The University Medical Center at Princeton has moved even closer to seeing its new hospital off Route 1 in Plainsboro take shape — literally.##M:[more]##
Construction work on the hospital — which will be known as the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro — began on February 25, after hospital officials got the go-ahead from Plainsboro Township officials.
The hospital, which will serve as a replacement of the current facility in downtown Princeton, is being built on a 160-acre tract off Route 1, between Scudders Mill Road and the Millstone River, formerly owned by FMC Corporation.
Hospital officials also announced the names of the developers for the other portions of the campus. The prospective developer of the medical office building is DASCO Companies, a full service medical real estate firm, hospital officials announced in a press release. DASCO has conducted a market survey among area physicians who indicated strong interest in the space, they said.
The new nursing and rehabilitation center, a replacement for Merwick Care Center, the hospital’s skilled nursing facility on Bayard Lane in Princeton, is scheduled to open its doors by the end of 2010. Merwick in Princeton will continue to be fully operational until the new Plainsboro facility is operational. The developer is Windsor Healthcare LLC, which received site plan approval from the Plainsboro Township Planning Board in January. The 105,”000-square foot facility will hold 200 beds and will overlook the Millstone River and the park.
It will be owned and operated by Windsor, whose principals, Michael and Hyman Jacobs, are experienced owner/operators of skilled nursing facilities in New Jersey and New York. Princeton HealthCare System will retain minority ownership in the nursing facility. The new Merwick Care Center will be one of a handful of nursing and rehabilitation centers in the United States with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification.
The facility will also feature carbon abatement and energy conservation measures. In partnership with NRG Energy, a Princeton-based energy provider with a global portfolio, UMCP is exploring the feasibility of the development of a co-generation power plant, or a combined heat and power generation facility, that when compared to conventional power generation can cut energy use by as much as 35 percent.
