Hotel union files plans for $75M new LIC health center

New York’s hospitality workers’ union is building a ground-up medical office in Queens for $75 million.

The benefits-providing arm of the New York Hotel Trades Council plans to construct a three-story, 76-foot-tall project at 43-06 38th Street in Long Island City, according to a pre-filed application recorded at the city’s Buildings Department Thursday. The development will span 84,000 square feet.

Representatives for the union could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

In 2012, the organization landed an agreement from the Hotel Association of New York to build a new health center at 265 Ashland Place in Brooklyn, which opened its doors in 2017. The union also secured “a strong financial commitment” to grow and renovate its current health center in Queens, which stands next door to the site of the new project, according to a January announcement about the new center.

The union has scrapped the renovation plans in favor of a new building for Queens at 43-06 38th Street, a parcel the group already owns, property records show. The $75 million project is set to open in 2021, and it will be business as usual in the meantime for the current facility, located at 37-11 Queens Boulevard, according to the union’s announcement.

The new building will be bigger than its predecessor, which stands two stories tall and measures under 55,000 square feet.