NYU Langone buys downtown West Palm Beach property for medical tower

NYU Langone Health paid $33 million in January for a downtown West Palm Beach property, where the nationally respected New York-based health care provider plans a custom-built medical tower.

NYU Langone, which currently leases medical office space downtown, eventually will move into its own building at 324 Datura St., at the southeast corner of Datura and South Dixie Highway.

The January property purchase underscores NYU Langone's commitment to growing its presence in Palm Beach County — and serving patients and patrons loyal to the renowned nonprofit provider.

NYU Langone first opened its Palm Beach County offices seven years ago but began planning a major expansion a couple of years ago as its patient roster grew with the influx of residents into the county, especially from the Northeast.

NYU Langone's big move: Could this major health care provider get its own tower downtown?

An NYU Langone spokesman was mum on details, for now.

“While we aren’t able to share additional details at this time, NYU Langone has been working to expand the exceptional services we offer in the Palm Beach area and we hope to offer more information soon," spokesman Steve Ritea said on Wednesday.

NYU Langone isn't alone in wanting to capitalize on Palm Beach County's booming population, including a pandemic-fueled influx of well-insured patients from the Northeast and Midwest.

In recent years, a number of out-of-area providers, including Cleveland Clinic, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Tampa General Hospital, also have either established offices in West Palm Beach, purchased physician practice groups, or both.

Business leaders welcome the trend, saying the increase in health care providers offers patients greater choices and higher-quality service for their medical needs.

NYU Langone site previously traded for $10.6 million

A deed recorded Jan. 31 with the Palm Beach County clerk's office shows the Jan. 14 sale of the property to New York University.

The seller was MCM 324 Datura, an affiliate of Morning Calm Management, a Boca Raton-based real estate company. Morning Calm founder Mukang Cho didn't return an email seeking comment.

In 2021, Morning Calm paid $10.6 million for the 324 Datura property, known as the Atrium.

Last November, Morning Calm submitted a plan to the city of West Palm Beach for a medical office building on the site.

The current low-rise office building would be torn down and replaced with a seven-story medical tower totaling 181,000 square feet, with 76,000 square feet dedicated to medical offices. Three floors in the building are for parking and four stories are for medical offices.

The NYU Langone plan already was approved by one city committee and is slated for review by another committee on Feb. 14, according to West Palm Beach spokesperson Diane Papadakos.

More: Out-of-region doctors, hospitals see success in Palm Beach County, plan more growth

NYU Langone considered different location before settling on Datura Street site

In 2023, a top NYU Langone official revealed the provider was searching for a larger medical space in downtown West Palm Beach. Real estate sources said NYU Langone at one point considered building a hospital in the city but backed away from the idea.

The health care provider then weighed a deal to lease about 100,000 square feet of space in the East Tower, an office building slated to be built on Hibiscus Street at The Square, the mixed-use complex built and owned by the Related Cos.

For unknown reasons, NYU Langone ditched the new Related tower, and the 324 Datura St. site became the focus.

The site is less than three blocks from the water, just across the bridges to Palm Beach and around the corner from NYU Langone's existing office at the 101 N. Clematis St. office building.

NYU Langone Health boasts 10 specialties in the top 10 rankings by U.S. News & World Report, including endocrinology and geriatrics, which both ranked No. 2 in the nation.

Making the expansion equally attractive is NYU Langone's longtime ties to Palm Beach County benefactors.

The medical center is named after Kenneth Langone, Home Depot's co-founder and a resident of the exclusive Lost Tree Village community near North Palm Beach.

In addition, former Marvel Entertainment Chairman Isaac Perlmutter, a Palm Beach resident, gave $50 million to NYU Langone's cancer center in 2014. The cancer center was renamed after Perlmutter and his wife, Laura.

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Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: NYU Langone buys West Palm Beach site for expanded medical offices