Northwell Faces Off With UES Locals on $2B Lenox Hill Hospital Expansion

After six years of sparring, Northwell took its expansion plan for Lenox Hill Hospital to Community Board 8. The $2 billion plan now enters its public review phase.

| 31 Jan 2025 | 03:06

The dramatic saga of Northwell Health’s $2 billion mission to expand Lenox Hill Hospital continues apace, as the proposed nine-year project enters a period of public review. The hospital, located on Lexington Avenue and 77th Street, remains a mainstay of Upper East Side healthcare. A group known as Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood would, however, like to keep it as is.

The project was scheduled to go before the City Planning Commission (CPC) on Feb. 3, but hospital representatives first appeared at a Community Board 8 subcommittee meeting on Jan. 28 to outline its plan once again. CB8 Chair Valerie Mason reminded meeting participants that she is legally obligated to schedule a public hearing on the proposal within 60 days after CPC review.

Anthony Cohn–co-chair of CB8’s Zoning, Development & Housing committee, which hosted the virtual meeting–greeted participants with a quip before the meeting took off: “We’re all adults. I hope we behave in a manner that will not embarrass us in front of our parents.”

Northwell’s long-standing pitch is that it needs to expand Lenox Hill in order to properly modernize its facilities. Significant expansion would involve modifying the hospital’s zoning district. Daniel Baker, an emergency-room physician and executive director of the hospital who took point on Northwell’s presentation to CB8, reiterated this point. “As the needs of our community evolve, and as medical advancements continue at a rapid pace, so too must Lenox Hill,” he said. “Our current facilities, while steeped in history, are increasingly challenged to meet the demands of 21st-century medicine.”

Baker added that while construction of the project would take nine years, six of which would involve louder exterior construction, Northwell wants to “do this project as fast as possible, both for our team members and our patients.”

Lisa Lau, a consultant for Northwell, focused on the construction aspect. “I want to note that the greatest levels of construction noise would not persist throughout construction,” she said, while conceding that there would certainly be some periodic “adverse” construction impacts. These impacts would diminish once exterior construction was completed and “enclosed” the remaining construction site, Lau added.

When it came time for local residents to speak, it was readily apparent that many concerns over the project had not been dispelled.

Lois Uttley, a health equity advocate and key member of the Committee to Protect Our Lenox Hill Neighborhood, was skeptical as to whether the hospital could still provide accessible healthcare after an expansion: “With affordability a major concern for many New Yorkers today, how can you make your prices more affordable when you’re going to be paying debt service on a $2 billion price tag for this project?”

Baker was somewhat evasive at first, telling Uttley that “hospital pricing and costs are complex and need a far longer conversation than we’d be able to have this evening . . . but it’s an appropriate thing that we need to discuss.” He went on to repeat that Northwell’s consensus is that the expansion is necessary for healthcare innovation, before declaring that “philanthropic support” and “operational efficiencies” would create affordable care.

Given that the expansion, as described by Northwell, focuses on large private rooms, Leah Hanlon, an Upper East Sider, was curious as to whether patients on Medicaid or Medicare would still have “the same access to your private rooms as wealthy medical tourists from elsewhere.” Baker was far more affirmative in his promises here. “The answer is yes. The modernization of Lenox Hill is not about catering to any particular group of individuals,” he said; he noted that this includes people who were underinsured or not insured at all.

Oliver Goldstein, another member of the public, returned to construction. “A nine-year construction project is a lot to ask of your neighbors and the community. I’m sure you’ve tried to compress it . . . I’m wondering if you could just help us understand why this is going to take nine years?” he asked.

Baker simply replied that “we’re trying to compress it further. It’s certainly a complex mechanism.”