Taconic Partners and Silverstein Properties have signed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to 23,000 square feet of lab space on the ninth floor of the Hudson Research Center at 619 W. 54th St. on Manhattan’s West Side. 

The lab space will be used to launch Rensselaer’s Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine in partnership with The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Rensselaer’s entry to the New York City market comes at a pivotal moment for the city’s thriving life science market. To date, much of the market has been defined by the demand from New York City’s academic medical institutions, as well as the strong growing demand from New York-based early-stage innovation companies.

RPI’s entry into the city could signal that companies and institutions from outside the metro area are starting to take note of the emergence of New York’s life science ecosystem, particularly the abundance of research talent in the city.