Devastated by the specter of Albany’s slash-and-burn budget tactics, New York’s health sector struggles for survival in a recession-wracked world. As today’s Times reports:
A major hospital trade association, one of New York City’s most aggressive developers and a financier with a personal interest in health care are teaming up in hopes of building a 60-story glass-and-steel tower on the West Side of Manhattan that would function as an international showcase and permanent conference center for the hospital industry.
[snip]
Real estate projects all over New York City have been stalled or stopped in their tracks because of the shrinking credit market. But the backers of the World Product Centre, as the tower would be called, say that the prospects for their project — estimated to cost $500 million to $1 billion to build — are uniquely auspicious because the health care industry has proven in the past to be countercyclical and recession-proof, since people always get sick.
Partners in the project include Extell — a development company whose executive vice president, Marc Shaw, just began a six-month gig as special adviser to Governor Paterson.
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