Building Congress Event
Espresso with Carlo Featuring James Patchett, President & CEO, New York City Economic Development Corp.
Webinar Transcript
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Carlo Scissura 00:04
So I am going to get started, because I know our President James Patchett is doing a lot of things in the city and we're really excited, James that you've joined us this morning. First of all, let me thank our sponsor for today. SL Green. They are building as we know, many things but a signature part of the East Midtown rezoning which is One Vanderbilt and I think in many ways, really set the stage for new office construction in New York City with public amenities plazas. MTA upgrades, public amenity so it's really a great thing. So I want to thank and and Mark from SL Green for all they do for New York City.
Carlo Scissura 01:01
You know, it's it's been a long stretch, I think we'll hear hopefully a little bit from President Patchett in a minute about how we are. And by that I call him president, because I learned yesterday from the mayor himself, that he likes to be called president. But I think I'm just gonna call you James, because that's how I know you. But the city has really been extraordinary in in just stepping up to the plate. And this is not something we ever could have expected. Nor is it something that I think if three months ago, someone said, Well, folks, this virus is going to take over people and health and the economy and the way we live in New York, obviously, we would not believe that. So we've all rolled up our sleeves. We're figuring it out. We're learning and we're making it happen.
Carlo Scissura 01:54
So I am going to welcome James Patchett, president, CEO of New York City DDC, James, I'm gonna have you do a, you know, couple of words of welcome. And we'll jump right into questions.
James Patchett 02:07
Okay, thanks, Carlo. Well, I just wanted to say I appreciate everything you're doing and everything the building Congress is doing. As I mentioned, I specifically brought my teas. It's called Espresso with Carlo.
Carlo Scissura 02:19
Yes. And I, of course have my espresso. So cheers. It is spresso helps us get through the day.
James Patchett 02:27
Yeah, I mean, I the first thing I would say is, obviously, this is something you know, none of us could have imagined 10 weeks ago, and it's really unbelievable. And it's really sad to see what's happened to the city. But at the same time, you know, I have an incredible amount of confidence in the resiliency of our city and of New Yorkers. And I think, you know, you've you've been a part of many of these conversations, and we see it from leaders in the real estate community leaders in the business community, leaders from across the board, their commitment to ensuring that New York remains the incredible place that it always has been. And I'm really confident of that. But it's going to be, it's going to be a challenge. And it's going to take a lot of working together to get there. But I am inspired every day by the things that I see. And I am hoping today they'll have a chance to talk about some of those things, because I think that there's a lot of bad news out there. And I don't think the media is New York City's friend right now in terms of telling the story of New York. But I've been fortunate to see a lot of the amazing things going on. And I want to talk about that, because I think we should we all need some positive stories right now. And of course, I also want to talk about how we get the other side. So thanks for ---.
Carlo Scissura 03:41
I love it. And I think, you know, the people listening and my members have heard me say this since March. There is a lot of horrible news out there. But there's also some incredibly good things happening. And I like to continue to be on the positive end of that.
Carlo Scissura 04:00
So why don't you tell us? Let's start with that. Tell us a couple of good things that that are coming out of EDC and that you're working on.
James Patchett 04:09
Right. Well, thank you, I think well, so we've we've been supporting the city's response to COVID-19 from the very beginning. I mean, we've we've turned our cruise terminals into hospitals. And we've been turning to our local manufacturers to make medical supplies. And we've been working like with organizations like you, yours and others, to advocate for more federal resources for our small businesses. And now for the city itself. I mean, it's been obviously an exhausting time. I mean, I'm, you know, I've fortunate to be healthy and have my family healthy, but you know, I do have a five year old and a two year old at home, which is my own mini, my own mini challenge. It's amazing how exhausted it is-
Carlo Scissura 04:56
I know what you're going through. I have one who just turned Five a few weeks ago, so I get it
James Patchett 05:02
yeah. So it's, you know, you know how that goes. And, you know, it's also sad to see they miss their friends they miss going out. It's hard, but at the same time, you know, I feel lucky because, you know, I mean, there's the I mean, there's almost a million New Yorkers who have filed for unemployment. It's unbelievable. And, at the same time, thousands of of our fellow residents who have died from this disease, terrible, but I wanted as I said about some of the positive things. I've really been inspired by the innovation and the creativity and really just the tenacity of New Yorkers that I've seen.
