A new cancer center in Manhattan will not put member deference to the test.
Three years ago, almost to the day, the City Planning Commission approved a rezoning for a New York Blood Center project on the Upper East Side. Two months later the City Council followed suit, against the wishes of then-local Council member Ben Kallos. It was the first time since 2009 that the local member was overridden.
On Tuesday, Kallos’ successor, Council member Julie Menin, avoided a similar fate. She announced a deal with Memorial Sloan Kettering to pave the way for a 31-story cancer center at 1233 York Avenue.
This project has been in the works for more than 20 years. The rezoning began the city’s land use review process in June 2001, but the hospital withdrew its application as city agencies grappled with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
As part of the deal with Menin, Memorial Sloan Kettering agreed to invest $10.39 million in upgrades to P.S. 183 and to pay for various construction-mitigation efforts, including air quality and dust control.
The hospital also agreed to build the new facility with 100 percent union labor. The new building will extend MSK’s services from an existing hospital at 1275 York Avenue. Two buildings on the site, which house hospital staff, will be demolished to make way for the project. Staffers will move to other hospital-owned properties,
Some had raised concerns about the building’s height (nearly 600 feet) during a Community Board 8 meeting, but the project’s size remained the same.
“We looked at every opportunity to reduce the height in response to community concerns, but the fact is that the building envelope is the minimum required to support what we believe demand for cancer care will be in 2030 and beyond,” an MSK spokesperson said in a statement.
New York City sees 40,000 new cases of cancer each year, a number that is expected to grow significantly over the next two decades, according to MSK, which also draws patients from across the U.S. and the world.
What we’re thinking about: What do you think about the various investigations surrounding the Adams administration? Send a note to kathryn@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: This November marks the 10th anniversary of the release of Emmy-winning animated miniseries “Over the Garden Wall.” To celebrate, the animation studio behind “Wallace & Gromit” appears to be involved in a (most likely stop-motion) special.
Elsewhere in New York…
— New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks is the latest Adams administration official to step down, Politico New York reports. In a letter, Banks said he planned to retire at the end of the year and did not mention the federal investigations surrounding the administration. Federal authorities raided Banks’ home and seized his phones this month.
— A new Siena College poll shows that only 34 percent of likely New York voters view Gov. Kathy Hochul favorably, Gothamist reports. At the same time, polls show that voters view her policies more favorably. “She’s having a hard time getting her message out there, and a lot of that is because people are still getting to know her,” Lupe Todd-Medina, a Democratic consultant who worked on Hochul’s 2022 campaign, told the website. “What she’s trying to get out there, it gets lost in all the noise.”
— Grand jury subpoenas issued to City Hall in July sought information about Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan, in addition to Turkey, the New York Times reports. Part of the investigation is focused on whether Mayor Eric Adams’ election campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal donations.
Closing Time
Residential: The priciest residential sale Tuesday was $17.3 million for a 3,923-square-foot condominium at 25 Columbus Circle in Lincoln Square. The Hudson Advisory Team at Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The largest commercial sale of the day was $288 million for a 587-key, 447,000-square-foot hotel (Thompson Central Park) at 111-119 West 56th Street on Sixth Avenue. GFI Capital sold the property to Gencom.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $16.8 million for a 7,733-square-foot condominium at 211 West 84th Street on the Upper West Side. Alexa Lambert of Compass has the listing. — Matthew Elo