https://patch.com/new-york/upper-eas...g-stalled-9-11
MSK Wants To Build Hospital Building Stalled By 9/11
Memorial Sloan Kettering is seeking to finish a zoning plan that was originally scheduled to be discussed on September 12, 2001.
By Peter Senzamici
Mar 30, 2023
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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center presented their proposal Tuesday night to finally build a new hospital building that was in the works over 20 years ago, until the September 11 terror attacks forced them to shelve their plans.
….MSK came before Community Board Eight in an early-stage presentation, which mostly received a warm reception from board members who often made unfavorable comparisons to another large rezoning request from a Lexington Avenue hospital also currently in progress.
While applauding some aspects of the presentation, members voiced concerns over the size and bulk of the proposed building as well as worries that the demolition of a MSK-owned, 336-unit residential building currently at the site would add pressure to an already historically tight housing market in the neighborhood.
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Memorial Sloan Kettering's proposal, called the MSK Pavilion, has been in the works since 2001, representative said. It involves finishing a large-scale rezoning that the world famous cancer center was in the process of over 20 years ago.
Their zoning hearing was originally scheduled for September 12, 2001, and were subsequently asked to scale back their proposal to lighten the load for the city's Planning Department, which was overburdened with the task of rebuilding lower Manhattan.
"Obviously, that hearing never occurred," said Shelly Friedman, MSK's land use attorney.
"We voluntarily withdrew that application. It's totally addressed in the City Planning Commission report, that they expected us to come back at a time when the inpatient hospital was was more developed and evolved," Friedman said as he explained the background of the site's zoning history.
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Board members applauded what nearly everyone called an "excellent" presentation and quickly drew comparisons to a concurrent rezoning request from Lenox Hill Hospital at a site a few blocks north on Lexington Avenue.
That project, according to a February presentation to the same Community Board 8 committee, is slated to take 11 years to build. MSK predicts a max of six years to construct the Pavilion, with an opening date of 2030.
Board member Anthony Cohn said "God bless you," in comparison to the Lenox Hill timeline, a bulkier project by nearly 500,000 square feet.
"They're talking about twice as long for a building that is not significantly bigger at the end of the day," he said.
Cohn also applauded MSK for proposing more space-efficient hospital rooms, at 250-300 square feet each, and operating rooms ranging from 650-700 square feet.
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But members were still concerned with the building's size, which would be even taller than the 400-foot tall Lenox Hill Hospital building.
Board member Elizabeth Rose questioned if the hospital couldn't redevelop other MSK sites instead and have two smaller buildings at a First Avenue site instead of one looming tower, which she called "far preferable."
Hospital representatives said that the First Avenue site, the Schwartz Cancer Research Building — which was one of the building to emerge from the 2001 large-scale rezoning — was ruled out early on because the property contains facilities that couldn't be easily relocated, like radiology departments and the hospital's blood bank.
"That is the one building you do not want to see increase in height, too, if you're concerned about the shadows in St. Catharines," Friedman said, in a reference to another bruising neighborhood rezoning fight over the Blood Center.
"We did look very hard at our options, because quite honestly, we didn't want to have to take down the buildings that we're planning to take down," said acting hospital president, Dr. Jeff Drebin.
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Many members also expressed worry about the removal of residential units in the neighborhood. To build the Pavilion, MSK would be forced to demolish a 270-foot, 336-unit building which currently houses staff, medical and doctoral students for the hospital and Weill Cornell Medical Center.
"Where are those people going?" asked Cohn.
Dr. Lisa DeAngelis, the chief medical officer at MSK who said she lives in the neighborhood and raised her family here, said that they have been anticipating the impact their plans will have on housing. MSK already purchased additional housing on Roosevelt Island, where the hospital has a building, she said. Additionally, MSK has two other residential locations in Lenox Hill and one in Yorkville.
But older residents, DeAngelis said, could be asked to move into market housing to ensure that younger workers and students have access to MSK-owned residential units.
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Ultimately both parties signaled a willingness to work through issues in the upcoming Community Board 8 MSK Task Force Meetings, five of which have already been planned, Cohn said.
"It's a problem and I think there are solutions that we can talk about during the during the task force," he added.
The first MSK Task Force meeting is scheduled for April 20.
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