NYU Langone has agreed to build a 125,000-square-foot freestanding emergency department (ED) – essentially an urgent care center – on the site formerly known as Long Island College Hospital (LICH). The ED will be nearly double the size of previous proposals.
It will cost $175 million, have a staff of 400 – 70 of them doctors. It will also restore ambulance service for the neighborhood. It is anticipated that once ambulance service resumes, 35 to 50 patients a day will be serviced.
The center would be complete by 2018.
The move marks a turnaround from September 19, when the entire sale of LICH to real estate developer Fortis Property Group was all but lost after NYU pulled out of the partnership, citing concerns over a lawsuit filed by the state nurses union.
The lawsuit claimed that Fortis and NYU had not hired enough former LICH nurses, as promised.
Following NYU’s withdrawal, the lawsuit was tossed out by the courts and NYU returned to the negotiating table.
But now the deal has been finalized and signed. It now faces final approval from State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Community advocates such as the Cobble Hill Association responded to NYU’s agreement with wariness, stating that the entire process never considered “whether or not booming South Brooklyn needs more or less hospital health care.”