James Patchett 05:37
So at the very beginning of this in the middle of March, we started by making face shields. So that was the thing. We reached out to local manufacturers. We'd heard that there was a shortage of protective gear for hospital workers. We built over 2 million to date, which is amazing. They're delivered to frontline hospital workers. This is in partnership with over 10 Local manufacturing companies who were closed down, we designed these relatively simple products and delivered them to hospitals, which also put people back to work, which was great.
James Patchett 06:10
In in March, we spent about four weeks designing and building an entirely new ventilator from scratch. To help deal with the huge surge of patients going into the cities hospital, I was pretty remarkable. Seeing that process. We brought together innovators and technologists and modern manufacturers to build this product, which is incredibly complicated. But it all happened in a month, which to me is a story about what's possible when New Yorkers with their minds to things.
James Patchett 06:42
And, and now we're focused on testing supplies, because I really do believe that testing is the way through to the other side of this in the near term, until there's a treatment. And so we need to be doing testing at scale. And we have been developing in New York City, our own testing kits for COVID. That's a 3d printed swab that's being produced by our partner print parts in Manhattan. We're producing over 50,000 a week of those. They're coupled with viral transport medium, which is being produced at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. That's something neither of these groups had done anything like this. We reached out to them. We had some designs that we had. We had put together we've worked with them to, or that we'd worked with partners to perfect. And so now we're doing more than 50,000 kits a week, which are going straight into clinics for testing. We delivered our first shipments last week, and they were the difference between those clinics running out of testing supplies and being able to do thousands of tests a day. And we're on our way to exceed well exceed our 50,000 a week target. We're trying to get north of 100,000 within the next couple of weeks.
James Patchett 07:57
And I'm hopeful that in the next next month, we're We're gonna be able to talk about treatments and vaccines and what the next step is. We're fortunate at EDC to sit at this intersection of public and private sector. And we've, we've been doing a lot of work in recent years on the life sciences industry. And so the fact that we're, we have that expertise in house has really proved incredibly valuable. And we've been investing in the tech sector and the bio biotech sector for years. And it turns out, that's those are the two things you need more than anything right now. And putting those those pieces together has been really valuable.
Carlo Scissura 08:34
You know, we we've, at the building, Congress started a focus probably about a year year and a half ago on life sciences. And we talk not just about healthcare and the future of healthcare in New York. I think you have to merge that in with life sciences, maybe talk a little bit more about how EDC has played a role in that and how do we see it, this crisis and how Could it help us in the future?
