Memorial Sloan Kettering buys site near Coliseum

A state-of-the-art Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is scheduled to open in late 2019 after the center announced it purchased five acres on the southwest lawn of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 29. 

“It’s long been a desire of ours to operate a freestanding outpatient treatment center in Nassau County,” said Courtney DeNicola Nowak, senior media relations associate at the center. “This new site will give us ample space to grow our clinical programs and expand ancillary support services, which will further reduce the need for our patients to travel to MSK in Manhattan.”

The center first opened its doors to Nassau County residents in 1996 at its Rockville Centre site, which now shares the Mercy Medical Center property. Once the new site is ready for outpatient cancer care, the 25-square-foot Rockville Centre location will close and transfer its patients, and staff, to the new Uniondale site, making it the only location in Nassau County, Nowak said. 

“The Rockville Center [facility] is pretty squeezed for space,” said Nowack. “We’re hoping with a larger building, they’ll have more space for chemo and other equipment.” 

Nowak said that the new site will be a two-story, 114,000 square-foot facility with an adjacent 450-space parking garage. The center also purchased another 25,000 square feet for possible future expansion. 

“This outpatient treatment facility will offer critical cancer care to patients without the wear and tear of traveling to Manhattan,” Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said in a statement. “This is great news for residents diagnosed with cancer and for those seeking employment in the health care industry.”

The center first announced its plans to make Uniondale its home in early 2015. Mangano provided further details during his State of the County Address that same year. “Under terms of the agreement, Memorial Sloan Kettering commits to building synergies with surrounding educational institutions by offering clinical and administrative internships and other educational programs or opportunities,” Mangano said. “And it will be part of the transformation that is taking place at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.”

Nowak said that although the plans for specific medical services to be offered on site are still being finalized, the center will include surgical, medical, and radiation oncology consultations, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and diagnostic radiology. It will also offer clinical research trials, pain management support, social work services, genetic counseling and even nutritional counseling. 

“Planning is also under way for three state-of-the-art linear accelerators used to map and deliver intensity-modulated and image-guided radiation therapy,” Nowak said. It’s a tool, she added, that will help many patients in numerous ways. 

Although the center is not scheduled to open until late 2019, Nowak said there would most likely be “some level of recruitment, a mix of clinical and administrative/professional positions” detailed on careers.mskcc.org.