NYC Plans 1.5M SF Life Science Campus in Brooklyn

NYC and New York State unveiled a plan Thursday for a new 1.6B, CUNY-centric Science Park and Research Campus, to be known as SPARC, that will expand and redevelop an entire city block at Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus in the Kips Bay area of Brooklyn.

“This can be transformative. It can give people the chance to get a good job, a good education and the opportunity to have different healthcare outcomes,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said, in an announcement of the project.

The new campus will be built on a 5-acre site near First Ave. and 25th St. will be anchored by new facilities for over 4,500 students from the Hunter School of Nursing and School of Health Professions, the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and other health care programs.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and the project will be completed by the end of 2031.

The redevelopment plan will include 1.5 million square feet of academic, public health, and life sciences space and a rebuilt pedestrian bridge on E. 25th St. connecting the campus to the East River and Manhattan Waterfront Greenway.

City and state officials estimate the project will generate $25 billion in economic impact over the next three decades, creating 10,000 jobs.

The site original was scheduled to become a Department of Sanitation facility. “We took trash and turned it into treasure,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a ceremony announcing the development.

The redevelopment of the site also will house a forensic pathology center run by NYC’s medical examiner’s office, a public high school and an ambulatory care center for NYC Health + Hospitals.

This public-private partnership follows a series of actions taken in the first months of the Adams administration to invest in and plan the future of the region’s life sciences industry, particularly in Kips Bay, where the life science ecosystem has seen over $2 billion in investment in the last 15 years.

“COVID-19 proved how important New York’s public hospitals, research institutions, and CUNY are to the survival and well-being of our city. As a result, it is fitting that CUNY transform Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus into a public health and education hub to better meet the needs of our students, faculty, and all New Yorkers,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, in a statement.