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The Front Page:

FLASH!

New York Presbyterian Hospital Bryant Avenue Site in Cancer Center hunt, being evaluated for the Governor Pataki "Center of Excellence" biomedical research site in Mid-Hudson Region.

Hospital strategist says White Plains property visited, looked at by key official of Empire State Development Corporation for New York region site. Official reported very positive.

State-of-art proton therapy cancer treatment center could come to White Plains meaning jobs, filling up downtown offices, more.

Source reports Hospital was under pressure to settle White Plains law suit before they could be eligible for multimillion grant for "Center of Excellence" bringing "proton cancer therapy" to White Plains.

$20 milliondollar grant -- possibly more -- "in play" and NYPH is said to be "in competition" with New York Medical College for site.

County Executive Spano has lobbied for Center at Grasslands. He and chief advisor Lawrence Schwartz said to be aware of NYPH interest.

"Center for Advanced Proton Research" planned for Bryant site involving Columbia and Cornell medical schools.

Common Council reported to be intimately aware of all details when they voted 5-2 to settle suit Thursday night. Papers obtained by WPCNR reveal extensive description ofpurposes of 2 buildings lined up for Bryant Avenue.

Pataki announces $250 million for Centers of Excellence in his State of State Address January 9. Presbyterian Hospital initiates "settlement talks" with city on February 5, mentioning grant.

City Executive Officer Gretsas says hospital briefed Common Council extensively but will not divulge what went on in executive session.

By John F. Bailey and CitzeNetReporters

CityLine: February 24, 2001, WPCNR Newslines

WPCNR has learned The New York Presbyterian Hospital White Plains site is being seriously considered -- the front runner -- by the lead grant agency as the location for a New York State Biotechnology and Life Sciences Research Center for the New York City Hudson Valley region bringing state of the art cancer treatment to White Plains.

Based on documents obtained by WPCNR today, if the Empire State Development Corporation awards the hospital the grant and the Common Council approves it, the project will make White Plains host to one of the premier cancer treatment facilities in the country.

In the forefront?

Our source, believed to be reliable based on his position says the White Plains property may indeed be the front-runner ahead of the Grasslands Valhalla campus and New York Medical College affiliation favored by Westchester County Executive Andy Spano, and actively lobbied for in Westchester by State Senator Nicholas Spano.

This appears to place the White Plains NYPH campus between Bryant, North Street and Bloomingdale Road in sharp rivalry with New York Medical College.

In a report appearing today in The Westchester County Business Journal in a bylined article by its editor, Alex Philippidis, Mr. Philippidis writes that New York Medical College is working with the Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano to establish such a center on the Grasslands campus in Valhalla.

Mr. Philippidis also reported this in his appearance on WPCNR's weekly television show, White Plains Week, which will be cablecast on Public Access Television Channel 71 within White Plains Tuesday, February 27 at 7 PM.

The Situation:

An informed, highly placed New York Presbyterian Hospital source, interactive on a daily basis with the leaders of New York Presbyterian Hospital told WPCNR New York Presbyterian Hospital was also in the running for this Center on Friday night less than 24 hours after the hospital settled its lawsuit with the City of White Plains.

The WPCNR newsbreaker, whose identity WPCNR is concealing due to the sensitive nature of this information they may not be aware of, said "New York State is very interested in the (White Plains) site (for a Center of Excellence) because Columbia and Cornell University medical schools, being affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital form a potent trio."

This executive involved in top level decision-making said the combination of the 1-2 medical schools in the state with New York Presbyterian Hospital affiliation was what appealed to the state. The commentator said "They (the state) want to be where there's an academic center."

Empire State Development Corporation eyeing NYPH White Plains site. Edward Arace said to visit and be impressed.

According to this contact, the White Plains property has already been seen and evaluated positively by Edward Arace, Vice President and Regional Director of the Mid-Hudson Regional Office of the Empire State Development Corporation.

Our "reporter" said Arace is considering the sprawling White Plains property for one of Governor George Pataki's six Centers for Excellence the governor announced he plans to establish around New York State, and the source says Arace is impressed with the property.

WPCNR attempted to contact Mr. Arace via the Empire State Development Corporation message center Friday evening to confirm this information. Attempts to reach him at home by his live switchboard operator could not be completed using the newly installed and apparently complicated Empire State Development communications center.

