New York City’s healthcare construction spending will increase by 38 percent, reaching $9.4 billion, between 2020 and 2023, the New York Building Congress (NYBC) says in a recently-published report.
NYBC says in NYC Checkup: An Examination of Healthcare and Life Science Construction, that NYC organizations spent more than $6.8 billion on health care construction from 2016 to 2019. This year, and in the next two years, every borough except Staten Island is expected to have a spending increase.
Both The Bronx and Brooklyn will experience more than a doubling in health-care spending, with Brooklyn forecasted to see $2.3 billion in spending (while the Bronx could spend more than $600 million on healthcare construction).
Manhattan spending will increase less by percentage, but will continue to represent the highest dollar value — reaching more than $5.5 billion, the NYBC says.
NYBC attributes the increase in construction spending to the pandemic.
“Although construction spending is subject to a myriad of factors, the Building Congress anticipates spending will increase as hospitals and healthcare providers adapt to the next normal and prepare for a potential resurgence of COVID-19,” the report said.
Exact estimates on spending to vary depending on the distribution of future federal aid, the strength of the economy, the financial outlook for individual healthcare institutions and the development of COVID-19, NYBC says.
The report says hospitals will need space for more beds with ICU capabilities, flexible patient capacity, additional power and emergency power sources, ways to separate patients, additional entrances and exits, and updated ventilation and air filtration processes.
“In the first half of 2020, existing facilities were quickly renovated to handle an influx of infected patients, and surge sites were deployed to help ease pressure on hospitals,” the report says. “In the following months, healthcare projects already in the pipeline will be built, and new ones focused on pandemic preparedness will form.”
