CCNY, Mount Sinai Get $26M for Life Science Incubators

The New York City Economic Development Corporation has announced $26M in grants for two life science lab projects in Manhattan, part of the city’s $1B LifeSci NYC initiative.

The EDC announced that City College of New York (CCNY) will receive $15M, while Mount Sinai Health System will get an $11.6M grant.

CCNY will use the funds to launch a facility known as City Innovation Collaborative in the Tasty Lab Building in West Harlem. The public university will develop a 36K SF wet and dry lab for startup.

In a release, CCNY said it is aiming to create 150 new medical technology products, 100 new life science ventures and create 1,400 new jobs over the next 10 years. The university said the incubator would be the focus of $290M in venture capital funding.

Mount Sinai will use its grant to build a 7K SF medical device prototyping facility on the West Side of Manhattan that will be known as the Comprehensive Center for Surgical Innovation.

According to a statement from the EDC, the center will have imaging and rapid prototyping capabilities, with the capacity to host 10 to 12 startups producing up to 50 to 60 prototypes of new medical equipment each year.

LifeSci NYC was launched in 2016 by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio with $500M in funding to support the creation of lab space, incubators, research-focused non-profits and life science internship programs. Funding for the program was increased in 2021 by another $500M.

According to a joint report from NYC and the EDC issued last month, NYC’s life science employment of 150K actually is outpacing San Francisco and its more than 5,000 life science companies is 30% more than the nation’s leading life-science hub in Boston.

However, Boston is by far the leader in life science inventory at more than 42M SF, with San Francisco second at about 33M, according a CBRE report at the beginning of the year.

Any indication of a national slowdown in the life science sector has not materially impacted New York City’s life science market as tenant demand has steadily increased since 2020 due to the abundance of institutional users that have a long-term outlook on leasing, according to Newmark’s MidYear 2022 life sciences report.

Newmark estimates the NYC life science market at more than 3.7M SF, with a vacancy rate of 28%.

Despite a YOY decline, the estimated $2.7B in venture capital funding for life science projects in NYC remains 63% above pre-pandemic levels, reinforcing continued strength of the tenant ecosystem, Newmark’s report states.

“The incubator model for biotechnology and life science companies has been successful for New York City-based startups, and new developments boast expansive floorplates for large tenants,” Newmark’s analysts said.

“However, tenants looking for graduation space of 3,000 SF to 12,000 SF are underserved by the existing lab inventory,” the report noted.

Life science developers with national experience are showing interest in potential opportunities in NYC submarkets including Long Island City in Queens, the report said.