Science Park Permits Sought

Earlier this year, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a Pasadena, Calif.-based science and medical facility developer, was selected to construct the $700 million, 870,000-square-foot East River Science Park between 28th and 29th streets and First Avenue and the F.D.R. But special permits to develop the property, obtained in 2001 by the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, the original applicant to build the center, and architectural and planning firm Ehrenkrantz, Ekstut & Kuhn, are due to expire next month. Now Alexandria, the New York Economic Development Corporation and the Health & Hospitals Corporation, which oversees the city's public health-care system and owns the land to be developed, are seeking three-year extensions for the permits. The permits are needed to for a land-use change and to construct two parking lots on the property. Last week Community Board 6 voted to approve the permit extensions, with the caveats that Alexandria include a bridge across 30th Street, linking the N.Y.U. medical campus with the science park; a direct ambulance entrance to the Bellevue E.R. from 28th Street; and a direct connection from the science park to the Bellevue campus. The board's vote is only advisory, but the City Planning Commission, which will take up the permit extensions next, usually gives some weight to the board's recommendations. -Matthew Grace