Sloan Kettering pays $185M for UES medical center

Deal comes after hospital bought most of Lipstick Building in Midtown for $300M

MSK's Kathryn Martin with 321 East 61st Street
MSK's Kathryn Martin with 321 East 61st Street (Google Maps, MSK, Getty)

New York’s most active office buyer isn’t who you’d think.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, fresh off purchasing the majority of the Lipstick Building, just shelled out $185 million for the real estate at its Upper East Side research campus.

The hospital bought eight commercial condos spanning roughly 90,000 square feet at 321 East 61st Street from Joy Construction and Maddd Equities, property records filed Tuesday show.

The sellers developed the medical facility, known as the Joy Building, which Memorial Sloan Kettering moved into in 2020.

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The purchase comes on the heels of the hospital’s deal to buy about two thirds of the Lipstick Building, seven blocks south at 885 Third Avenue, from SL Green Realty for $300 million.

Sloan Kettering COO Kathryn Martin said both deals were aimed at controlling costs by consolidating the hospital’s leased footprint into a smaller amount of owned space.

“Consolidating locations and bringing staff together is a part of a multiyear strategy we will execute as each one of MSK’s leases expire,” she said in a statement released Monday. “In doing so, our aim is to facilitate cost savings, drive efficiencies, bring staff physically closer to MSK’s main campus, and deepen collaboration among teams.”

Joy Construction principal Eli Weiss wrote in an email that he hopes the real estate will help bring further success to “MSK’s mission and to the community.”