James Patchett 09:04
Sure. So, you know, we have been approaching --- sciences as potential growth. And we look at the, what's happened in, in Cambridge and San Francisco and how the how they've developed these industries, and they've been such a spur for job creation and innovation. And I think it's really about thinking about the future. You know, we've successfully Obviously, we've been the financial capital for a very long time. Over the last decade, what's happened in tech has really exploded, obviously, media is a huge industry, but we need to always be thinking about what the next industry is. And that's why we've been focused on life sciences seeing it as an area where we have a tremendous area of expertise in our academic medical centers. We receive over $3 billion a year in NIH grants or for medical research. Or, and, and which in many other places translate into new drugs being developed, and the possibilities for life saving cures, and also products that can create a lot of jobs. And so big what we saw as an opportunity to build this industry, build this industry in New York and try to, I mean, look, it Tech has proved incredibly valuable for the city and we're so fortunate to have it and Life Sciences is now proving incredibly valuable. So we're lucky that we've been investing in that industry and I see it as a huge area of growth for the future. If it's the other side of this. We agree. I'm gonna step out of frame for one second to grab my power cord, but
Carlo Scissura 10:40
Do what you got to do. Yeah. You know, I I've been around long enough and I know you have as well and many people on the call as well. Um, you know, when people say, oh, New York is done, the city is finished and everything to just move to wherever North Carolina or Georgia or Texas or Florida, people move these days. And each time people say New York is finished. Not only is it not finished, but it gets better. Right? We saw that early after 9/11. We saw it. I was in Red Hook, when the chamber The day after Hurricane Sandy, when people said Red Hook will never come back. And Coney Island this finished and obviously they've come back stronger after the Great Recession. I mean, I can go on. I'm convinced we're not only not finished, but we haven't even been done. And that the comeback story of New York this summer and going into the fall is going to be one of the greatest stories ever written about urban and cities and things like that. So tell me give us a little bit of perspective on that. I know you know, we're not finished, but how do we back what We do that makes it better?
James Patchett 12:02
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think look, you You gave the the examples. You know, there's September 11. There's the recession. There's the fiscal crisis of the seven days. Obviously, more recently, Hurricane Sandy, as you referenced, we, you know, we've always come back successfully, there were plenty of people who said they were leaving your city forever after September 11. And, you know, our population has grown dramatically. And we're at our, you know, 8.6 million people. So obviously, we have recovered from all of those. And you know, if you look back to the, probably the most comparable circumstance, which was almost exactly 100 years ago, the 1918 pandemic in New York City, it was only in two years later, we went into the 1920s, which was considered one of the most successful and innovative decades in the creation, the amount of culture that happened and it was driven frankly by city.
James Patchett 13:00
And so in New York and was a fabulous place to be, in those times only a couple years after a pandemic, and that was before we had the amazing advancements in medical research that we have today. So, like, I have absolute faith that we're going to get through the other side of this. I mean, New York City is, is a successful city for a reason. I have a least some training in economics. And you know, when you think about these things, you look at inherent strategic advantages. New York is at the mouth of the Hudson River. It's, you know, it's the New York Harbor is one of the deepest on the east coast. It's a it's an enormous port of trade, it will continue to be that New York City is a fantastic place. It's it was there was a reason the Dutch settle here in the 1600s and has been a major focus of trade since then. We've gone through ups and downs, absolutely. But are we coming back stronger than ever? There's no doubt in my mind. I mean, the desire of New Yorkers to go out to restaurants and go to bars is unrivaled than any other city and I am confident that people -
Carlo Scissura 14:05
The question I hear every day is simple: when and how? And, you know, you take an industry that I represent, which is building and construction, and everything that goes with it. Historically, this industry and from architects, the engineers, the contractors, etc, have led the charge in getting people up and running. How do we make sure that happens? Now? I know, essential construction is going on, but but the time has come for, I think more to be happening in the city.
Carlo Scissura 14:05
- I'm with you. My five year old last night at dinner said to me and I quote, Daddy, can we go to restaurants? I'm just tired of eating home every day. Yeah. I think she shares the voice of 8 million people out there, which is left the restaurants open. But you're right. You know, you bring up a point about the 1920s, James, you know where the building Congress is turning 100 next year, right? We were formed in 1921. RPA is turning 100. I mean, there are so many things that were created from 1920 through the mid 20s from chambers of Commerce's organizations, cultural groups, etc. I guess they took that 1918 stress and pandemic and said well, coming out of this and this is what need was Learned we need organizations like these to help us going. So I agree with you, I think we'd come back stronger. Okay, so we come back stronger.
James Patchett 15:44
Right. So I think, I think you know, I think I think you're right, I think the when question is a really important one. And the good news is if you look at the indicators now they're really quite remarkable. I mean, we have In terms of the the test rate, we are down to about 1000 positive tests in the city a day which is way, way below the peak and that is not withstanding the fact that we have we have way, way more testing than - can you hear me? Yeah. Okay.
