Lendlease, Extell Top Out Manhattan MOB Tower

The joint venture of Lendlease and Extell Development Co. has topped out 1520 First Ave., a 400,000-square-foot medical office building in Manhattan. The 30-story tower is slated for completion in 2025. Perkins Eastman designed the project and WSP serves as structural engineer.

The developers financed the construction of the medical office project with a $118.2 million loan from Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, originated in 2021, as well as a $54.8 million loan provided by Harbor Group International in 2022, according to CommercialEdge data. Additional financial partners include InterVest Capital Partners, Rexmark and Pacific Western Bank, which have provided a total of $425 million for the development.

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The 449-foot structure rises on a multi-story podium with multiple setbacks. Upon completion, the medical facility will house doctors’ offices and medical treatment centers, as well as retail space on the ground floor.

The building will feature accommodations for the Department of Health and also comply with Article 28 requirements for ambulatory care uses and surgical facilities. The Hospital for Special Surgery will be the property’s anchor tenant, having preleased 200,000 square feet on the building’s first eight floors.

The site occupies a full block on the east side of First Avenue, less than a mile from the Hospital for Special Surgery Main Hospital and the New York-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center. The location is also some 2 miles from the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

New York office development shrinks

As of the end of 2023, Manhattan’s under construction pipeline totaled 6.9 million square feet of office space across 13 properties, accounting for 1.4 percent of existing stock, according to a recent CommercialEdge market update. The value was lower than the national average of 1.7 percent.

However, several planned projects are bound to bolster the state of New York’s office pipeline in the near future. One of them is the Great Northern Mall redevelopment in Syracuse, which is slated to add some 790,000 square feet of medical and traditional office space to supply, along with large retail, housing and hospitality components.