Genome Center nears big lease at 101 Sixth Avenue

After losing out to Cornell-Technion in its bid to build a technology campus on city-owned land, the New York Genome Center is close to signing for 150,000 square feet at Edward Minskoff’s 101 Sixth Avenue in Soho, the Wall Street Journal reported. The center is a group of universities, medical centers and labs that conducts DNA-sequencing research. The Journal said the group could help the city catch up in the field of genomic science, which involves using machines to analyze a blood samples and decode a person’s entire DNA sequence. It is expected to create 2,000 new jobs in the next five years.

The center was founded two years ago by a handful of the city’s best-known hospitals and research centers and was the beneficiary of $125 million in public and private funding. Though its deal for more than a third of the space in 101 Sixth Avenue is not complete, the Journal said negotiations are in their final stages.

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The building had been the largest available contiguous space in Midtown South, which could have been a huge competitive advantage as new media companies become more established. The space was formerly occupied by the building worker’s union, SEIU Local 32BJ, that last year filed suit against the landlord. [WSJ]