More than two years after Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center said it had bought a huge Upper East Side site from the city for a new, high-rise medical complex, the hospital and its partner Hunter College have yet to close on the deal.

City and hospital officials said Monday they hoped the $226 million purchase would be completed soon. But until the sale by the Economic Development Corp. is final, the institutions can’t start constructing the controversial, 1.2 million square-foot, 450-foot tall project on the FDR Drive between East 73d and 74th streets.

The pause has given hope to neighborhood groups that sued to block the project over its size, claiming it was illegally approved by the city. But the reprieve might be short-lived.

A judge threw their case out in July. The activists’ lawyer, Albert K. Butzel, told us he plans to appeal the ruling “in the next four to six weeks.”

The hospital has finished demolishing a former sanitation facility at the site — leaving a vast, windswept lot on the eastern half of the block bounded by the FDR Drive, York Avenue and 73rd to 74th streets.

No work has begun on a foundation, although a number of applications are pending with the city Department of Buildings.

The EDC now says the purchase was “never announced” previously but rather only that it would “take place.”

However, a Sept. 12, 2012, press release issued by the cancer hospital stated, “Memorial Sloan Kettering purchased the property from the [EDC] in collaboration with Hunter College.”

Under the plan described by Sloan Kettering President Craig B. Thompson and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a new outpatient cancer-care facility was to be housed in a 750,000 square-foot tower at the site, attached to a 336,000 square-foot Hunter College Science and Health Professions building.

Asked to clarify why the property has yet to change hands, Sloan Kettering communications VP Christine Hickey said in an e-mail: “The project had to go through ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure] and CEQR [environmental review], which as you know takes time.

“Also, remediation was extensive. We are looking forward to begin construction once we close on the property.”

EDC spokesperson Kate Blumm offered a somewhat different reason. She said the sale delay had been caused by “previous legal action” and it could be held up again by the appeal.

But she said EDC and the hospital have a signed sale contract not subject to revision. She added the project is a “win for the city” that would provide a “new opportunity” for future health-care professionals and patients, as well as create thousands of jobs.

There was no indication that Mayor de Blasio, now an Upper East Sider himself since he moved into Gracie Mansion, was having second thoughts about the project, which would block river and city views for many residents who live nearby.

“We look forward to closing in the near future,” Blumm said.

Brookfield 99 percent leased

Brookfield-owned One New York Plaza’s 2.5 million square feet are 99 percent leased, and availability just got even tighter.

WellCare Health Plans has signed a lease for 68,323 square feet, more than doubling the 32,564 square feet it will leave behind at 110 Fifth Ave. The asking rent was in the low $50s. The firm was awarded incentives by New York State.

Tampa Bay, Fla.-based WellCare, a holding company for a half-dozen subsidiaries, provides Medicare- and Medicaid-managed health-care plans for more than 2 million members.

WellCare was repped by CBRE’s Sacha Zarba, Freddie Fackelmayer and Zachary Price and DTZ’s David Johnson and Elizabeth Osborne. Brookfield was repped by CBRE’s Peter Turchin, Michael Rizzo and Ken Rapp.

TurnStyle whirling

Four new leases have been signed at TurnStyle, the 26,000 square-foot shopping/noshing corridor to open soon in the Columbus Circle subway station.

The latest tenants are Just Falafel and Nutbox, which will be in the complex’s “Grab and Go” section; MeltKraft in the Food Hall; and Beer Table to Go in the retail section.

The deals total 1,630 square feet, which isn’t a lot but it reflects momentum at TurnStyle, with 60 percent of space taken up.

TurnStyle developer Susan Fine, chief executive of Oases RE, said asking rents run between $300 and $425 a square foot. Lansco’s Robin Abrams is leasing agent.