BRONX, NY (January 5, 2022) — Joe Simone, President of Simone Development Companies, predicts that innovation corridors with research hospitals, universities and affordable housing are key to growing vibrant life-sciences communities.
“Life-science companies have bucket lists when seeking new locations. Their site-selection criteria include proximity to hospitals and higher-education institutions that graduate young STEM talent,” said Joseph Simone. “Life-science companies also need communities that have affordable housing options for their workers and thriving cultural-retail scenes.”
One of New York City’s burgeoning life-sciences neighborhoods is in West Harlem, an area that includes Columbia University, City College of New York, New York Structural Biology Center, NewYork Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center. Additionally, West Harlem’s median residential rental prices are significantly lower than other neighborhoods in Manhattan, according to Zumper.com.
Other New York City neighborhoods also have growing innovation corridors. In the Bronx’s Morris Park area, Simone Development has proposed expanding its Hutchinson Metro Center campus to include wet laboratories for medical research. This new life-science-focused expansion will sit next to a new Metro-North train station that will soon provide commuters direct access to Grand Central Terminal and Manhattan’s innovation corridors. “Morris Park is poised to become a bench-to-bedside innovation hub that transforms medical research into medicines or therapies,” said Joe Simone.
New York City’s biotech investment in the Morris Park innovation corridor 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.
“The center will create a bio-manufacturing facility focused on cell, gene, and antibody therapy production,” said Joe Simone. “Our Hutchinson Metro Center is a short walk from the Montefiore facilities and we expect the area’s affordable housing to facilitate arriving biotechnology companies’ ability to recruit talent.”