OSI Pharmaceuticals in Melville, Long Island, is undertaking a $20 million headquarters expansion project that will add 250 professional jobs during the next three years to its current work force of 160 employees in New York state.OSI is acquiring the former headquarters of Swiss Air and plans to use the 60,000 square foot building as its new corporate headquarters. The company will continue its research operations at SUNY Farmingdale.New York’s Centers of Excellence program and other high-tech initiatives helped finance the expansion. In the late 1990s, New York state provided about $15 million to build facilities for OSI at SUNY Farmingdale. That investment allowed the company to remain on Long Island.To assist with the acquisition of the new headquarters building, Empire State Development Corp. (ESD) offered a $600,000 capital grant. Colin Goddard, CEO of OSI Pharmaceuticals, said he expects to have significant future growth on Long Island.New York City is investing to ensure a solid foundation for life sciences industry growth.The city’s Economic Development Corp. is helping to create the East River Science Park (ERSP), a bioscience research and development campus, expected to be a prime location for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields. ERSP is poised to become a cutting-edge facility that will capitalize on its proximity to many prestigious health care institutions, including Rockefeller, Beth Israel, Weill Cornell, Mount Sinai, Memorial Sloan Kettering and NYU.
