BILL NUMBER: S7616A
SPONSOR: MARTINEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act in relation to authorizing the lease of certain lands for the
purpose of building undergraduate student, graduate student, faculty and
staff housing
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Legislative findings.
Section 2. Authorizes the SUNY Trustees, without public bidding, to
lease and otherwise contract with the Stony Brook Housing Development
Corp.
Section 3. Provides that any contract or lease entered pursuant to this
act shall be deemed a state contract for purposes of Article 15-A of the
Executive Law.
Section 4. Provides that all work performed on a project authorized by
this act shall be deemed public work.
Sections 5, 7, 9-11, 14. Provides provisions relating to the ground
lease.
Sections 6 & 8. Provides that the Stony Brook Housing Development Corp.
shall require a project labor agreement for all contractors and subcon-
tractors on the project.
Section 12. Provides the metes and bounds on the grounds of the Stony
Brook campus totaling roughly 17 acres.
Section 13. Provides that any ground lease shall be executed within 5
years of the effective date of this act.
Section 15. Sets forth an immediate effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Stony Brook University's main campus is located in Stony Brook, New
York, and consists of an academic campus, which includes the Research &
Development Park ("West Campus"), and two hospitals (Stony Brook Univer-
sity Hospital, Stony Brook Children's Hospital), the MART Cancer Center,
and the Long Island State Veterans Home ("East Campus") (collectively,
"Stony Brook Campus"). Across the Stony Brook Campus, the University
employs over 15,000 people and educates roughly 26,000 undergraduate and
graduate students.
As one of the State's Flagship University's and one of the three SUNY
Hospitals, Stony Brook's student enrollment is scheduled to grow signif-
icantly over the next few years. As the University's enrollment grows,
so too does the need to increase the number of faculty and staff to
support academic and research programs. Unfortunately, due to a lack of
student and workforce housing in the area, there is no way to grow with-
out a robust increase in housing options. A lack of housing opportu-
nities has made recruiting students and faculty and retaining the same
increasingly difficult.
The University has developed a plan to lease approximately 17 acres of
underdeveloped land on its West Campus adjacent to the Stony Brook LIRR
station to build multi-purpose facilities to support housing for under-
graduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, staff and medical
residents ("Stony Brook Project"). The Stony Brook Project would provide
up to 1,900 beds, all of which would be exclusively for members of the
Stony Brook University community.
The University is establishing the Stony Brook Housing Development Corp.
("SBHDC") to be the ground lessee, who would ultimately sublease the
project to a developer through an RFP process. The legislation would
also require a project labor agreement for all construction undertaken
to support the Stony Brook Project.
By enabling SUNY to lease the land on its property to the SBHDC, it
would provide a substantial increase in housing opportunities to expand
its enrollment and provide affordable workforce housing options for its
staff.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.