A year ago, the sale of the huge Upper East Side site on which the CUNY Hunter/Memorial Sloan-Kettering medical complex will sit seemed like a done deal, with the city agreeing to turn it over to the partnership for $226 million. However, the New York Post reports today that, somehow, the sale has not closed, which means that construction on the complex cannot move forward. That's good news for the Yorkville NIMBYs who have apparently not given up their quixotic quest to halt the project, and now may have reason to once again deliver screeds about how the cancer treatment center is a "vanity project" and how they would rather have a sanitation department garage. For everyone else, it's somewhat confusing news, because what's going on there? For the sanitation department garage that used to stand at the site, it's nothing, because that structure got demolished a while ago.
The Economic Development Corp. told the Post that "the sale delay had been caused by 'previous legal action,'" although it seems unlikely that they're referring to the suit brought by the NIMBY group Residents for Reasonable Development, since that was thrown out in July. (They plan to appeal, of course.) Sloan Kettering offered a somewhat different story, saying, "The project had to go through ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] and CEQR [environmental review], which as you know takes time." Meanwhile, the hospital was sending out press releases as recently as last week about having hired an interior designer for the project, so maybe they really think there's nothing to worry about.
· Sloan Kettering complex ailing [NYP]
· Memorial Sloan Kettering coverage [Curbed]
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