New York City may join the upper ranks of some of the leading biotech cities like Boston Raleigh-Durham, and San Francisco with the opening of a new life sciences campus in 2021. Backed by investment group, Deerfield Management, the $635 million project, in partnership with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the approximately 300,000-square-foot life sciences space will be in housed within a 12-story building in Midtown Manhattan, and will include more than 200,000 square-feet of the space dedicated to wet labs.
Located at 345 Park Avenue South—previously occupied by the advertising agency, Digitas—the new campus is part of the LifeSci NYC project to establish New York City as a global leader in the life sciences. In addition to the new facility, Deerfield has also invested $2 billion in research and seed funding by 2030.
“We are proud to be part of a community of people in New York who strive to save and extend lives,” said James Flynn, Managing Partner, Deerfield, in a recent statement. “Creating an environment in which innovative thinking, ground-breaking advances in scientific discovery and where the development of new paradigms of patient care will occur every day is tremendously exciting.”
The New York campus will help biotech and healthcare startups and other developing companies working on research and development to treat chronic conditions and other diseases, including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and beyond. Chicago-based non-profit, MATTER, has also partnered with Deerfield to manage the programming for emerging healthcare and life sciences companies operated within the new campus.
Some of the initial programs in line for the center include Deerfield's existing CUNY Fellows, Break into the Boardroom, and Women in Science initiatives, in addition to a NYCEDC LifeSci NYC Internship program.
Deerfield, along with the NYCEDC, has also invested $30 million in workforce development, which will help contribute to the creation of 1,400 new jobs in life sciences under the new campus.
“The shortage of commercial laboratory, engineering, and computing space has prevented us from developing cures for some of the most pressing medical conditions here in New York and nationally, but with LifeSci NYC we are changing that quickly,” said James Patchett, president and CEO, NYCEDC, in the statement. “Our partnership with Deerfield and MATTER is a game changer for New Yorkers and patients everywhere and will provide a new home for breakthrough scientific discoveries and approximately 1,400 quality good-paying jobs in the life sciences sector."
