Taconic Investment Ptrs. and ABR Ptrs. top off 30,000 s/f project

A topping off celebration for a boutique medical condominium building was held atop 429 East 75th St. on Manhattan's Upper East Side August 13, heralding the first new development of its kind since the early 1990s, in a neighborhood known for its many world-class hospitals. The project is expected to be ready for occupancy in December. Corcoran Wexler Healthcare Properties, headed by Paul Wexler, is the exclusive sales agent. Taconic Investment Partners LLC and ABR Partners LLC are co-developing the project. The building, which originally served as a carriage house at the turn of the previous century and later became a parking garage, has been gutted and expanded, with three floors added, raising the height to six stories. Architects Murphy Burnham & Buttrick have preserved the original 1930s art deco-style facade from an earlier conversion, while designing the structure to accommodate modern medical technology and state-of-the-art mechanical systems. Situated between First and York Avenues, 429 East 75th St. is a short walk from Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Lenox Hill Hospital, The Hospital for Special Surgery and Rockefeller University Hospital. Mt. Sinai Hospital is less than a mile away. The new 30,000 s/f facility will accommodate high-technology imaging and lab facilities, and a back-up generator will provide an uninterrupted power supply in the event of an outage. There will be two passenger elevators, one large enough to accommodate gurneys. Energy-efficient heating and cooling systems will enable owners to control the temperature in their individual suites year-round. The building is being renovated to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-design standards. Murphy Burnham & Buttrick reused the original building materials whenever possible and has incorporated green building materials. Ball Construction LP is serving as construction manager; Lilker Associates P.C. are the consulting engineers, and Gilsanz, Murray, Steficek LLP are the structural engineers. Shown (from left) are: Steven Ball, CEO of Ball Construction L.P.; Paul Wexler, president, Corcoran Wexler Healthcare Properties; Brian Ray, managing partner, ABR Partners LLC; Douglas Winshall, executive vice president of Taconic Investment Partners LLC; Jeffrey Murphy, partner, Murphy Burnham and Buttrick Architects; and Bruce Lilker, president of Lilker Associates P.C.