Public Development
NY Plans to Build $1.6B Health and Science Hub in Manhattan
SPARC Kips Bay is one of several projects in different stages of development in the Kips Bay Science District.
Image courtesy of New York City Mayor's Office
New York state and city officials are planning to build a public health and life sciences campus in New York City at an expected cost of $1.6 billion. A master plan for the Science Park and Research Campus Kips Bay, developed with design firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill, is anticipated in nine to 12 months.
SPARC Kips Bay, as it is known, would then go through the city's uniform land use review process before requests for proposals are issued. It will likely be a few years before the project, which could create 8,000 construction jobs, goes out to bid, says a spokesperson for New York City Economic Development Corp. says.
The campus is conceived of as an education and jobs hub, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who jointly announced the plan. The 1.5-million-sq-ft development would take up a full city block on the east side of Manhattan at E. 25th Street and First Avenue. The project would also include rebuilding an accessible pedestrian bridge connecting E. 25th Street to the East River and the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.
“As New York continues to emerge from the pandemic, continued investment into critical development projects that not only improve our health care and life sciences infrastructure but also create thousands of good-paying jobs and career opportunities for our working-class people is crucial,” Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, said in a statement.
As planned, SPARC Kips Bay would sit within what officials are calling the Kips Bay Science District, stretching from the Margaret Cochran Corbin VA Campus on E. 23rd Street to the NYC Langone Medical Center on E. 34th Street. The Brookdale Campus of the City University of New York's Hunter College would anchor the development, which would also include an ambulatory care center, high school facilities, a forensic pathology center and other spaces.
