Northwell Health to open lab at former UN headquarters in Lake Success

Northwell Health next week will move 520 employees to its new lab in Lake Success, which the health system said will have the capability to conduct 55 million tests annually.

The lab, which cost $59.6 million to build, will take up 101,000 square feet at 450 Lakeville Rd.

The employees will move over from other lab and administrative locations.

The 1 million-square-foot building also houses Northwell's Center for Advanced Medicine, its cancer institute, The Smith Institute for Urology and Monter Cancer Center.

It is located across the street from the health system's corporate headquarters in New Hyde Park.

"We stated our initial plan for this in 2012," said Dr. Dwayne Breining, executive director of laboratory services at Northwell Health. "We've spent six years on the planning, layout, equipment and coordination that will go into operating this facility."

The lab is in a building that dates back to World War II, when Sperry Gyroscope Corp. manufactured weapons there. Once the war was over, Sperry scaled back production and the unused space was taken by the United Nations, which kept its headquarters in Lake Success from 1945 to 1951 while its headquarters in Manhattan was being built.

Northwell said the lab will handle specimens from throughout its 23-hospital system, and from Northwell Health Physician Partners, the system's medical group. Northwell added it also will handle tests from nonaffiliated hospitals and physicians.

Separately, Northwell Health and NYC Health + Hospitals are opening a $47.7 million shared, centralized laboratory in Little Neck, Queens, the health system said. About 210 employees from the two systems will be at the facility, which primarily will perform microbiology tests.