A long process led to selection of FMC site
By: David Campbell
Three years of intensive planning, negotiation and outreach to literally thousands of community leaders, residents and doctors led up to Princeton HealthCare System’s decision Monday night to build its new hospital campus on the FMC Corp. site in Plainsboro to replace PHCS’s hospital in Princeton.
This week, officials gave a glimpse of the significant planning and outstanding challenges that remain before the new facility opens its doors in 2010.
On Monday night, PHCS trustees approved a plan to buy FMC’s 160-acre property, which straddles Plainsboro Road, and use about one-third of it a portion with frontage along northbound Route 1 for a new 269-bed hospital, medical offices and replacement facilities for PHCS’s Merwick Rehab Hospital & Nursing Care facility.
Also, the trustees authorized the sale of its current University Medical Center at Princeton campus on Witherspoon Street to Philadelphia developer Lubert-Adler Management Inc., and the sale of the Merwick site and PHCS’s Franklin Avenue parking lot adjacent to UMCP to Princeton University.
PHCS trustee board Chairman Jack Chamberlin said at a news conference Tuesday that the goal is to break ground in Plainsboro in 2007 and welcome its first patients to the new campus in 2010.
Hospital officials have said the current 12-acre campus in Princeton needs to be replaced, and that the new campus will allow PHCS to continue to offer optimal medical services, provide room for growth, and better highway access to the population it serves.
On Tuesday, PHCS President and CEO Barry Rabner said the FMC site has about 2 million square feet of development capacity, including about 600,000 square feet of office and research space.
He said PHCS new campus will require about 1.2 million square feet of space over time, and that two of the 14 existing FMC buildings will be demolished for development of the new campus to begin, with most of the others expected to be removed eventually.
PHCS plans to sell off or conserve the balance of the land, and FMC will continue to operate on the site as a tenant. PHCS will lease the land to FMC, and FMC will own the buildings it continues to occupy, Mr. Rabner said.
FMC spokesman James Fitzwater said Tuesday that the land transaction would not result in staff reductions in Plainsboro from current levels. He said that with 280 employees on 160 acres, the land is underutilized.
"We’re in the chemical-research business, not the real-estate business," he said.
PHCS now needs the approval of state health officials and planners in Plainsboro to build the new campus. On Thursday, PHCS filed it application for a certificate of need with the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
Mr. Rabner said Tuesday that it is expected to take about eight months for the state to process and grant the certificate, and said, "We’re very optimistic that it will be approved."
The new hospital will also come under scrutiny from planning officials in Plainsboro, because the FMC land is zoned for research and office uses and zoning would have to be changed to permit a hospital there.
Mr. Chamberlin said PHCS also intends to meet with residents and patients in Plainsboro and the region to share views and information. "We believe Plainsboro is a good fit for the hospital we will reach out to the Plainsboro community to make sure the hospital is a good fit for Plainsboro," he said.
Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu said the community would like to see stream corridor areas south of Plainsboro Road preserved, and said an economic analysis is needed to better understand what PHCS envisions for the remaining FMC lands it plans to sell and what Plainsboro officials would be asked to approve.
Plainsboro Township Administrator Robert Sheehan said traffic will be an important focus in planning for the hospital.
Mr. Sheehan said improvements at Harrison Street and Route 1 that have been contemplated by the state will become "even more important" with the hospital relocation.
When asked, Mayor Cantu said it is too soon in the planning process to say how what impact the hospital’s relocation will have on property taxes in Plainsboro.
Hospitals are tax-exempt, but medical offices are not. Similarly, the buildings owned and occupied by FMC will be taxable though Mayor Cantu noted it is not clear what the company’s long-term plans are at the site as would be portions of the site not designated for hospital use. The undeveloped parcels held by PHCS would generate property-tax revenues; they could also raise tax revenues for the municipality if PHCS sold or leased portions for development.
The FMC site, which is comprised of nine separate parcels, generated $1.2 million in property taxes this year, according to the tax office in Plainsboro. The site’s total assessed value is $60.2 million, the tax office said.
Officials declined to disclose how much PHCS will pay to acquire the land.
Princeton, meanwhile, has long been accustomed to the hospital being locally accessible. Will access across Route 1 to the new campus on highway’s northbound side pose problems for residents there? Maybe, Mr. Rabner said, but 70 percent of PHCS’s patient population people living to the north and east of the current 308-bed hospital in Princeton will enjoy improved highway access.
Princeton Regional Planning Board member and former Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed said Tuesday that he is optimistic about getting there across Route 1 from Princeton. He said he believes that at least some of the Penns Neck area roadway improvements now in the state transportation planning pipeline will be in place by the time the hospital opens in 2010.
Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand said she had thought the new hospital might have gone up on the west rather than the east side of Route 1. But, like Mr. Reed, she said roadway improvements along Route 1 should make access to the new hospital fairly easy for Princeton.
"It’s not as nice as having them in town," she noted. "I’m going to miss them."
Princeton Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman said she is pleased the new campus will be "in striking distance" of Princeton, but conceded that access across Route 1 could prove problematic, and said that traffic congestion could slow trips by Princeton residents who need to get to the hospital.
But the borough mayor noted that Princeton constitutes a relatively smaller part of PHCS’s patient base, and said, "We are spoiled right here in Princeton with just being able to run to the hospital and be there in a matter of minutes."
Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad Chief Greg Paulson said the squad’s call volume has increased 25 percent in the past five years. Having the hospital in town has helped squad crews deal with the increase, he said, because crews have been able to deliver patients to the emergency department relatively quickly and then head right back out to respond to the next call.
Chief Paulson said the new hospital in Plainsboro would result in longer transports and thus reduce crews’ ability to handle back-to-back calls. He said the new location could also prompt greater reliance on ambulance transport by some Princeton residents who otherwise would have driven themselves to the hospital. He said crossing Route 1 could pose a challenge without roadway improvements of some kind.
But Chief Paulson said the tradeoff is better medical services, facilities and technology for patients. "We very much understand the Medical Center’s need to expand and modernize," he said.
Montgomery Township EMS Capt. Robert Giguere said the Route 1 crossing could pose problems, particularly during busier daytime rush hours. He said it could prompt the Montgomery squad to rely more heavily on Somerset Medical Center.
Princeton Borough Council member Roger Martindell cited two concerns about the hospital’s move to Plainsboro.
One has to do with the quality of emergency services that will be available to Princeton residents and how they will measure up to existing services. He expressed similar concern about charity-care services for Princeton residents, notably those from the John-Witherspoon neighborhood.
"How will they get that care if they have to get to Plainsboro?" Mr. Martindell asked. He said many have no car or driver’s license.
Staff Writers Emily Craighead and Jake Uitti contributed to this article.