Two new medical centers ”“ one in Bronxville and one in Harrison ”“ represent a combined $165 million capital investment in cancer care.
Construction continues on Memorial Sloan-Kettering”™s Cancer Center at 500 Westchester Ave. in Harrison. The 114,000-square-foot, $129 million, two-floor treatment facility is expected to open in the first quarter of 2015. In December, Memorial Sloan-Kettering celebrated the completion of the first phase of construction.
“The new Harrison facility would allow our patients to receive Memorial Sloane-Kettering”™s expertise in this outpatient setting, closer to home,” said Maureen Killackey, deputy physician-in-chief and medical director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering”™s Regional Care Network.
The facility would have 140 full-time employees, with growth to 164 employees expected. Memorial Sloan-Kettering already manages a facility in Sleepy Hollow.
Almost 13 percent of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s patients are from the Hudson Valley and Western Connecticut, the center reports.
Presently, 71 percent of the ambulatory cancer care visits made by Memorial Sloan-Kettering”™s patients living in Westchester take place in its facilities in Manhattan.
A proposed cancer center in Bronxville has received approvals from the village and is set to begin construction soon, despite an ongoing lawsuit.
Lawrence Hospital Center will construct a $33 million cancer center set to open at the end of 2014, with funding from fundraising and capital reserves. The center received site plan approval from the village planning board in December on a 4-1 vote.
The 40,951 square foot 3-level addition to the hospital would provide cancer services, surgery and radiation therapy. The addition is part of a combined project of replacing the operating rooms, which allows for expanded space and higher ceilings.
“These rooms are not really equipped for modern surgical procedures,” said Timothy Hughes, vice president of business development at Lawrence Hospital.
The cancer center will also offer services like support groups, patient education and a resource center. Hughes anticipates an additional 23 patients a day at the new center.
Hughes said he does not foresee many additional jobs being created, since the center is simply consolidating its services in a single location.
Hughes said the hospital has been working with the Bronxville Building Department to obtain final building permits to begin construction. He expects to receive a permit at the end of June, with construction to begin soon after. The center will be designed and built by Plano, Texas-based Lillibridge Health Care Services Inc.
A group of Bronxville residents, who live at nearby Alger Court filed an Article 78 petition in January against the village board, planning board and Lawrence Hospital that aims to reverse the site plan approval. The plaintiffs say the planning board did not comply with the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) process. Alger Court residents are concerned about the potential negative impacts the project will have on the neighborhood.
“The matter is with the hospital”™s counsel,” Hughes said. “It”™s ongoing.”
Bronxville village administrator Harold Porr III declined to comment on the project, citing the Article 78 lawsuit.
