The Plainsboro Planning Board paved the way for the next phase of development at the site of Princeton Healthcare System’s new hospital on the former FMC site by giving preliminary and final site plan approval to the site’s skilled nursing facility.##M:[more]##
The entire facility will cover about 107,”000 square feet in floor area and sit two stories high. The facility will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week once opened, creating jobs for about 150 employees. It will contain 200 beds and a dialysis center, said Les Varga, the township’s planning and zoning director.
The skilled nursing facility, which will be owned and operated by Millstone Riverview, will lie to the south side of Plainsboro Road and east of the hospital on a six-acre parcel.
The skilled nursing facility will function as both a temporary and long-term rehabilitation and care facility. “If there is someone in your family who needs long-term, full-time care, they will provide that,” said Varga. A patient might go there “because you have a two-story house, and you can’t climb stairs for a couple of weeks. You can go there and get rehabilitation, physical therapy and still have all the other medical facilities close by. It’s the next generation of rehabilitation care facilities.”
The facility will be bordered on the west and south by the public park that the municipality will be receiving from the hospital.
Planning Board members did not have any major concerns with the site plan for the skilled nursing facility, other than making sure the hospital meets the conditions required of it, including issues like ensuring the drainage works and providing adequate parking. Varga said the skilled nursing facility will also be applying for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Design standards) certification, and will design the building using as many natural light and conservation methods as possible.
The facility is just one portion of the redevelopment project for the 160-acre redevelopment site. In July the board granted Princeton Healthcare unanimous preliminary and final subdivision and preliminary and final site plan approval just for the hospital building itself, which is scheduled to be completed by 2011, although the redevelopment agreement approved in May sets the completion date for the hospital component at December 31, 2013. The whole project consists of the medical center component, which includes a hospital/medical office portion, a continuing care retirement facility, a general office research center, the skilled nursing facility, and the public park.
Varga says that because of the nature of construction of the skilled nursing facility, it is expected to be completed and opened prior to the hospital. “It’s going to take a lot of work to get that done,” he says. “The skilled nursing facility has a much smaller footprint. Therefore, the construction will be able to be completed much faster.”
The next portion of the site to come before township officials will most likely be the continuing care retirement community, which lies immediately to the east of the hospital site and across Plainsboro Road from the skilled nursing facility. That facility would contain in excess of 450 dwelling units, but “right now, there has only been very preliminary talks about the development of that property,” says Varga. “That would be the next site plan application to come before the planning board.”
As for the skilled nursing facility, once the hospital has met the conditions listed in the board’s approval, Plainsboro staff will go through what has been submitted and issue a compliance report, which would clear the way for the hospital to apply for building permits for construction.
Meanwhile, demolition is underway at the former FMC site to make way for the hospital. According to Barry Rabner, president and CEO of Princeton Healthcare System, demolition will continue through the end of September. “We expect that things will go according to schedule and that by late fall, we will have our building permits,” he said. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Friday, October 3.
The architectural work for the hospital is nearing completion, and hospital officials have begun bidding various components of the construction project and are in the process of selecting subcontractors, he said.
By the summer of 2011, Rabner expects the patient tower to be open, as well as the diagnostic and treatment center, which includes an imaging center, emergency services, cardiac services, and the operating suites. “We expect to also be opening a medical office building at the same time,” Rabner added. “Temporary roads and temporary utilities are currently being placed on site.”
The current hospital will remain in operation until the move into the new hospital, and officials will continue to make upgrades and acquire capital while in the current facility, he says. The current facility has been sold, however, to Lubert-Adler, a real estate private equity firm based in Philadelphia, and the hospital has secured zoning approval to convert the site into condominiums and modest retail.
“We’ve also sold our current Merwick skilled nursing facility site, and the Franklin surface parking lot here in Princeton to Princeton University,” he said. “Those things continue to operate until the new facility is in operation.”
— Cara Latham
