Medical Tower To Be Built On Long-Empty Upper East Side Block

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two years after it tore down an entire Upper East Side block without any plans to replace it, the developer Extell has finally announced what it will build on First Avenue between East 79th and 80th streets: a 30-story medical tower.

Monday's news settled months of speculation about what, if anything, would fill the empty block on the avenue's east side, which was home to a set of four-story rowhouses before Extell demolished them all in 2019. Contrary to initial promises by Extell's leadership, the plans appear to make no room for housing or a school.

Instead, the tower's main tenant will be the Hospital for Special Surgery — currently at work expanding its existing campus a few blocks south — which has already signed a long-term lease for the lower eight floors, Extell said in a news release. The hospital's space will include doctors' offices and treatment centers for musculoskeletal conditions.

Construction will break ground near the end of March 2022 and will last until early 2025, Extell said. The building will have an address of 403 East 79th St.

The vacant block has been an object of scorn in the neighborhood since demolitions began. When residents questioned Extell Chairman Gary Barnett at a May 2019 meeting, Barnett was mum about how his company would redevelop the block, but suggested the project would include a school and some apartments.

This week's announcement makes no mention of either, focusing instead on office and research space. At 400,000 square feet, it will also be larger than the initial total of 250,000 that Barnett had floated.

In a statement, Barnett said the tower would help serve the city's aging population and bolster the Upper East Side's medical office inventory, which is "not equipped to meet the modern tenant's needs."

"403 East 79th Street will provide a much-needed new facility to complement the area’s growth," he said. "We are pleased to be partnering with HSS, the foremost hospital for orthopedics and rheumatology to anchor the base of the building."

The new development may immediately trigger comparisons to other medical developments proposed on the Upper East Side, like the New York Blood Center's 67th Street tower and Lenox Hill Hospital's project on Park Avenue, both of which have stirred controversy for their size and the precedents their rezonings would set.

But the Extell tower differs from those projects in one key respect: it requires no zoning changes to be built, according to the New York Post, which first reported the news. Like most Upper East Side avenues, this stretch of First Avenue is currently zoned on a high-density scheme that allows for buildings up to 215 feet tall.

Regardless of how the tower is perceived, construction may at least settle some other community concerns that have stemmed from the empty site. Residents have protested a lack of lighting and rat infestations — forcing Extell to install lights along the construction fence — and the demolition crew was fined by the city last year for safety violations.

It took Extell more than a decade to put together the construction site, which consists of 10 different parcels that it purchased one by one. The building will be designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, whose projects include the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering and the TKTS Booth in Times Square.

The building will feature state-of-the-art technology and oversized windows that bring in an abundance of natural light, Extell says. The basement and ground floors will include retail.

"We are grateful to Extell for building a superb facility that will help us to continue lead the world in specialized patient care, research, innovation and education," said Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO of the Hospital for Special Surgery, in a news release.

"This is an important step in the multi-year transformation of our main campus, and complement to construction of the HSS Kellen Tower over FDR Drive, which is now underway."

A few blocks uptown, Extell has torn down several buildings on First Avenue between East 85th and 86th streets in pursuit of a project there, but has been stymied in part by a lone tenant refusing to leave his rent-stabilized apartment.

Have an Upper East Side news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.

Previous coverage by Patch:

• Block-Swallowing UES Mega Development Fined For Safety Violations
• Extell's UES Development Site Is Unsafe: Lawmaker, Seniors Say
• Developer Claims No Clear Plan For Replacing Demolished UES Block
• Work To Demolish Entire UES Block Is Underway
• Entire Upper East Side Block To Be Demolished