City approves research facility for Memorial Sloan Kettering

Real Estate Weekly, Dec 12, 2001 by Parke Chapman

An influential Upper East Side cancer hospital is one step closer to expanding their research facility as community activists wage an increasingly uphill battle to protect their backyards.

The City Planning Commission unanimously approved Memorial Sloan-Kettering's $500 to $700 million expansion plans last week, though several of the hospital's demands were not met. The project now goes before the City Council, which has 50 days to act on the application.

The project calls for an expansion of MS-K's research facilities via the construction of a new 510,400-SF laboratory building. "Large Scale Community Facility" status was conferred to MS-K, which gives the hospital the right to transfer development rights between its properties.

MS-K's desire to rezone East 66th and East 67th streets was denied by the commission. Also, the proposed tower between 68th and 69th streets was reduced in height by approximately 20 feet.

This wasn't enough for the project's critics, however.

"It was all scripted. The City Planning Commission said that Memorial Sloan-Kettering 'accommodated' the neighbors. They never did such a thing," said Joel Ross, who lives one block away from the hospital and has spearheaded the opposition group's efforts to defeat the project. Ross, an investment banker with Citadel Realty Group, wrote up an elaborate alternate plan for the hospital. The plan proposed that the new facility--which Ross and others have deemed a "biotech" facility--be built elsewhere. Ross believes that MS-K intends to use the new building as a commercial biotech facility, which is illegal under the zoning laws. MS-K has denied that this is their aim, even stating that the facility will not be biotech.

When asked about the "scripted" accusation, City Planning Commission chairman Joseph Rose flatly rejected the barb.

"We had meetings with both the hospital and the neighbors. The neighbors didn't get everything they wanted, but the process was not scripted," said Rose.

Rose also said that the commission was "sympathetic" to MS-K, "one of the most important scientific institutions in New York City--a very important institution."

He also said that his commission was fully receptive throughout the process.

Another coalition member criticized the minimal reduction in the building's height.

"It's laughable. What is 20 feet? The decision is just very disappointing," said Barbara Knowlton, a member of the 10021 steering committee, a group separate from the Community Board.

Critics of the project have labeled themselves underdogs ever since the beginning of last summer when momentum against the plan was building.

But ever since, there have been noticeably few articles in any of the major daily newspapers that addressed their "David vs. Goliath" plot line.

They contend that pro-MS-K powers in government and business circles have drowned their message out. Perhaps this explains why the group hired a public relations firm six weeks ago.

A recent press release issued by the firm, Burson-Marsteller, credits several local politicians--among them Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Sen. Roy Goodman--as supporters of the so-called 10021 coalition.

Central to the various splinter groups' criticism of MS-K is the belief that rezoning will open the floodgates for other hospitals to expand in an area that is already saturated with such facilities.

Rose called that claim "clearly absurd."

He acknowledged that this area of the city "has a different character" due to the high number of institutions located here.

Another criticism was that MS-K never agreed to meet the community halfway.

But a spokeswoman for MS-K said that the hospital "tried to make changes," but the opposition groups were really out to defeat the project entirely.

"They never made themselves available for discussion, in every respect," said Shelly Friedman, a partner at Friedman & Gotbaum who is MS-K's lead attorney.

He said that the City Planning Commission did, in fact, make three "major changes" to the project, but even these weren't enough for the opposition.

Friedman is "very optimistic" that the City Council will give the project a green light.

When and if that happens, Ross already knows what he'll do.

"I'll sue," said Ross.