To meet the needs of residents of the tristate region, health care institutions are planning and developing new facilities.

“With an aging population and surging improvements in medical technology, health care leaders in the United States have urged a one-third increase in physicians. By 2020, just 12 years from now, the U.S. population is slated to grow by over 33 million, which is more than New York State’s current population,” a state senator and the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, Kemp Hannon, said. “The need for well-trained doctors, at hospitals and universities following established and cutting-edge protocols, is self-evident.”

Perhaps the greatest obstacle for the expansion of health care centers is the lack of available land for development. In Manhattan, industry leaders expect the leading health care systems, including New York University Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, and Mount Sinai Medical Center, to seek locations near their present campuses. Sites may include the former Bellevue Hospital site on 30th Street and First Avenue, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing on First Avenue near Bellevue Hospital, and the Solow development site on the former Consolidated Edison property on First Avenue between 36th and 40th streets. Potential expansion may include development on Roosevelt Island, as well in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Still, expansion is under way across the city and the surrounding areas. On June 12, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University officially opens its 223,000-square-foot Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine/Harold and Muriel Block Research Pavilion. The five-story, $220 million facility is the largest and most significant research building to be constructed in the Bronx in half a century. It houses 40 research teams, with 400 scientists, dedicated to advancing a broad array of biomedical research.

“We are extremely grateful for the $25 million gift of Michael F. Price and the $22 million gift of Muriel Block, because their generosity led to the creation of this spectacular new building,” the dean of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Allen Spiegel, said. “The Price Center/Block Research Pavilion will make possible rapid, bench-to-bedside advances in medicine through collaborative research by our world-renowned scientists and physicians.”

The research at the new center is supported by both private and public donations. An example of the former is a recent $25 million gift from Ruth and David Gottesman, which will support research in epigenetics, stem cells, and regenerative medicine. An example of the latter is a recent $22 million clinical and translational science award from the National Institutes of Health.

The Price Center/Block Research Pavilion occupies 10 acres of land adjacent to existing campus buildings. Its bold, modern design represents a new identity for the College of Medicine, making it the physical and strategic hub of Einstein’s long-term research commitment to expand biomedical sciences and medical education. The land is leased from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation for 99 years.

The center represents the largest medical research facility to be constructed in the Bronx since the College of Medicine opened in 1955.

To service the thousands of new residents and the corporate community of Lower Manhattan, NYU Medical Center opened the Trinity Center at the landmarked 111 Broadway, overlooking Trinity Church.

Earlier this year, the $10 million, 22,000-square-foot Trinity Center opened on the second floor of the building. The center is staffed by up to 10 physicians at a time and will provide medical services in internal medicine, cardiology, gastroenterology, dermatology, women’s health, orthopedics and sports medicine, pulmonology, and corporate wellness.

The center, which sees patients by appointment only, is equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic technology, including a dual source CT scanner, an extremity MRI system, and a high-definition nuclear camera for cardio imaging.

Construction is under way at Forest City Ratner and architect Frank Gehry’s new 76-story mixed-use residential tower at 8 Spruce St., on a former parking lot owned by New York Downtown Hospital. When completed, the 1.1 million-square-foot tower will house 903 market-rate apartments, a 100,000-square-foot public school, 13,000 square feet of retail, 26,000 square feet of below-grade parking for 175 cars, and a much-needed health care component — a 21,000-square-foot ambulatory care center to be used as doctors’ offices to service the business and residential community. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

As I reported in January, construction has begun in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan on the new Heart Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. The six-story, 142,000-square-foot building, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was made possible by a $50 million gift from the Vivian and Seymour Milstein family foundations, representing the largest single gift in the hospital’s history.

May 2010 is the scheduled date of completion for a new addition at Harlem Hospital Center, which also will undergo a major modernization. The project includes the 180,000-square-foot addition and a renovation of 110,000 square feet, and is estimated to cost $159 million. The expansion and modernization will increase the state-of-the-art services needed to meet the growing population of the Harlem community and its surrounding neighborhoods. The project includes the integration of inpatient, emergency room, and outpatient services to increase the quality of patient-centered care.

In May, Mount Sinai Medical Center opened the doors of its new Center for Advanced Medicine, at 5-17 E. 102nd St., between Madison and Fifth avenues. The completely renovated 150,000-square-foot building now houses ambulatory and neighborhood health care programs. The center will house the School of Medicine, the nationally renowned Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, and several newly created research institutes.

Construction is nearly complete on the $431 million Memorial Sloan-Kettering Breast and Imaging Center, set to open in 2009. A 240,000-square-foot, 15-story tower on Second Avenue, between 65th and 66th streets, will house the center for imaging and radiology. The center will provide diagnostic and testing, medical and surgical oncology, infusion and chemotherapy, psychosocial programs, and ground-floor retail, although there will be no inpatient accommodation. When completed, the center will feature three MRI machines, 10 mammography machines, X-ray rooms, and four CT scan machines.

In October, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine welcomed its charter class of 253 medical students in Harlem. The new medical school occupies the former Blumstein’s department store building, across the street from the historic Apollo Theater. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone gave a $4.7 million loan to Touro College to encourage the school to open in Harlem.

In October, Hofstra University and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System announced plans to establish a new medical school, and earlier this month, Hofstra announced it had received a $25 million capital grant from the state to provide the school’s initial funding. A school of medicine is scheduled to be constructed on 11 acres of the university’s north campus, near Charles Lindbergh Boulevard. The site will include a new academic facility and residence halls for medical students.

The decision to establish the school followed a 2006 recommendation by the Association of American Medical Colleges that enrollment in medical schools should increase 30% by 2015.

Later this summer, the university plans to begin renovations on the temporary site, and ground-breaking on the new building will take place in fall 2011.

In May, Hackensack University Medical Center and Touro University College of Medicine closed a $45 million transaction to acquire a 20-acre former hospital site in Westwood, N.J. Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group orchestrated the sale of the property, once occupied by Pascack Valley Hospital, a 251-bed acute care facility, which filed for bankruptcy last fall.

HUMC and TouroMed plan to establish a medical school that will welcome its first students in 2009, and to restore emergency services to the region. HUMC has an application pending with the New Jersey Department of Health to open a freestanding emergency room with observation beds. The nationally recognized medical center currently provides paramedic services to the 18 surrounding towns.

TouroMed will welcome its first class of 40 students in August 2009, pending Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation. TouroMed will bestow doctor of medicine degrees, joining approximately 130 other such programs in America.

Mr. Stoler, a contributing editor of The New York Sun, is a television and radio broadcaster, and a senior principal at a real estate investment fund. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.