Center’s steel work nears end

Richard Tedesco

Winthrop-University Hospital expects to have the steel structure of its new $65 million research center on Mineola Boulevard completed by early September.

The final I-beams in the basic structure for the Winthrop-University Hospital Research and Academic Center will be in place in time for a “topping out” ceremony – when the last I-beam will be put in place – on Sept. 9, according to Winthrop spokesman Edmund Keating.

“The structural steel is going up right now. We anticipate completion of that portion of the building by the end of August or the first few days of September,” Keating said late last week.

Keating said construction work on the building at the northwest corner of Mineola Boulevard and 2nd Street is proceeding on schedule, despite delays caused by adverse weather in the past several months.

“The plan is still for completion at the end of 2014,” he said. 

The proposed four-story facility will house research development into obesity and diabetes as well as illnesses related to aging, including Alzheimer’s disease and arthritis. It is being built on property owned by the hospital which formerly maintained a single story community outreach center.

“We’re going to consolidate all our research in that building,” Keating said. 

He said electrical work in the basement of the research center was set to begin this week.  

Plans for the 95,000-square foot structure were approved by the Mineola Village Board in September 2011. 

Winthrop agreed to pay $1 million in lieu of amenities to the Village of Mineola to be used for public amenities at the discretion of the Mineola Village Board. Winthrop also agreed to voluntarily make tax payments on properties it owns outside of the hospital zone bounded by 1st and 5th Avenues and 1st and Front Streets. Those properties had previously been under an agreement for payment in lieu of taxes, known as a PILOT, according to a village official. 

The hospital issued a $65 million bond to pay for the construction, Keating said. 

Winthrop also received a $1 million grant from the state Regional Economic Development Council for the project, Keating said.

“It is not only creating hundreds of construction jobs right now but it will add approximately 45 permanent jobs once the center is created,” he said.

The building was designed by Perkins-Eastman, which also designed the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. 

In his presentation to the Mineola Village Board when the research center site plan was introduced in July 2011, Winthrop Vice President of External Affairs John Broder said the new facility could become the “new gateway” to Mineola.

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