Ms. Mora Galucci of the Empire State Development Corporation Press Office has also been contacted through the ESDC message center and we await her return call. However, WPCNR was told by Ms. Galucci last week that it is ESDC policy not to comment on grants "until they are signed and finalized."

Common Council "briefed extensively" February 13 on the Center.

Our source also leads WPCNR to believe the White Plains Common Council has extensive detailed knowledge of the two buildings they voted to refer out to departments beyond what they said in public Thursday evening as part of the agreement to settle the lawsuit with New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The source, always in close contact with hospital officials said that the White Plains Common Council was told extensively of this plan during an executive session with the council in City Hall on February 13, and was made fully aware of the hospital interest in competing for a Center of Excellence grant.

Hospital had to settle suit before they could qualify for grant.

This source revealed that New York Presbyterian Hospital could not compete for this grant while their right to develop the property was still involved in litigation with the City of White Plains. The source stated emphatically that "the hospital realized there was an urgency to settle the suit."

Proton Beam Facilitator to be featured in the Center. According to NYPH documents labeled New York Presbyterian Plan B.

WPCNR has obtained extensive documents from our "reporter" at the highest levels of New York Presbyterian Hospital and this person has released 5 pages of documents which confirm the state of sophistication and mission of the hospital plans submitted to the Common Council.

The proposed project for Bryant Avenue, according to this document describes the so-called "not detailed" Plan B, according to the Common Council as:

"The proposed anchor project composed of the new Bourne Research Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Protontechnology will provide the modern research space in conjunction with proton technology that will serve as the nexus of regional biotechnology development and academic research consortia and will establish the Westchester County region as an emerging biomedical center of excellence."

It has not been confirmed whether the five pages of the documents provided to WPNCR were presented to the Common Council for the first time in that executive session, or if indeed they have been in the Plan B application all along since June, 2000 when Plan B first surfaced.

If they were always a part of Plan B from the get-go, it calls into question how much detail do public officials want when reviewing a plan in White Plains, and provides new credence to the lawsuit that was settled Thursday.

George Gretsas, City Executive Officer, when contacted for comment on this report, said the council was briefed by the hospital, and characterized the presentation as extensive and having to do with hospital plans, however he would not confirm this report due to the fact that the briefing was held in executive session. Mayor Joseph Delfino could not be reached for comment.

On Thursday evening, in their remarks, Common Council members continued to make comments about the lack of detail of Plan B. Disparaging it as not changed since the summer. The documents WPCNR has obtained contain plenty of detail, as to the purposes of these two buildings planned for the New York Presbyterian Property. A brief analysis of these plans will be presented by WPCNR in future reports.

WPCNR will obtain a copy of the Plan B and compare.

List of lead hospitals of lobbying group reveals The New York Presbyterian Connection to Center of Excellence

When WPCNR received today's copy of The Westchester County Business Journal, we noted with interest Mr. Philippidis' article describing the Westchester County Association's annual breakfast February 12, where he wrote that Senator Nicholas Spano (R-Yonkers) "said Westchester should be among the six sites where Gov. George E. Pataki hopes to establish state research facilities under the banner "Centers of Excellence." Governor George Pataki announced funding of $250 million in his state-of-the-state message in January to fund 6 such Centers of Excellence across the region.

Philippidis goes on in the article to report that the Academic Medicine Development Company, or AMDeC, composed of 36 hospitals has recommended that one such Center be built in New York City.

This fact caught WPCNR's attention.

New York Presbyterian Hospital is based in New York City.

We checked the AMDec website and found which hospitals comprise the 36 members of AMDeC.

One of the thirty-six organizations was listed as the Joan and Sanford Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Cornell University is affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital.

According to documents received by WPCNR today, The Hospital is directly affiliated with the Joan and Sanford Weill Medical College of Cornell University. The Hospital is also affiliated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of the other thirty-six AMDeC member institutions andRockefeller University, another member.

We contacted our hospital source to find out whether the hospital was "in the hunt" for the New York area Center of Excellence. They said they thought this might be the grant the hospital was looking for, but they would check.

At a little after 5 PM this afternoon, our source, (whom we are waiting to identify, if they agree to use of their name), faxed us documents supporting this Center of Excellence connection; describing the effort to go for this Center of Excellence Grant, and they told us of the Empire State Development Corporation interest.

The source documents describe the Plan B in detail and confirm the motive the hospital had to settle quickly their lawsuit against the City of White Plains Thursday night.

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