A former data center in Rye, New York, is being redeveloped to become a blood collecting and testing center.
Previously a data center owned by the real estate and financing arm of cosmetics company Avon, the site is now in the process of being redeveloped and leased to the New York Blood Center Inc.
Avon received tax breaks of around $4.9m (now equivalent to $6.7m) for the data center in 2011 based on the company retaining 668 jobs for the area and spending $17.7m on renovations. In 2016, the company began laying off workers and asked to amend the agreement to between 450 and 500 jobs. Ultimately, the company announced that it would be exiting the site in 2018 and put the facility up for sale.
The site, located at 601 & 621 Midland Avenue in Rye, was sold by Avon Capital Corp in 2019 for $23.1 million at the time (now around $27.81m). The 176,000 sq ft (16,350 sqm) site was purchased by Midland Rye LLC, part of George Comfort & Sons.
According to George Comfort & Sons' listing, the building was built in 1959 with two floors, and has an on-site substation providing 3.3MW of power. The site also has three 1MW and one 1.24MW generators for emergency power and diesel storage tanks with 8,000 gallons of capacity.
Telecoms and cable providers for the site include AT&T, Sprint, PCCW, Verizon, Fibertech, Optimum, and Cogent. The data center features three centrifugal chillers, though the new user will have rooftop units and two new boilers.
The site received the go-ahead to be redeveloped into the new location for New York Blood Enterprises in June 2023. It will be 100 percent used for the Blood Center's tri-state operations including life-sciences research, blood collection, processing, and cell therapy manufacturing.
The redevelopment process is expected to be completed in mid to late 2024 and includes new HVAC, electrical systems and switchgear, new windows, roof and plumbing upgrades, and the construction of clinical and research laboratories among others. In total, it is anticipated to cost around $108m.
The New York Blood Center development is also set to receive a significant tax break. The Westchester County Local Development Corporation gave preliminary approval on October 20 for a $52 million tax exemption. Once completed, the Blood Center is expected to create almost $10 million in fiscal benefits including $141,767 in sales tax revenue from construction earnings and $9.7m in sales tax revenue from on-site employees
"The adaptive reuse of a vacant headquarters building into modern offices and lab space is another example of the continued strength and vitality of Westchester’s economy," Westchester County executive George Latimer said in a statement released this week. "We welcome New York Blood Center to our County’s dynamic health care sector."
