The campus will be located in the Kips Bay neighborhood, just south of the New York University Medical Center between East 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive. It will be along Manhattan's medical/life sciences corridor, which is home to Beth Israel Hospital, Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Mount Sinai, New York Hospital, Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The project is a major component of the city's effort to make it a center for the growing life sciences and biotech sectors. The city hopes it will attract companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields as well as create an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years. Alexandria was chosen after the city issued a Request for Proposals for the project.

When completed, it will encompass about 4.5 acres with more than 820,000 square sf of scientific research and development, office and small-scale retail space. The campus will have at least 46,600 sf of open space. The site will be built in three phases, with construction on the first phase expected to begin this year. The first building will be ready for occupancy by the end 2008.