The Manhattan office of architects Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn designed the two-story, block-sized building with the intent of having its appearance announce the center’s presence to the city. The blood center employs 200 people.
   Larry Hannigan, chief financial officer for the New York Blood Center, says those people are already happy to be there.
   “They are delighted with the neighborhood. They can see the changes that are taking place.” He said employees are enjoying the close proximity to transportation and the shops and restaurants that line Vernon Boulevard between the center and the subway stop.
   It was the large space available in Long Island City that attracted Hannigan’s 40-year-old operation to locate a new center there. There are similar facilities in Long Island and Westchester, but Long Island City will have the biggest operations.
   Primarily, it will process and distribute transfused blood to medical facilities in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.
   On-site production laboratories, cell therapy and administration, learning and development conference space will also contribute to the new location’s mission — which is to increase community health by expanding the knowledge of blood-related diseases and treatment techniques.
   Hannigan added that the center will also house the blood center’s cord-blood laboratories, which take placenta cells and store them in liquid nitrogen for use in leukemia treatments.
   The facility sits on 75,000 square feet where an empty warehouse once stood. Mobile blood collection equipment, including a fleet of vans, will also be stored there.
   While blood donations will not be taken at the Long Island City building, the center does host blood drives a few times a year at the CitiCorp building and at other locations in Queens. Potential donors can look up dates and times at www.nybloodcenter.org.
   The center opened just two months ago and has a long term lease. “We’re going to be there for at least 20 years,” Hannigan said.