Long Island City Partnership retains East Egg Project Management to develop life sciences plan; partially funded through New York City Regional Economic Development Council and Empire State Development

Queens, NY The Long Island City Partnership (LICP) has retained the services of East Egg Project Management to help develop a plan that will create a life sciences cluster in Long Island City (LIC). LICP seeks to attract emerging and established businesses across the life sciences sector, which encompasses biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, digital health, medical devices and others, to complement and build on the array of companies in the area.

After years of lagging behind Boston, Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco, the window of opportunity for building New York’s life sciences cluster has opened. Both the city and state have expressed desire to create a life sciences campus. LIC is increasingly recognized as one of the most promising areas of the city for such a cluster to develop.

LIC Partnership was awarded a grant in December 2017 by the state’s New York City Regional Economic Development Council and Empire State Development to fund a portion of this effort. In addition, the NYC Economic Development Corp.’s current request for expressions of interests (RFEI) for an applied life sciences hub specifically references LIC as a potential location. The Partnership’s strategic business plan will be based on a thorough feasibility analysis and present a tactical outline of required steps for catalyzing and fostering a self-sustaining life sciences cluster in the LIC neighborhood. LICP aims to be a resource for those interested in developing life sciences in the area, including those responding to the RFEI.

The Partnership’s Life Sciences Cluster Plan will be completed by June 2018. The Partnership held an information session and tour on March 29. Any interested established or emerging life sciences companies, institutions or developers should contact the Partnership to receive updates and an invitation for a special tour of the area, at [email protected].

“Over the past several years, we have seen a significant increase of inquiries from companies related to life sciences and we want to catalyze growth in this sector here,” said Elizabeth Lusskin, president of the LICP. “We are excited to have East Egg’s expertise guiding us through this initiative and the support of the Regional Economic Development Council to make this study possible.”

“We’re very excited to be working with the Partnership to develop a plan to catalyze life sciences activity in Long Island City,” said Yasmeen Ahmed Pattie, principal at East Egg Project Management. “New York has been talking about the sector in this part of the city for years. It finally seems that all the right factors – city and state initiatives, transit improvements and real estate market conditions – are coming together. The findings of this study will help LIC take a major step forward.”

Located across the East River from Midtown Manhattan, LIC is one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods with a development pipeline of more than 3.6 million s/f of office space and more than 500,000 s/f of retail; 25,000 residential units; and 4,600 hotel rooms. A mixed-use community, the neighborhood is home to Fortune 500 companies, arts and cultural institutions, film and television studios, an industrial zone providing good jobs as well as products and services, more than 70,000 residents and 55,000 college and graduate students.