Mortimer Zuckerman, the billionaire real estate developer and owner of the Daily News, yesterday announced a donation of $100 million to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the largest in the hospital’s history.

Although Mr. Zuckerman did not specify how the money should be used, the hospital said that it will go toward a new 23-story, 693,000 square foot research center, to be called the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center. The first phase of construction which began in the spring of 2002 is scheduled to be completed this month.

The donation will help Sloan-Kettering meet its new endowment goal of $2 billion by 2011, which the hospital recently raised from $1 billion. With the help of Mr. Zuckerman’s latest gift, the endowment now stands at $1.1 billion. Previously, he had given about $3 million to the hospital via several donations.

The donation was likely a result of Mr. Zuckerman’s gratitude for the hospital’s help in treating his daughter’s serious illness several years ago. Abigail, now 9, has appeared with her father at several Sloan-Kettering fund-raisers.

Mr. Zuckerman, 68, received a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as law degrees from McGill University in Montreal and Harvard University.

In 1970 he started Boston Properties, one of the largest owners and developers of office real estate in America, including properties in Boston, New York, Washington and San Francisco. According to Forbes Magazine, Mr. Zuckerman has a personal net worth of nearly $2 billion. In addition to the Daily News, Mr. Zuckerman owns U.S. News & World Report, where he is editor-in-chief.

Mr. Zuckerman has been an important philanthropist for many years. He is a trustee of New York University, and has given donations to the Aspen Institute, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and many Jewish organizations. He has sat on Sloan-Kettering’s board of overseers since 1991.

Sloan-Kettering’s programs in immunology, molecular pharmacology and chemistry, and cancer biology and genetics will be moved into the new building. Additionally, the Zuckerman center will house a new doctoral program in biomedical sciences, a 350-seat auditorium, and the newly established Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, designed to increase collaboration between scientists and physicians.

“Memorial Sloan-Kettering is a better place because of everything he has done here,” the vice-chairman of the hospital’s board and co-chairman of the capital campaign, Louis V. Gerstner Jr., said in a statement. “We are indebted to him for the confidence he has shown in the center and its people.”