Carlo Scissura 16:22
Sorry. questions that are coming in.
James Patchett 16:24
Okay. So anyway, we obviously, we're making great progress on the health indicators, which is the most important thing my really strong belief here is that we need to be able to reopen quickly but we need to be able to do it in a very thoughtful and safe way driven by science because the obviously the log that if this goes on for a very extended period of time, that's going to be a problem. But possibly an even bigger problem is opening and then having to shut back down. So, you know, the we we believe that we will be hitting The indicators to go into phase one by early to mid June, which is great. That means that construction can resume manufacturing, manufacturing as well. And in addition to that, it would allow it would allow retailers to do at least curbside delivery. So there's there's a lot of things there that are exciting about getting into phase one. And then over the course of the summer, going into the next phases of reopening, I think we got to work together with you all to get construction started in a safe way so that we can demonstrate to everyone how to do this the right way without incurring any further setbacks.
Carlo Scissura 17:43
You're great and I have to give a shout out to the building trades because they obviously have played such a critical role in the construction that's going on in the safety in what's happening out there. And you know, look, we are an industry that is safe. In many ways already, we were using gloves and masks and things before this happened. So I think we're ready to go and I hear it. Every day more and more, we are ready to go. I want to touch upon another piece of the construction industry, which is the architects, the designers, the engineers, um, you know, a lot of that work could be happening even more so right now, because it's done the way we are right? working from home on a laptop on, you know, the programs that they use. I know the city is in a crunch with cash, and obviously the economy has been really hurt with this. What should we be doing to make sure that we're planning projects were designing projects, we're getting ready, not just for the summer, or really for next year, when hopefully things will be back to a new normal, but when we really want to ramp up, what could our members be doing?
James Patchett 19:00
Right. Well, I mean, I think I would say I would say two things. The first thing is that there is no question that we need to be ready. Because there's reason to believe that there may be, eventually an infrastructure patch in a package from the federal government. And as you know, better than I do that requires having projects that are shovel ready. You know, we have close more than a billion dollars in resiliency projects in lower Manhattan that are that are shovel ready or close to shovel ready. And we have similar projects all over the city. I think resiliency is obviously a really important opportunity to be in a position to make those investments which are really long term investments and make the city prepared for getting ahead of the next crisis. I think as much as we can do to work together to get those projects ready.
James Patchett 19:52
And then that really takes me to a related point, my second point, which is about how to ensure that the Federal government provides the level of resources that are necessary. And you're, you know, you all have been great partners in this. But we absolutely need the federal government to step up, though. And that relates in the near term to a federal stimulus bill for municipalities and states. I mean, the city originally projected a budget gap of over $7 billion, and that number is going up. And that is a huge issue for being able to get through this because we all know, you know, in a downturn, it's government spending that needs to step up. And if government spending is having to drop as well, and people are, you know, government workers are not out there, you know, with with salaries and shopping and shops, and at the same time, you know, we're not able to fund large scale construction projects, that is a huge risk to this city and to the economy. And so we need to be in a position financially where we can do that and There's, there's, you know, there's a very active conversation right now in DC about how to ensure that there's an adequate level of stimulus that goes to local governments. And we absolutely need that week and we need your help in advocating for that, because without it, you know, we're going to be in real in real trouble.
Carlo Scissura 21:21
We agree. Um, you know, we we've been spending a lot of time in DC the last few years since I've been at the building Congress, but I think this year is more critical than ever. And, you know, we actually I think our federal lobbyists are watching us right now as well. And they hear me screaming every day about this, which is our number one priority as the building Congress. Obviously, safety is a given but our number one priority economically is for federal direct investment in new york and the region and that includes shovel ready infrastructure projects.
