Weill Cornell’s Upper East Side dorm to cost $260M

Weill Cornell Medicine unveiled details of its Upper East Side dormitory development this week, including construction costs more than double the amount reported by PincusCo from a 2021 project filing.  

The medical school on Tuesday revealed the price tag of the project at 1393 York Avenue was $260 million, the Commercial Observer reported. PincusCo, citing a Nov. 3, 2021, job filing, initially reported the estimated cost was $118 million. But a Weill Cornell spokesperson said that was for construction only, and that the full price tag, including acquisition costs, had always been anticipated to be $260 million.

Donors are helping to defray some of those costs. Feil Organization chief executive officer Jeffrey Feil is among those who contributed a combined $122 million for the dorm’s construction.

The 16-story, 221-unit unit building will be for Weill Cornell graduate and medical students. A majority of the units will be studio apartments, though there will also be a handful of one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. 

Amenities will include communal study areas, a fitness center, yoga rooms, music rooms, meeting rooms, lounges with outdoor terraces and a basketball court.

Perkins&Will is designing the all-electric building, which will be clad in light gray facade paneling with a gold accent running along a cutout for windowed elevator lobbies. Construction is expected to wrap in 2025.

This article has been updated with a statement from Weill Cornell.

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Weill Cornell filed plans for the 128,000-square-foot building in late 2021. The dorm isn’t far from the school’s campus at 1300 York Avenue.

The medical school purchased the development site from the Church of the Epiphany for $68 million in February 2019. The church then turned around and purchased a building a block away at 351 East 74th Street, paying $22.5 million to Jan Hus Presbyterian Church.

Once graduate students matriculate from the school and its housing, might not have to have to look far for job opportunities. Gary Barnett’s Extell Development is building a medical office building at 1520 First Avenue in the Upper East Side, landing a $425 million construction loan for the project last year.

— Holden Walter-Warner