NewYork-Presbyterian To Build New Washington Heights Facility

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — NewYork Presbyterian hospital is going forward with a plan to build a 13-story development near its Washington Heights campus, the hospital announced this week.

The new development will be located on Broadway between West 169th and 170th streets — two blocks north of the Columbia University Medical Center — and will mostly consist of housing for hospital employees and patients, a NewYork-Prestbyterian spokesman said. The building will feature 150 employee apartments that will be mostly one-bedrooms and studios and 98 rooms for hospital guest and their families.

The building will also feature an "Early Childhood Hub" that will provide services for young children and caregivers, a hospital spokesman said. Programming offered at the hub will be a mix of hospital and community-based services — such as community play space, literacy and school readiness programming and nutrition resources — that will be developed with NewYork-Presbyterian's local partners in Upper Manhattan. Some features of the new center include a

"We are excited to be moving forward with a long planned development project in Northern Manhattan that will meet critically important hospital and community needs," a hospital spokesman said in a statement. "Located on Broadway between 169th and 170th streets, the site will become home to an Early Childhood Hub – which will support the health and wellbeing of our youngest community members and their caregivers – as well as a mix of employee housing and short stay accommodations for patients’ families, and commercial retail in the ground floor space.

"We look forward to working with the community over the coming months as we finalize plans for a project that benefits all."

NewYork-Presbyterian is still in the design phase for the project, a hospital spokesman said. The firm Arquitectonica has been hired to design plans for the new building.

The hospital does not plan to apply for zoning variances and expects to begin construction in the fall, a NewYork-Presbyterian spokesman said. Construction is expected to take up to two to three years to complete.

Many buildings that currently occupy Broadway between West 169th and 170th streets will be replaced by the new development. Businesses at those spaces are on month-to-month leases and have been given notice of the development plans.