Work starts on Upstate Pathology Institute, which expects to add jobs

DeWITT, N.Y. — Work is underway on a new, 109,000-square-foot clinical pathology laboratory facility, known as the Upstate Pathology Institute, that will eventually add to Upstate Medical University’s job count. It’s located at 6624 Fly Road in the town of DeWitt, adjacent to Upstate Bone and Joint, home of Upstate Orthopedics. Upstate Medical University held a July 7 groundbreaking ceremony to formally kick off the construction project. Rochester–based LeChase Construction Services, LLC, which has an office in Syracuse, is serving as construction manager. The lead architect is Glastonbury, Connecticut–based SLAM, with help from Dwyer Architectural of Syracuse; Rochester–based ME Engineering, PC, which has an office in Syracuse; and Colliers. The project will consolidate and modernize Upstate’s pathology department, “positioning it for future growth, improved efficiency, and expanded regional service that will be facilitated by drone operations,” per the Upstate announcement. The upcoming Institute will centralize Upstate’s “sprawling” pathology service into one location when the building opens in spring 2027. The new facility will not offer patient-care services. Medical couriers and drones will deliver specimens, which will be analyzed on-site, with results sent directly to health-care providers.

Consolidating, adding jobs

Upstate’s pathology services currently operate across 55,000 square feet in five separate floors in three different buildings on Upstate’s downtown Syracuse campus. The department processed more than 3.2 million specimens in fiscal year 2024, the medical school and health system noted. The Upstate Pathology Institute will accommodate 178 of the pathology department’s current 228 employees, while 50 staff members will remain at the downtown campus to support hospital-based lab needs. Additionally, the Fly Road location will have “substantial” job growth, beginning with the addition of 25 new jobs in its first year of operation. Employment projections estimate another 10 new jobs will be added in each of the following two years, resulting in a total of 45 new positions and bringing the Fly Road lab’s workforce to 223 by year three. Representatives of Upstate Pathology Lab Ownership, LLC; the building’s owners Dr. A. John Merola and John Murphy; and various community leaders joined Upstate officials for the groundbreaking event. The new facility “moves Upstate Pathology well into the future,” Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University, said in the announcement. “This new Institute will transform the practice of pathology and help us meet the increasing demand for our services with greater efficiency and set a standard for laboratory science,” Dewan said.

About the upcoming building

The new three-story building will bring together services that include the core laboratory, microbiology lab, histology, immunohistochemistry (IHC), cytology, electron microscopy, bone marrow, hematopathology, cytogenetics, flow cytometry, molecular lab, bioinformatics & digital pathology, Upstate said. The structure will also include teaching, conference, and employee-support spaces, as well as areas for drone and courier-specimen transport. The facility will have a “drone bay” for recharging and maintenance of the transport drones. Upstate recently executed a first of its kind drone operation in preparing for the new facility. The operation was authorized under a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver granted to Upstate in May 2025 that permits drone operations beyond visual line of sight, over people, and over moving vehicles, setting a new standard for the safe and scalable integration of drones into the national airspace. Upstate Pathology Lab Ownership, LLC — a team with more than 50 years of experience in medical facility development — will oversee construction and ownership of the facility. The firm’s holdings also include North Medical Center in the town of Clay and Northeast Medical Center in the town of Manlius.