NYSCF had leased facilities in multiple locations throughout the city, creating a disconnect internally among staff and externally with partnering organizations. The foundation needed a new home to bring together its various research capabilities, technological resources, and advocacy platforms.

The new consolidated research and administrative complex needed to be cohesive. A unified physical presence for NYSCF is important for an organization performing multiple roles, from advanced research to building a broad constituency with global reach.

1. We secured funding through a wealth management bank group to make leasehold improvements and to purchase equipment for the $30M project, involving an expansive floor in a commercial mid-rise building.
2. We structured the financing to include a capital campaign that secured an additional $20M from our client’s donor base.
3. The leasing and subsequent conversion of the space to meet laboratory and administrative uses almost doubled the foundation’s previous combined spaces.

NYSCF’s new home is central to an existing medical research corridor that runs the full length of Manhattan and includes top-tier medical schools and cancer centers. NYSCF’s Research Institute, now consolidated under one roof on West 54th Street, is the largest privately funded, independent stem cell laboratory in the US. The new “Commons” area can accommodate meeting and lecture spaces for 160+ researchers and staff, as well as guests representing global businesses, leading academics, and international leaders.

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) represents a unique model, what our client describes as “an independent, largely privately funded foundation and safe haven laboratory” focused on stem cell research. The high-risk, high-reward work, funded/conducted by various affiliates, is progressive, as is the foundation’s organizational structure and programming.