Carlo Scissura 22:00
And our argument and the argument of our members and other groups has been very clear. When you invest money in New York City, you are really investing in the country, because the role that we play economically is so outsized that investing in our transit infrastructure, our health infrastructure, our educate whatever it may be, has a ripple effect, not just in the region or the Northeast, but across the country. So you know, we are on top of that, I will echo something the mayor said yesterday, in our meeting, which is Republican senators right now, are very critical to our cause. And if anyone and I've said this to our board and our membership, now's the time if you've ever relationship with a member of the US Senate who is a Republican, to call in any relationships you have because it's not enough to just hear, you know, we need the money. But it's important to hear By the way, if you're investing in something in New York, the steel or materials are coming from other states that are represented by Republicans in Congress. And that fuels the economies of Oklahoma and Texas and Tennessee, and Washington State and places like that. So we are being very methodical on that. I am planning to get in my car in three weeks with my mask and drive down to Washington and and see whoever will see me. We are still planning a trip the end of June for our members to go down there and continue to have the conversation. I do think the next three to four weeks will be very critical. So we're all in this together.
James Patchett 23:51
And I just want to underscore the timing issue here. And you heard the mayor say this last night but I'll surely the city is required by law, the pass a balanced budget, which means the zero dollar deficit by June 30. So if we want to see meaningful spending in this year's budget, the stimulus needs to happen before June 30. --- well in advance because we need to be able to put it into it. But
Carlo Scissura 24:19
we have a couple of questions from from our listeners. The Mayor mentioned the antibody passport yesterday. Can you share more on that, James?
James Patchett 24:32
Well, look, I think the premise of this right is increasingly the evidence is pretty clear. Though it's still not perfect that if you have antibodies, you are likely to be resilient to the disease. And that's great. And the estimates of the number of New Yorkers who have are likely to have the antibodies. Often many of them exceed a million So that could be, you know, more than 10% of the population of antibodies. So if that's the case, that's a set of the population who is not at risk of transmitting this disease. And so that's a group of people that could be, you know, could could be safely going on transit safely going into work with no concerns for their own safety. And that's a real opportunity. And to the extent, again, testing for the virus is going to be critical to monitor outbreaks. But anybody testing is also going to be important as we think about, you know, people who have likely immunity from this disease, and that's also gonna be really important as we reach a point where, you know, a significant number of our workers who can, you know, basically return their lives to normal which will be fantastic news.
Carlo Scissura 25:50
Great, um, the couple of questions on on EDC projects that were already scheduled then bid out Are you continuing those that were contracted prior to the outbreak, or are they being cancelled and rebid at some point?
James Patchett 26:09
Right? Well, we're not planning to cancel any of them. I mean, I think the circumstances that we're in, it really varies by project. Obviously, there are some projects that were required to be shut down because they were not essential construction. We had clear guidance about that from the Department of Buildings.
James Patchett 26:29
There are others that we had to pause. I mean, as as the mayor said, I mean, the city has a little bit of a liquidity problem right now, which really are a cash flow problem, I should say, which relates to the fact that the there's just a substantial budget shortfall for the next fiscal year and also borrowing for the city has been more challenging than it ever are than it has been in recent history. So those factors together means that it's a little bit harder than usual to advance projects at the speed that we want. And so we're trying to do is be really thoughtful about how we go about restarting those projects. It's really only a question of budget and if we can get the stimulus and get things moving again, financially, we want to get all of those and projects started and restarted and more.
Carlo Scissura 27:23
Right. We like to hear that we'd like to hear especially the more part more and more and more, I want to shift to Hunts Point market, obviously a critical piece of our city, our lifeline, obviously, maybe talk a little bit about what you see happening up there. And you know, they are a tenant of the city, obviously, we want them to continue. They're part of the food supply chain. They talk a little bit about what you're hearing up there.
