The New Brooklyn Health Center Is Taking Shape!
The Brooklyn Health Center is taking shape at 620 Fulton St, as the girders are going up and several of the under floors are nearing completion, as seen in the photo below, taken on February 9, 2016.
It's been a lot of work so far. In fact, the actual construction of the building is almost easy compared to all the hard work involved in the pre-construction phase. As an example, it took some serious, time-consuming activity by representatives of the union, the hotel industry and the Benefit Funds Office, to find a suitable location. But in the end it would have been be difficult if not impossible to have found a better location in Brooklyn for the new Health Center.
As most members know by now, the new Brooklyn Health Center will be only two blocks from Flatbush Avenue, and a short walk from the Long Island Railroad’s Atlantic Avenue terminal and the Barclay Center. The LIRR terminal is also the home for a number of subway lines. In fact, the new Brooklyn Health Center will be five or fewer blocks from subway stations on the following lines: A, C, G, N, R, Q, B, D, F, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Buses that stop within one block, (yes, one block!) of the site are the B25, B26, B38 and B52.
Another difficult step in the planning phase was obtaining all the permits necessary to build this splendid facility. This process was more difficult than usual because the new Health Center is so close to transit hubs. It sits atop several major subway lines, and the planners had to work carefully to obtain the necessary permits and clearances from the MTA. In addition, because the facility’s location is in an upscale neighborhood that has been declared a cultural district, approvals from several other agencies were necessary.
As members may expect, the new Brooklyn Health Center is being built with union labor. When completed, it is likely to be the best health facility of its type anywhere in the country. It will be 50% larger than the Harlem Health Center, its dental offices will have more than 20 chairs and its pharmacy will be four times larger than the one currently in Brooklyn.
We should add that the new Brooklyn Health Center’s design is not only incorporating the most modern and futuristic elements of health care, it is based in part on actual suggestions made by Hotel Trades Council members and their families. The Benefit Funds conducted focus groups two years ago consisting of patients from all four Health Centers. Valuable information was gathered from these groups, and many of the ideas they generated will be included in the finished product.
The new Brooklyn Health Center will be housed in a 12-story, 180,000 square-foot mixed-use building. At least five floors at the building will be used for the actual Health Center—that’s 65,000 square feet—with the rest of the facility used for office and retail space, which will help offset the cost of the project. It is projected that there will be 70,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet for retail space, with dining facilities on the ground level along with outdoor public space. There will even be terraces on a sixth-floor setback and on the roof. Across the street from the new Brooklyn Health Center will be a beautiful refurbished park.
When it opens the new Brooklyn Health Center will focus on wellness. It will feature collaboration between staff members that will mean the highest quality and most efficient service to members and their families, as we reported in the Fall edition of the Hotel Voice magazine.
“Both the interior and the exterior of the new Brooklyn Health Center will be inviting,” Benefit Funds Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robert Greenspan has said. “Patients will not only be empowered to take an active role in their own healthcare but inspired to do so.”
Greenspan told Hotel Voice that in designing the Health Center changes in technology were strongly considered.
“Our new building will have a technology-ready infrastructure and yet it will be flexible enough so that we are not tied to a solution that is outdated in a few years,” he said.
It is obvious from what is reported here that an enormous amount of work has already taken place in the building the new Brooklyn Health Center. As seen in the photo below, the project is rapidly becoming reality, meaning that in a short time Hotel Trades Council members will be able to boast of having the best and most modern healthcare facility of its kind.
