Mount Sinai Debuts 150 KSF Manhattan Lab

787 11th Ave. was fully leased at the time of its opening. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

Academic medical system Mount Sinai Health System has opened its new Discovery and Innovation Center, occupying 150,000 square feet at 787 11th Ave., on the West Side of Manhattan. The firm signed the leasing agreement with landlord The Georgetown Co. back in 2021.

Georgetown acquired the property in 2015 and implemented a $100 million renovation and expansion plan to accommodate for life science tenants. Built in 1929 as an industrial property, the building now spans 513,638 square feet across 10 stories, 265,000 of which represent showroom space occupied by Jaguar, Land Rover and Nissan. The rest of the building’s rentable space comprises laboratory, research, clinical and biomedical facilities, 36,000 square feet of which are occupied by designer Neri Oxman’s research lab.

In 2019, the building became subject to a $292.5 million CMBS loan from Wilmington Trust, as well as to a $117.5 million loan from Société Générale, both having 4.53 percent fixed interest rates, CommercialEdge data shows. Georgetown also secured $100 million from Guggenheim Investments for the renovation of the property, to house Mount Sinai. The discovery and innovation center will comprise a Stem Cell Engineering Core, Center for Advanced Genomics Technology, along with Assay Development and Screening, among others.

Slowing fundamentals in Manhattan’s office market

Located within an Opportunity Zone, the building is adjacent to DeWitt Clinton Park and about a mile from Times Square. It is also near Mount Sinai West, the company’s full-service medical center, allowing for synergy and collaboration between the locations.

As of August, Manhattan’s office market registered a 17.3 percent vacancy rate, just slightly below the national rate of 17.5 percent and representing a 3.3 percent increase year-over-year, a recent CommercialEdge report shows. It continued to be the most expensive market in the nation, with a $69.6 listing rate, marking a 1.9 percent drop since the same period last year, the same source shows.