New York Construction Report staff writer
The SUNY Upstate Medical University has reached a major construction milestone on its new Upstate Pathology Institute, with crews placing the final beam atop the three-story, 109,000-square-foot clinical laboratory facility in the Town of DeWitt.
The state-of-the-art building at 6624 Fly Road will consolidate the university’s pathology services into a single location when it opens in spring 2027. LeChase Construction Services is serving as design-builder on the project.
Once complete, the facility will centralize services that are currently spread across 55,000 square feet on five floors in three buildings on Upstate’s downtown Syracuse campus. The department processed more than 3.2 million specimens in fiscal year 2024.
Core laboratory, microbiology lab, histology, immunohistochemistry, cytology, electron microscopy, bone marrow, hematopathology, cytogenetics, flow cytometry, molecular lab, bioinformatics and digital pathology operations. The building will also include teaching, conference and employee support space, along with designated areas for drone and courier specimen transport.
“By consolidating services into a single, state-of-the-art environment, we’re not only improving efficiency and collaboration, but also creating a hub that will attract top-tier scientists, pathologists, and medical technologists to Central New York,” said Robert Corona, CEO of Upstate University Hospital.
Plans also include a dedicated “drone bay” for recharging and maintaining specimen transport drones. Upstate recently completed a first-of-its-kind drone operation in preparation for the new facility under a Federal Aviation Administration waiver granted in May 2025. The waiver permits drone operations beyond visual line of sight, over people and over moving vehicles, allowing for expanded and scalable specimen transport.
The Upstate Pathology Institute will be located adjacent to Upstate Bone and Joint, home of Upstate Orthopedics, and is expected to be completed in spring 2027.