James Patchett 27:56
Right, so So first off, Yeah, it is. It's an interesting The important asset to the city Hunts Point represents more than 10% of the city's food supply and, and they supply supermarkets. bodegas and also typically restaurants in one of the biggest challenges is that the the is that the is that the restaurant industry is obviously in tremendous turmoil. And so businesses that are part of that supply chain, which include many of the businesses in Hunts Point have struggled because they they don't have their customers. So you know, we've seen these stories across the country, which is at the supply chains need to give it so that they can more act more more effectively provide to the consumers that are actually demanding food at this time. So more than half of the businesses in Hunts Point though they typically sell the restaurants have pivoted their businesses to sell to supermarkets and bodegas and also to to others. wholesalers in the market and even to consumers directly, one of our tenants up at Hunts Point, is now doing direct to consumer deliveries. And so this is a really important thing for these businesses is to be able to be creative in this current business model. It's a demonstration of what I think is necessary nationally. I mean, people are consuming about the same amount of food, it's just that they're assuming it in different ways. And we just need to make sure that the supply chain is responsive to what it is that consumers are demanding. And we talk to them every day. You know, we really want to make sure that they get to this the other side. And we've supported them by helping them get access to PPE, we've we've tried to liaise with them to get access to the SBA loan programs that are available. We've been trying to connect them to potential buyers for their products and we've been doing everything we can, you know, I think many of them pivoted their business model and we're going to see more do that over time and also as restaurant Start to come back, these businesses will come back as well.
Carlo Scissura 30:03
Great. You know, I want to, we have a lot of questions about construction and specific things, to EDC. But I want to continue on with this because you mentioned restaurants coming back. Obviously, we live in a city where the restaurant scene is maybe one of the most important parts of what makes New York unique. They are small businesses mostly and are suffering. I think now is a moment for all of us to get creative on getting them back. And you know, we're going into the summer months. There's been a lot of talk about maybe relaxing outdoor seating permits and doing more street closures so restaurants can be out and about, can you talk about a little bit how EDC plays a role in this and, and what you're thinking on your end?
James Patchett 30:54
Yeah, I mean, I think that the restaurant circumstance is, is one of the most challenging ones. Right. I mean, I think that for if you look at other what's happened in other states that have reopened more significantly, most of them have put limitations on the total capacity of restaurants. And often it's got 50% capacity. And just trying to you know, in New York trying to make a 50% capacity restaurant work is really hard because they all rely on you know, those crunch times to make up the times when they're much less busy. Certainly for bars. I mean, I'm thinking 50% capacity bars, a bar no one wants to go into separate now, honestly, um, but but i think i think there there are creative ideas that are being kicked around out there. And we are, we're bullish on this idea of being more creative about how to use outdoor space, especially over the next few months. One of the I mean, one of the fortunate silver linings of this as the timing here, which is they will be warm enough for people to be outside And so there's no reason people can't sit outside and eat at a restaurant. You know, I think you need to be thoughtful about the health issues. But in general, being outside is a lot safer than being inside. Right. And so we are working collectively with our agency partners to try to get ahead of this problem. And hopefully, you'll see something very similar on this topic. Right? That would be great. I have to tell you,
Carlo Scissura 32:26
you know, I represent the building industry in my job, but I think people sometimes forget that. I spent many years running a small business association. So a lot of my neighbors will still yell at me. When am I opening my restaurant? When When can we do this? So I hear both sides of it. And let us know how we can be helpful because I do think the construction industry and the building industry can play a critical role quickly in getting some of that outdoor availability and, you know, one things we've heard, particularly from construction workers on sites that are deemed essential and that are working is, you know, we're working, but we have nowhere to go get lunch anymore. know where to get coffee. And we feel horrible because the deli we support may go out of business because we're not able to build there. So I think as you reopen construction, and I would argue it should be at the beginning of June, not the middle of June. And I think you've heard that not just for me, but for many people. I think we have to figure out a way to open accessory retail that can be supported by construction workers being out there because they go together in many ways. We'd be happy to help you figure that out. Yeah.
