Upstate Medical University breaks ground on new state-of-the-art Upstate Pathology Institute

Upstate Medical University officials broke ground today on a new, state-of-the-art, 109,000-square-foot clinical pathology laboratory facility, known as the Upstate Pathology Institute, located at 6624 Fly Road in the Town of DeWitt. This project will consolidate and modernize Upstate’s Pathology Department, positioning it for future growth, improved efficiency, and expanded regional service that drone operations will facilitate.

Joining Upstate officials in the groundbreaking were representatives of Upstate Pathology Lab Ownership, LLC, the building’s owners A. John Merola, MD, and John Murphy, and various community leaders, including Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, State Assemblymembers Chris Ryan, Pamela Hunter and U.S. Rep. John Mannion.

The Institute will be located adjacent to Upstate Bone and Joint, home of Upstate Orthopedics.

The Institute will centralize Upstate’s sprawling pathology services into a single location, when the Institute opens in Spring 2027.

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. It processed more than 3.2 million specimens in fiscal year 2024.

The new three-story building will bring together vital services, including the Core Laboratory, Microbiology Lab, Histology, Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Cytology, Electron Microscopy, Bone Marrow, Hematopathology, Cytogenetics, Flow Cytometry, Molecular Lab, Bioinformatics & Digital Pathology, and more. The building will also include teaching, conference, and employee support spaces, as well as areas for drone and courier specimen transport.

Upstate Medical University President Mantosh Dewan, MD, said the new facility moves Upstate Pathology well into the future.

“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. “This expansion enhances our academic mission, supports patient care across the region, and reinforces Upstate’s commitment to being a leader in innovative, accessible, and high-quality healthcare.”

Upstate University Hospital CEO Robert Corona, DO, MBA, who also serves as the John Bernard Henry, MD Endowed Professor in Experimental Pathology, said facility represents a bold step forward in how Upstate delivers diagnostics and supports clinical excellence. “By consolidating services into a single, state-of-the-art environment, we’re not only improving efficiency and collaboration, but also creating a hub that will attract top-tier scientists, pathologists, and medical technologists to Central New York.”

The facility will feature advanced molecular diagnostics, which is the core of precision and personalized medicine and fuses it with advanced digital imaging and artificial intelligence.  Telepathology capabilities will expand access to the large region Upstate Pathology serves.

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.

The Upstate Pathology Institute will accommodate 178 of the pathology department’s current 228 employees, while 50 will remain at the downtown campus to support hospital-based lab needs. Additionally, the Fly Road location will see 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.

The new facility is aiding in the preparation of anticipated growth by Upstate’s pathology department as it plans for increases in analysis volume and regional service reach. Already, more than half of the lab’s services are provided to clients outside of Onondaga County. The facility’s strategic location near the intersection of Route 90 and the future Route 81 will further enhance delivery and logistics capabilities, including the innovative use of drone technology for specimen transport.

No patient care services will be offered at the building. Specimens will be delivered by medical couriers and drones, and analyzed on-site, with results sent directly to healthcare providers.

The spaces formerly occupied by the Pathology Department will be repurposed to expand other critical hospital services, including pharmacy, cancer treatment, interventional radiology, STAT lab, and surgical programs.

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, Liverpool, and Northeast Medical Center, Fayetteville.

LeChase is serving as construction manager for the project. Lead architect is SLAM, assisted by Dwyer Architectural, ME Engineering, PC, and Colliers.

Construction of the new laboratory is a key milestone in Upstate’s mission to advance diagnostic care, research, and education, while reinforcing its role as a major regional healthcare provider and employer.

Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said, “Our community is fortunate to have such a world class medical institution like Upstate Medical University located right here in Onondaga County. As a growing community, it’s important more than ever to support our medical infrastructure to ensure both our current and future residents have access to the best possible medical resources in the country. Thanks to the expansion of Upstate’s pathology lab, we are making good on that effort. Congratulations to everyone who helped make today possible.”

SOURCE: Upstate Medical University