BRONX, NY (May 2022) — Joseph Kelleher, president of Simone Metro Properties, was honored for his ongoing support of Regional Aid for Interim Needs Total Care, Inc. (R.A.I.N.) at the Bronx-based service provider’s Sixth Annual Golf Outing on May 3rd at the Leewood Golf Club in Westchester County. For the past 58 years, R.A.I.N. has offered compassionate, quality care through a continuum of services for people with disabilities of all ages, including the operation of full service older adult centers; delivery of over 1,600 meals to homebound elderly; transportation services for medical appointments; home care; benefits and entitlements assistance; case management and Alzheimer’s caregiver support services; and operation of the Cucina Dolores Mobile Food Kitchen program. Pictured with Mr. Kelleher (left) at the event is R.A.I.N. President and CEO Anderson Torres, PhD, LCSW-R.

Mr. Kelleher has been a long-time supporter of R.A.I.N. He joined Simone in 2003 to direct the leasing and management of the Hutchinson Metro Center, the company’s highly successful mixed-use complex in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, featuring 1.4 million square feet of Class A office, medical, retail and educational space, a Marriott hotel and top-notch amenities including a café, conference center, pharmacy, fitness center, car wash and more in a 42-acre landscaped campus setting. Kelleher also serves as President of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce and as an Adult Leader for The Boy Scouts of America.

Simone Metro Properties is a division of Simone Development Companies, a full-service real estate investment company specializing in the acquisition and development of healthcare, office, retail, industrial and residential properties. Headquartered in the Bronx, the privately held company owns and manages more than 7 million square feet across 130 properties in the Bronx, Westchester County, Queens, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.

BRONX, NY (April 2022) — Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies says that vertical cluster design will be one of his firm’s life-sciences development strategies in urban settings.

“Vertical cluster design is an ideal solution for the dense urban and suburban regions where our company operates,” said Joe Simone, President of Simone Development Companies. “Particularly in New York City, real estate developers interested in building life sciences labs and offices must design in very limited acreage, which means the only solution is building tall towers.”

Vertical cluster design is a concept promoted by architecture firms like the Boston- and New York City-based SGA, which has developed a 24-story, 750,000-square-foot tower for densely populated cities like San Francisco or London. The vertical prototype takes a horizontal life-sciences campus and stacks it in a tower format while maintaining essential collaboration spaces.

Towers employing vertical cluster design have steel superstructures with 33-foot structural bays and 15-foot, floor-to-floor heights to provide ceiling heights necessary for the mechanical needs of laboratories. Air handler needs, power requirements, gas storage, plumbing, and HVAC requirements also affect the design of the building.

Simone Development Companies’ proposed Hutchinson Metro Center South Campus is a suitable location for vertical cluster design towers. The 33-acre multi-use South Campus will eventually offer 1.9 million-square-feet of facilities for business and medical offices, education, research and development, retail and hospitality.

“We have watched the life-sciences and biotech boom with excitement about the possibilities for our new South Campus,” said Patricia Simone, Principal and President of Simone Management Group. “Our Bronx location is ideally situated a short walk from a major research hospital and next to a future commuter train station that will eventually offer the east Bronx a 20-minute ride to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.”

The South Campus site is adjacent to the 42-acre Hutchinson Metro Center North Campus, a successful urban redevelopment that includes 1250 Waters Place — a 280,000-square-foot Class A medical office building fully leased to Montefiore Medical Center’s ambulatory care center. The 11-story building includes 12 operating rooms and four procedure rooms and it was the first “bedless hospital” in the New York Metropolitan Region.

BRONX, NY (March 2022) — Simone Development Companies has announced that cardiologist practice KezMed Medical PC has signed a long-term 2,175-square-foot lease of medical office space at 2510 Westchester in the Bronx, bringing the property to 95% occupancy. KezMed Medical celebrated the office’s grand opening in late March.

“We are proud to welcome KezMed Medical to what has become a local healthcare center of choice in the Westchester Square area,” said Josh Gopan, Assistant Vice President of Leasing at Simone Development. “2510 Westchester continues to attract top medical practices due to its ideal location within walking distance of the #6 subway, multiple bus routes and on-site parking garage. The property also benefits from its proximity to Simone Development’s Hutchinson Metro Center, a major hub for healthcare, office and education tenants.”

The three-story, 60,000-square-foot office and medical building is ideally located by Westchester Square Station in the Bronx, providing direct and easy access to multiple mass transit options. The property includes an on-site parking garage and is connected to the rest of the city and Tri-State area through both the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hutchinson River Parkway.

Josh Gopan represented ownership in the lease negotiations, while KezMed Medical PC was repped by Jon Smilowitz of Douglas Elliman.