Carlo Scissura 33:48
Okay. Someone asked a good question about if we're talking about long term infrastructure and planning for the city are you is the city is able to bond for long term infrastructure to get things rolling as opposed to just thinking about short term things.
James Patchett 34:10
Right. Um... just making a note. Yes. So typically the the city bonds on a 30 or longer year basis, that's our traditional approach. The capital markets have been not surprisingly unusual over the last couple of months. And so that has been a challenge. But I think one of the things that we will need to figure out is how there can be a long term, you know, an ongoing long term liquidity window that's available to the city. The Fed did open a date opened some borrowing for municipalities. Unfortunately, the Borrowing window was about three to four years with amortization, which just really doesn't help. So what you need is a really long duration borrowing program from the Fed or elsewhere that helps support these infrastructure projects and know that that's something that is under consideration to try to improve that. I think that's another area that's worth focus so that people will salutely necessary out of that. Because I think the reality is that the bond markets are going to continue to be uncertain. For at least the near term and uncertainty is one of the worst things we can have right now. As much as we can certainty and clarity about where we're going. Right.
Carlo Scissura 35:42
Well, that's a that's a good thing to to push for as part of the stimulus bill. Another question, will EDC continue with completion of procurement cycles in the coming months. So for example, if there's a project that is pending, notice award, the EDC intend to make decisions on project awards and reflect that, or is that gonna stop for a while?
James Patchett 36:10
Yeah, I mean, it's it's project by project, we certainly want to be able to move awards, as you said, you know, as we discussed, we want to be in a position where we're shovel ready on projects. We, what we but we also want to be clear with people and make them spend money and get ramped up until we have clarity about funding source. So that's the balance. I think, honestly, we'll have a lot more clarity about all of these construction projects. Once we sort out what's going to happen with the federal stimulus. I think we're all hopeful and every good reason to believe is getting it sorted out over the next four weeks, but it really needs to get sorted out so that we can give clear direction and that timing will work well was you know, with the phase one restart, but we got a we got a question. Federal funding in order to be able to provide clarity because we'd be happy to do awards, but until we have funding it doesn't do us much. Good.
Carlo Scissura 37:07
Right. We agree. You know, speaking of projects, James, tell us some of the projects that you're excited about that are happening and that we want to see continue to happen in the city.
James Patchett 37:20
Yeah, you know, I mentioned and I will go back to it, again, the importance of resiliency projects right now. I think that's a really clear example where there's an opportunity to do large scale construction projects that will really make a difference. You know, lower Manhattan is an obvious place where there's the Eastside coastal Resilience Project, there's a series of associated projects that go all the way wrap all the way around Lower Manhattan overeats over through Battery Park City. This is billions of billions of dollars of construction work that we are you know, have been planning to start construction on between now and the end of next year. And I'm very excited about those projects again, because they're about planning for the long term thing. The other thing I mean, as we talked about earlier, I'm very bullish on life sciences in New York City for a reason we have a, you know, we had, as of 10 weeks ago about, you know, a dozen different projects in the hopper, everywhere from rehabs of buildings and wild city to ground up construction and projects in Manhattan. They were, you know, really getting we're going to put millions and millions of square feet of additional wet lab space on the table. So I'm optimistic about that. And meanwhile, we're working at some important infrastructure projects right now, which include the Coney Island hospital project, which is an $800 million project and is probably more important than ever right now. Having new hospital facilities ongoing. And we're also beginning the design work for the public health, a new public health lab, which is also going to be you know, I think we've all learned the importance of public health over the last couple of last couple of weeks. And you know, having a state of the art facility there is going to be really important.
Carlo Scissura 39:22
We're excited about that. And I don't call me Alan hospital has done a lot of work in the last few months. So they they're doing great things. Um, you know, we have a couple of minutes left, but we're getting some questions about half what will EDC be doing in terms of helping real estate and construction get restarted in phase one, what role will you play in that?
