As advertising and creative agencies like Ogilvy and Mother move on from 11th Avenue, innovation moves in to take their place. Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine is the latest big name to lease space on the far west Hell’s Kitchen corridor traditionally populated by car dealerships. Last month we reported that Amazon had taken on space for its innovative city e-bike delivery.
Mount Sinai will occupy three floors of 787 11th Avenue. The 1920s building, formerly the home of Packard Motor Company, was purchased in 2015 by a group led by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman from Pershing Square Capital Management (who now have their offices in the building). Other investors in the $360m purchase and redevelopment include LeBron James and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The hospital has leased 165,000 square feet in the 10-story building, to be used as outpatient clinics and research labs. The Wall Street Journal described it as “a deal that underscores the importance of hospitals and biotechnology to the economic growth of New York in the pandemic era.”
Crain’s reported that the leasing of the 505,000 square foot building is now complete. The developer, Georgetown Co, has also leased 36,000 square feet to Neri Oxman (Ackman’s wife), for an MIT research facility — with car dealerships for Jaguar, Land Rover, and Nissan taking up five floors.
The building originally had just 8 floors, but Ackman added a two-story, 90,000 square foot glass box penthouse for his hedge fund, complete with a terrace and tennis court.
This is good news for an area that was once described as being sent to the “NYC equivalent of Siberia.” Mount Sinai will be around the corner from the New York Stem Cell Foundation on W54th Street. Last month, the Foundation reported that it was expanding with a $6m grant. Down the avenue, The Glasshouse exhibition space is getting ready to open.