Hospital move gets $5 million infusion

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces grant

By: David Campbell
   The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $5 million in support of the planned relocation of University Medical Center at Princeton, hospital corporate parent Princeton HealthCare System announced Monday.
   "We are very grateful for the generosity and timeliness of this important grant," said PHCS President and CEO Barry S. Rabner.
   The $5 million grant was awarded to Princeton HealthCare System Foundation, PHCS said. Charitable gifts from the PHCS foundation are applied toward pressing equipment and facilities needs at UMCP and other units of PHCS.
   Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Chief of Staff Calvin Bland said the grant is a very important one for the region.
   "The University Medical Center at Princeton is critical to the well being of the citizens of this region," Mr. Bland said. "We want to assist the Princeton HealthCare System in having a state-of-the-art facility."
   Mr. Bland said the grant would help fund construction of facilities at the new hospital campus. He said the grant is expected to be disbursed within the next 12 months.
   The cost of the planned hospital relocation is estimated to be approximately $350 million, including the cost of land, construction and technology, PHCS said.
   PHCS wants to build a 300-bed, state-of-the-art hospital campus on at least 50 acres within two to six miles of the current UMCP campus on Witherspoon Street.
   The Princeton facility needs to be replaced if PHCS is to continue to provide optimal health care to the region, Mr. Rabner has said.
   The funds needed for relocation are expected to be raised from various sources.
   Some funds will come from the sale of the UMCP facility on Witherspoon Street, PHCS’s Merwick Rehab Hospital & Nursing Care facility on Bayard Lane, and the Franklin Avenue lot across from the hospital.
   Other money will be raised through bonds, the health-care system’s capital campaign, and savings, PHCS spokeswoman Carol Norris said Monday.
   PHCS has not yet announced where it plans to build its new hospital campus, but has cited five possible locations that have been considered.
   Hospital officials have declined to identify two of the five sites.
   The other three are a parcel of Princeton University-owned land off College Road East in Plainsboro that once was part of the former Princeton Nurseries lands; a 71-acre cornfield property at Carnegie Center West in West Windsor, near the Canal Pointe condominiums; and the Bristol-Myers Squibb site across from Lenox corporate offices on Princeton Pike in Lawrence.
   Hospital officials have said each of the three disclosed sites has its unique benefits and drawbacks that PHCS must weigh, such as emergency-vehicle access, location within the region the hospital serves, and ownership versus leasing of the land.
   Meanwhile, the Princeton Regional Planning Board is expected soon to open a public hearing on two proposed amendments to the Princeton Community Master Plan that, if approved, would pave the way for new zoning for the UMCP site.
   The proposed Master Plan amendments would permit the hospital land to be redeveloped for primarily residential uses with limited office and retail.
   A public hearing on the proposed amendments is scheduled to begin at the board’s Dec. 1 meeting.