UES Board Wants Your Comments On Blood Center Expansion

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side community board is asking for residents' input ahead of next week's climactic hearing on the New York Blood Center's contentious expansion proposal.

Community Board 8 is asking people to submit written comments to register their views before the May 12 public hearing on the proposal, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. by CB8's land use committee.

That public hearing is a key step in the city's lengthy land-use review process known as ULURP, which the Blood Center project is now moving through. The community board will submit a formal recommendation after the hearing, followed by the borough president, ahead of an eventual vote by the City Council.

The board is encouraging written comments in lieu of spoken testimony, since attendance is expected to be high, but those who submit comments will not be barred from speaking.

First announced in October, the Blood Center's plan would replace its three-story brick home on East 67th Street with a 334-foot glass tower.

Of the building's 16 stories, five would house the Blood Center, while the upper 10 would be leased to other tenants by Longfellow, the real estate developer handling the project.

The hearing will center on the proposal's most controversial aspect: the Blood Center's request to rezone the mid-block site to allow for denser construction and shoot past the existing 75-foot height limit.

Neighborhood preservationists have fiercely opposed the rezoning, saying it would violate a longstanding practice of concentrating tall buildings along the avenues while keeping side streets less built-up.

The nonprofit Blood Center has said the facility, dubbed Center East, would help create a new public health corridor and advance its research into diseases like COVID-19 and HIV. It would also create 1,500 new jobs with an economic output of $1.1 billion, according to leaders

Other controversial components include new shadows that the tower would cast over St. Catherine's Park and the fact that the Blood Center would occupy only five of the building's 16 stories while leasing out the rest to tenants, fueling accusations that the project is motivated more by financial considerations than by public health.

Previous coverage:

• Blood Center's Upper East Side Tower Takes Heat From New Angles
• Upper East Side Blood Center Tower Advances Despite Opposition
• Blood Center Building Hits Roadblocks On Upper East Side
• NY Blood Center Plots Major Upper East Side Expansion