As a leader in health care and bioscience, New York City is home to 25 major academic research and medical centers and 175 hospitals, research centers, and laboratories. The city’s largest employers are health-care providers. To enable the growth of these institutions, a number of major new facilities are under construction.

On March 21, Mayor Bloomberg and the acting president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, Alan Aviles, announced the opening of the Acute Care Pavilion at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. The $173 million, 400,000-square-foot building includes a 344-bed inpatient tower and facilities for emergency care and operatory services. The project was funded through bonds issued by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and through New York City general obligation bonds.

This month, the new Ambulatory Care Pavilion at Bellevue Hospital Center, America’s oldest public hospital, will admit its first patients. The new building was the first one built at the Bellevue campus since construction of the hospital tower in 1973. The $178 million project was completed by a partnership of the New York City Health and Hospital Corporation and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. The 207,000-square-foot facility has more than 400 exam rooms and houses the new Bellevue Hospital Cancer Center. It is on First Avenue between East 27th and East 28th streets, on a site previously occupied by a parking garage.

In March of last year, 40 intensive care beds and 16 step-down beds were installed for use at a new critical care pavilion at Bellevue Hospital. DASNY provided bond financing and supervised construction of the $27 million project.

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The New York City Health & Hospital Corporation has several major projects planned. In 1997, HHC entered into an agreement with the dormitory authority to manage and finance capital projects. As of March 31, New York City has financed $1.317 billion in major construction projects (excluding financing costs) through the issuance of DASNY lease revenue bonds and general obligation bonds for projects at Bellevue Hospital, Coney Island Hospital Center, Elmhurst Emergency Room Expansion, Gouverneur Healthcare Services, Harlem Hospital Center, Kings County Hospital, Queens Hospital Center, and Jacobi Medical Center. The acting president of HHC, Mr. Aviles, said, “New York City’s public health care system has advanced light years from where it was a very short time ago. When compared with public and private healthcare systems across the country, our new state-of-the-art facilities, as well as our care, stack up with the very best.”

Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year on the 13-story Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center at the NYU School of Medicine. The research center will be a state-of-the-art facility and has 230,000 square feet of space, including 110,000 square feet to house laboratories. The biomedical research center is one of several new buildings planned at the NYU medical science division. The research center, located along the East River and next to FDR Drive, will include space for laboratories, conference rooms, and classrooms. The projected cost of the facility is about $164 million, which will be funded by state bonds issued by DASNY and generous gifts from a former chairman, CEO, and president of Playtex Products, Joel Smilow, and other donors.

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In November, Mayor Bloomberg and the president of the Economic Development Corporation, Andrew Alper, announced the proposed development of the East River Science Park, a bioscience research and development campus on a city-owned portion of the Bellevue Hospital Center. The site is on the northern end of the Bellevue Hospital Center, just south of the NYU Medical Center bounded by East 28th and East 29th streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive. After the mayor’s announcement, the New York City Investment Fund, a private civic investment fund, committed up to $10 million toward the development of the center. When completed, the East River Science Park will encompass about 4.5 acres with more than 870,000 square feet of space for scientific research and development offices and small-scale retail space. The campus will not include the former Bellevue Psychiatry Building at 492 First Ave., which will be leased to NYU Medical Center. NYU plans to renovate the building for hospital and medical school-related uses.

DASNY is funding the majority of these new health care projects. It provides financing and construction services to public and private universities, nonprofit healthcare facilities, and other institutions that serve the public good. As of the end of last year, DASNY’s total nonpublic health-care bond portfolio totaled $9.32 billion. A total of $8.09 billion is for hospitals, $1.16 billion for nursing homes, and $70 million for diagnostic and treatment centers and adult day-care facilities.

The executive director of the authority, Maryanne Gridley, said, “DASNY plays the premier role as the capital financing partner of New York hospitals, and we will continue to provide access to capital for all institutional and health-care providers.”

Construction is under way for a 201,000-square-foot research building on the campus of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The building is at the corner of Morris Park Avenue and Eastchester Road in the Bronx. The new $200 million facility, to be built on property leased from HHC for a period of 99 years, represents an unusual collaboration between a private institution and a public entity. The board of the dormitory authority approved up to $100 million in 30-year, tax-exempt, fixed-rate bonds for the Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine Research Facility. Major funding for the project was provided through philanthropy, including donations from Michael Price, Muriel Block, and her late husband, Harold.

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The new 13-story, $230 million Ambulatory Care and Medical Education Building at Cornell’s Weill Medical College is expected to be completed in the fall of next year. The facility will be at 1305 York Ave. and East 70th Street. The building will serve as the new center for patient care and education at the campus, providing one-stop shopping for outpatient needs.

In February 2003, DASNY approved a bond issue of $400 million for construction of a 23-story research facility for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The balance of the funding will come from philanthropy and internal resources. The 693,000-square-foot research center is on East 68th and 69th streets between York and First avenues. The research center is expected to be constructed by 2008 and will be built in two phases. The first phase will entail construction of the 23-story, 557,000-square-foot building.

In November, the last piece of structural steel was installed at the site of the new 15-story DNA Forensic Biology Laboratory for the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The laboratory will have two stories below ground and is 372,000 square feet in size. The building is on the north side of East 26th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive. The dormitory authority is supervising construction of the $267.9 million project, which is scheduled for completion next year.

The New York Methodist Hospital is a 612-bed acute care community and teaching hospital at Park Slope. The hospital is a member of the New York-Presbyterian Health Care System. Last year, the dormitory authority approved the issuance of bonds to build an eight story, 100,000-square-foot addition to the hospital, including an expansion of the emergency room and funds for other capital improvements.

Later this year, construction is scheduled to begin on a 150,000-square-foot addition of a new diagnostic, treatment and emergency care pavilion at Harlem Hospital. Work will also begin on the renovation of 183,000 square feet of existing space at Harlem Hospital. Construction will include a new patient pavilion, on Lenox Avenue between West 136th and West 137th streets, which will house the hospital’s new emergency department. The $225 million project is scheduled for completion in December 2009.

New York is the health care capital of the world and the site of many medical breakthroughs. The city is pursuing a policy to maintain and upgrade its health care facilities, reflecting its role as a leader in health care. The unique combination of planning and bond financing provided by the state’s dormitory authority, the city, and private philanthropy has – and will – earn the region recognition as a worldwide leader in health care.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and vice president at First American Title Insurance Company of New York. He can be reached at mstoler@nysun.com.