By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
Ground was broken in June for the Manalapan Medical Arts Building, Franklin Lane. Upon the building’s completion, Marlboro Gastroenterology will move from its present location in Marlboro to the new facility.
MANALAPAN — The growth of a local medical practice has led the doctors who operate it to make plans to construct their own building.
Ground was broken on June 27 for the Manalapan Medical Arts Building, Franklin Lane. Upon the building’s completion, Marlboro Gastroenterology will move from its present location in Marlboro to the new facility.
"My partners and I have been working on this building for several years," said Dr. Brian C. Weiner, president of Marlboro Gastroenterology. "This building project is an evolution of the growth of our practice The people of the local community have been nice enough to honor us by allowing us to care for them."
Weiner, who is on staff at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, and the faculty of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, said the practice has grown over the years.
The practice was founded in 1991 and moved into the Kilmer Plaza, Union Hill Road, Marlboro, in 1993.
"I took on a second partner in 1994, Dr. Michael Tendler, and in 1997 a third partner, Dr. Barbara Cencora (joined the practice)," Weiner said. "Dr. Kenneth Glazier, a new associate, joined us in 2002, and we also have a nurse practitioner, Denise Di Pierri, who joined us in 2001."
The steady increase in the size of the practice led to the doctors’ decision to move to a larger facility.
"We found this site," Weiner said of the Franklin Lane property. "This site presented itself as a place to build a new modern office center. (Not only will) our offices be here, (but) we will have a new surgery center."
It is expected that the two-story building will have 10,000 square feet of space on each level. The ground floor will have a lobby, a 2,000-square-foot office for rent and a 6,500-square-foot surgical center. Endoscopic and diagnostic procedures will be conducted in the surgi-center.
Upstairs, there will be a 4,500-square-foot space with eight examining rooms and administrative offices.
"We will be having an infusion center," Weiner said. "We will be performing some of our more exotic procedures, like special procedures needed for the treatment of reflux [called] Stretta procedures; video capsule endoscopy, [which is] the video camera you can swallow; and several other procedures."
Weiner said there will be about 6,5000 square feet of space that will be available for others to rent, and negotiations are in progress with other local doctors who may wish to move into the building.
Ground was broken on June 27, and it is expected that construction will begin this month with a projected opening sometime in the first six months of 2004.