James Patchett 39:49
So the role that we're playing there is really about trying to be the guy trying to be the interface with the business community. In the real estate community, obviously, DOB is going to be incredibly important in this, you know, as you know, from our conversation last night, etc, my team have been moderating and trying to help organize this conversations with the real estate community as well as with the business community to you know, and I think what we're doing right now is organizing a series of subcommittees on specific topics that are top of mind for people in construction. And so in one of those areas is the focus on how as you know, how to how to how to prioritize infrastructure projects and what the city should be doing now, you apropos of many of the questions you asked to lead off this discussion. And then another area, which is really important is protocols. You know, how can we be very clear and be clear about permitting? How can we organize ourselves? So it's not the first you know, so it's not the red tape that stands in the way of us getting construction projects moving again, this is an unusual time, right? Where we're temporarily stopped on some projects. And we need to make sure that we're able to move faster than ever. And so we're going to be organizing those meetings in partnership with our agency partners, including SCA and DOB and DDC and trying to get everyone on the same page to, to make sure there's an interface with the business community with the real estate community with the construction industry. I think the thing we really want to avoid right now and which the mayor has really bought into is that of all times now is a time where we don't want to be government sitting off to ourselves planning. We need to be planning in partnership with the private sector so that we're listening to what their challenges are and responding to them as opposed to just putting things out there that may or may not work.
Carlo Scissura 41:54
That is music to the ears of many people James that is for sure. Before we close off, first of all, you know you you have really done and your team incredible work and to to be able to watch an agency adapt so quickly to do things they really weren't set up to do. I think for the people that don't know about it, you should check out the website at EDC and see what they've been doing because it has really helped save people's lives. I think I want to really stress the importance of all of us in this together. The partnerships between City Hall and city agencies and and what you're doing and what Lorraine is doing at DDC and SCA and what Melanie is doing at DOB, I think this is a moment where we should all come together and I see it happening. And I think at least for the next year and a half. We should use this newfound togetherness to really help do some incredible things in the next 1418 months that maybe we didn't think we were going to do before this pandemic. So it is an opportunity and kind of that rare moment of time where we can say, Let's run with it and do it. And you have our support, obviously, to get things done. So thank you. And before we go, tell us what you've been up to other than rebuilding the city you have two kids. You're working from home, I assume. Have you ordered from any good restaurants that you want to give a shout out to while we're here?
James Patchett 43:39
Well, you know, we have we actually we have a fabulous burrito place. That's right around the corner from our place called taqueria millyar which actually Unfortunately, it had a fire and I'm, you know, unrelated. mercifully, they reopened and that was it. That was our go to meal about, you know, two days a week before and we were in a real
Carlo Scissura 44:06
Where are they? tell tell us what street are.
James Patchett 44:08
They they're they're in Brooklyn, at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Sterling place anyway, fantastic, really. But I will just say there's some of the most traditional and authentic mexican, one of the most traditional authentic Mexican places you can find. I just there's a mercy to have them reopen just in time for us to be shut at home. So I will say it's like you have more appreciation than ever for our small businesses.
Carlo Scissura 44:37
We love small businesses.
James Patchett 44:39
And I do want to thank you, Carlo, for everything that you guys are doing all of your amazing work and advocacy on the app in the city and your membership. We've all we've all found it's anything you say a new form of togetherness when we're all not together, but right. I think you know, we appreciate the the opportunity to partner And find new ways to work together. We have to find a few silver linings in this and I
Carlo Scissura 45:03
know we do. We do well, good. Well, James Patchett Thank you. Thank you, you and your team. Thank you SL Green once again for not just sponsoring us, but for really doing amazing things in our city to our members, our listeners, thank you. We're here for you to build and Congress's continues to work for our members. Make sure you're on our mailing list. Make sure you're reading our emails that we send out and I wish you all a happy Memorial Day weekend. Get outside, get some fresh air, wear your masks and enjoy the city of New York. It's the best place in the world.
James Patchett 45:40
Thank you everybody. Have a great day. Thank you
