Land purchased for new Brooklyn Health Center!

Right now there is a vacant lot at 620 Fulton Street in Brooklyn. But in the not too distant future it will be the site of the new Brooklyn Health Center. The site, which is located in the heart of a revitalized Downtown Brooklyn, has been purchased by the Benefit Funds for $19 million, and planning is already underway to make it the best possible health and dental facility for members and their families.

The new Brooklyn Health Center will be bigger than the Harlem Health Center, according to Dr. Robert Greenspan, Chief Executive Officer of the Benefit Funds. Greenspan told Hotel Voice that the dental offices in the new Brooklyn Health Center will have more than 20 chairs. That's not all. The pharmacy at the new Brooklyn Health Center will be four times larger than the current pharmacy! In addition, it will contain the most up-to-date version of the pharmacy robots, which will ensure the fastest service possible.

"The new Brooklyn Health Center will be the best facility of its kind," Hotel Trades Council Peter Ward said. "We are very excited about this project."

Ward noted that the site selection for the new Brooklyn Health Center followed all three rules of real estate: location, location, location. 620 Fulton Street is within immediate access of multiple subway lines and bus routes. Located two blocks from Flatbush Avenue, the new Brooklyn Health Center will be a short walk from the Long Island Rail Road's Atlantic Avenue Terminal, which is also a stop for a number of subway lines. In fact, the following subway lines are all within five or fewer blocks of the coming Brooklyn Health Center's location: A, C, G, N, R, Q, B, D, F, 2, 3, 4, 5. Buses that stop within one block of the site are the B25, B26, B38, and B52.

"We have always said that location would be a top priority in determining where to build the new Brooklyn Health Center," Ward said. "With such easy access to public transportation like this site has, we have clearly met that goal."

The new Brooklyn Health Center will cost approximately $90 million," Greenspan told Hotel Voice this week. He said it will be similar to the Harlem Health Center in that it will have retail space to earn back income for the Benefit Funds.

It will also have community space. Greenspan says the potential may be there to hold healthy cooking classes for members and group exercise sessions, among other activities. All medical equipment will be state-of-the-art, and offices will be designed to recognize that medical records are now digital.

In designing the new Brooklyn facility, architects will meet with members and learn what they like and don't like about the current Health Centers. "As we saw in Harlem, when we are the ones who design the facilities we are able to get the direct input of members and their families to make the right choices," Greenspan added. "This is exactly what will happen in Brooklyn."

As members will recall from last year, the current seven-year contract with the Hotel Association calls for a commitment to built a new Brooklyn Health Center. Both management and the Union are extremely pleased with the prime location that has been selected and successfully purchased, because it will guarantee such easy accessibility by public transit for members and their families.

Ward and Greenspan said that now that the property has been purchased there will be several additional steps in the process to make the new Brooklyn Health Center a reality. Members will be surveyed, designs will be made, architectural renditions will be solicited, permits will be applied for and a bidding process will take place. Even with all this work, however, Greenspan says he hopes to have a groundbreaking ceremony before the end of the year. That's not all. Funds Office officials are fairly optimistic that the new Brooklyn Health Center will be up and running before the end of 2015!

Image courtesy of Google Maps.