KezMed Medical joins various medical practices at 2510 Westchester including Unlimited Care Nursing Services, the Bronx Community Wellness Center, the Advanced Urology and Radiation Centers of New York, Premier Home Health Services and the Bronx Westchester Medical Group.

BRONX, NY (March 2022) — Proximity to research hospitals and plug-and-play capabilities are among the top elements of a winning formula for developing life sciences real estate, said Joseph Simone, said Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies.

The Bronx Chamber of Commerce Foundation hosted its annual Women of Distinction Luncheon on March 25 at the Villa Barone Manor in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx. Chamber of Commerce Chairman Joseph Kelleher, president of Simone Metro Properties, (pictured R to L with scholarship winner Noemy Rodriguez, Allison Aguilar of Simone Development and Bronx Chamber Foundation Board Chair April Horton, Director, External Affairs & Government Affairs at Verizon), helped celebrate Women’s History Month and support the Chamber’s efforts to award scholarships young Bronx women who have demonstrated academic excellence.

This year’s luncheon honored Christine Croke, RN, patient care coordinator in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the Montefiore Weiler Hospital/Einstein Campus for her extraordinary contributions to Bronx patients, families and colleagues during the peak of the pandemic.

This year’s scholarships were made possible through the generosity of sponsors Con Edison, Ponce Bank, Verizon, The Monroe Foundation, Simone Development, New York Botanical Garden, Orange Bank & Trust Co., KZA Realty, Sandra Erickson Real Estate, Woodlawn Cemetery & Conservancy, F&F Insurance and Metro Optics.

BRONX, NY (March 2022) — Proximity to research hospitals and plug-and-play capabilities are among the top elements of a winning formula for developing life sciences real estate, said Joseph Simone, said Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies.

“The life sciences sector has a specific set of criteria when considering real estate options,” said Joe Simone. “Life science CEOs aren’t just looking for oversize buildings that can accommodate labs; they need spaces where their employees believe that their personal values and needs are respected.”

Simone Development Companies identified five criteria that all real estate professionals should consider when contemplating a life sciences project:

1. Plug-and-play: Buildings with research-ready centralized systems such as air handling, acid neutralization, and backup power provide turnkey expansion opportunities for future lab users.
2. Proximity: Some of the nation’s most successful life science innovation corridors are emerging near research hospitals and universities. Life-sciences real estate that is walking or biking distance from such campuses will be favored by start-ups emerging from researchers’ discoveries.
3. Amenities: Remote work and the Great Resignation have taught employers that fitness centers, roof terraces, employee lounges and fun meeting spaces foster positive work environments and collaboration for employees.
4. Sustainability: Many emerging biosciences are writing sustainability and carbon neutrality into their mission statements. Real estate developers must deliver properties with energy recovery systems and other measures that mitigate laboratories’ large consumption of electricity and other resources.
5. Transportation: The technology workforce of today and tomorrow is increasingly concerned about the environment and the impact of automobiles. Wet labs and research facilities built near train stations, bus lines and bicycle lanes will help tenants attract top talent that values a car-free existence.

“In 2021, New York City experienced a record year for laboratory leasing activity,” said Joanna Simone, Principal and President of Leasing and Property Management. “We analyzed the leasing data and concluded that most of the properties were in buildings that incorporated these five elements.”

BRONX, NY (February 2022) — Buildings with flexible and adaptive spaces are critical to attracting growing life-sciences businesses, said Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies.

“Nationwide, we are seeing proposed construction that emphasizes flexible and adaptive spaces, regardless of whether the end uses are laboratories, classrooms or offices,” said Joseph Simone, president of Simone Development Companies. “Landlords seek buildings whose interiors can be quickly modified to meet new market realities, particularly in the burgeoning life sciences sector.”

Collaboration is prized in the life sciences and other burgeoning industries dependent on innovation, so new buildings are designed to enhance the creative collaboration that leads to new products and breakthroughs.

“The very competitive biomedical research environment demands shared facilities and diverse spaces in which employee teams of various sizes can do their work,” said Joseph Simone.

Simone Development Companies’ Hutchinson Metro Center in the Bronx is an example of contemporary trends in flexible and adaptive building. An ambulatory surgical center–the Bronx’s first bedless hospital–contains open floor plans that allow the hospital to quickly adapt to new health care priorities.

“We have proposed expanding our Hutchinson Metro Center campus to include wet laboratories for medical research. This new facility will include high ceilings and open floor plans that facilitate flexible and adaptive uses,” said Joseph Simone.

The proposed expansion of the Hutchinson Metro Center campus aligns with New York City’s biotech investment in the Morris Park innovation corridor. New York City’s financial commitment to growing the life sciences sector in all its boroughs includes a $13 million grant to Montefiore Medical Center and its medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to launch the Einstein-Montefiore Biotechnology Accelerated Research Center.