition late Tuesday afternoon, said Minerva Joubert, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

The accident occurred during Construction Safety Week and the day after the ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral honoring those killed in construction accidents this year. It is unclear how many were killed at building sites during the first three months of 2007, but the total of 13 so far this year is one more than died in all of 2007.

The city and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into the cause of several fatal accidents. The most recent occurred April 14, when Kevin Kelly, a 25-year-old worker who was installing windows at a condominium under construction on East 67th Street, fell to his death from the 23rd floor, apparently because a strap failed.

The series of construction accidents has caused an upheaval at the Department of Buildings, which has oversight over building safety and code violations. Patricia J. Lancaster resigned as buildings commissioner last week amid city and state hearings on construction safety.

Robert D. LiMandri, the acting buildings commissioner, who visited the 29th Street construction site less than an hour after Mr. Gunn was taken to Bellevue, said the department would take a hard line if violations of building codes or work rules were found to be a factor in his fall.

“We are going to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “Development must not take place at the expense of the workers building our city.”

The city issued a stop-work order at the site, temporarily halting the operations of steel workers. It also issued several building code violations against the general contractor, Turner Construction, but none appeared to be directly related to Mr. Gunn’s fall.

Chris McFadden, a spokesman for Turner, said Tuesday evening that Mr. Gunn was “in full compliance with safety regulations” set by the federal government, and that the company was “continuing to cooperate with the New York City Department of Buildings and their ongoing investigation.”

Mr. Gunn was working for a subcontractor, Falcon Steel Company, a unit of Helmark Steel Inc. of Wilmington, Del. Helmark officials did not respond to a telephone inquiry.

City buildings inspectors said that Mr. Gunn was wearing a safety harness, as required under federal safety rules, but that the harness was not tied to a steel girder or any other object that would have stopped him from falling. The Buildings Department said it was investigating whether “this particular step in the steel operation required the worker’s safety harness to be tied off.”

John Chavez, a spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Mr. Gunn would not have been required to be secured by a safety strap if he was working no higher than 30 feet.

Carlos Nazario, 38, another worker, said Mr. Gunn was standing on a sheet of corrugated steel that had been installed as temporary flooring on the second story of the building’s framework. Mr. Gunn “was trying to hold the beam, and he slipped sideways,” Mr. Nazario said.

“They weren’t doing anything wrong,” Mr. Nazario said. He said that since workers moving around the framework of a project in its early stages of construction needed to move frequently, they would be constrained or even tripped up if they were tied to safety straps.

The East 29th Street building is to be 15 stories high and is part of a complex known as the East River Science Park. The project has received financial backing from the Partnership for New York City, a business group, and is intended to attract research operations from the pharmaceutical and medical industries.

In another serious construction accident on Monday, a 48-year-old worker was critically injured when he was run over by a front-end loader as he was working on a sewer pipe project on Staten Island, the authorities said. The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was in critical condition late Tuesday at Richmond University Medical Center.

The project is being carried out by the city’s Department of Design and Construction, and the worker was employed by Halcyon Construction Corporation of Pleasantville, N.Y. Officials of both the city department and Halcyon said the cause remained under investigation and declined to comment further.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[antinimby]

The first phase/building...

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/7441/img0260km6.jpg

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/4043/img0261yz9.jpg