Lenox Hill Hospital Submits $2B Expansion to Planning; Locals Vow –Again –to Keep Fighting

Call it the Battle of Lenox Hill.

Northwell Health is submitting its proposal for its new towers in its $2 billion, 10-year expansion project to the NYC Planning department, with little additional alterations since its scaled-down proposal still ran into strident opposition at a Community Board 8 hearing.

Like such storied battles as those that occurred at Bunker Hill; around Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg; and on San Juan Hill in Cuba, where Teddy Roosevelt rode to fame, the issues here concern land, money and self-determination.

While there are no musket or cannon shots involved, there is much animosity and wounded feelings. What’s at stake is the future of the one full city block that Lenox Hill Hospital calls home, bounded by 76th and 77th streets south to north, and Lexington and Park avenues east to west.

For those who don’t think about hospitals much, nearby landmarks on the Lexington Avenue side are St. Jean Baptiste Church at 76th Street; the 77th Street subway station; Tamam Falafel, between 77th and 78th; and Pastrami Queen at 78th.

Today, the tallest building on this site is 12 stories, at Park and 76th. The future, should Northwell triumph, will be much, much taller, and opponents say it will bring midtown Manhattan density to the largely residential neighborhood.

The hospital says its existing hospital is a confusing hodgepodge of 10 buildings cobbled together over decades, and to stay competitive in the modern era it needs a coherent plan and an all-new structure.

The combatants in this fight are both formidable.

On the builder’s side is Lenox Hill Hospital’s owner since 2010, the nonprofit Northwell Health hospital system, based in New Hyde Park in Nassau County. Formerly known as the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (North Shore-LIJ), the name was changed in 2015.

Facing off against Northwell is the Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood—CPOLHN for short, and what that acronym lacks in mellifluousness, it makes up for in passion.

Our Town has followed the redevelopment saga since plans were first floated in January 2019. Interestingly, this initial coverage was largely optimistic and provided background on the Lenox Hill Hospital situation and allowed an enthused CEO Michael Dowling to have his say.

“Other major facilities in Manhattan have advanced their physical plants dramatically and expanded over the past couple of years,” the CEO explained. “And we cannot just stand still and continue to exist where the youngest building in this facility today was built 40 years ago.”

Dowling described the existing superblock as “a combination of 10 pieces that were not put together in the ideal fashion. In fact, it seems like it was done for the purposes of confusion, so you couldn’t find your way around. It’s like that maze they put people into, and I’ve never been able to get out at the other end without help.”

Come that March, however, when Northwell’s plans were released, immediate outrage followed, especially over its inclusion of two buildings far larger than any that currently occupy the site: one, a 45-story, 490-foot residential tower on the corner of Park Ave and 76th Street, the other a 516-foot medical tower on the Lexington Avenue side.

The idea behind this plan—which blows way past the neighborhood’s existing height and zoning regulations—was that revenue from the residential building would be used to fund the multi-billion-dollar redevelopment.

To say that many of Lenox Hill Hospital’s neighbors were aghast is an understatement. Thus CPOHLN was formed, various experts and local stakeholders consulted, and politicos, including then Borough President Gale Brewer, and City Council member Keith Powers, brought on board to aid the fight.

While this isn’t quite David versus Goliath—it would be difficult to find a smarter, or more resourceful neighborhood group than CPOHLN—it’s close enough that the group’s success is far from assured.

And so it’s proved.

While Northwell backed away from their residential tower in 2020, their revised plans, including a hospital tower and a likely decade-long construction schedule of other buildings, left CPOHLN still very upset.

While Northwell had their reasoning—the old buildings are outdated and need to be fully rebuilt to stay competitive, involving, especially, increases in the size of operating rooms, emergency access and the number of single-bed patient rooms—CPOLHN remained unpersuaded.

Which brings us to 2025.

Likely sensing the CPOLHN is unpersuadable, Northwell is going ahead and submitting its plans for review by the Department of City Planning despite the neighborhood group’s many objections, especially over the required zoning exemptions the Northwell project would require but including many ancillary issues too.

To counter what CPOLHN fears will be a “steamroll” of the project, the group is calling for help, and urges all concerned parties to follow the Community Board 8 Zoning, Development and Housing Committee meeting on Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m.