0e9a645a5b0936d8b2b11e37ac7c92b2.jpg

Ground broken for new medical center in Plainsboro

By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
   PLAINSBORO — A proud Barry S. Rabner, president of Princeton HealthCare System, jumped in the driver’s seat of a backhoe Friday afternoon into symbolically kick off construction of the new and newly renamed University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, a state-of-the-art hospital that will replace the current facility in downtown Princeton.
   ”We’re going to serve as a model for health care across the country,” Mr. Rabner said before the groundbreaking to a crowd of 250 that included hospital dignitaries and local officials. The hospital is anticipated to become ranked among the top 100 in the country, he said.
   Mr. Rabner enthusiastically dug into the turf of the new 160-acre site, located on Route 1 between Scudders Mill Road and Plainsboro Road.
   Scheduled to open in 2011, the 636,000-square-foot hospital will have 238 private rooms, state-of-the-art emergency services and operating suites. Plans also include room for an expansion of an additional 324,000 square feet and more than 160 private patient rooms.
   ”The bricks and mortar, and the technology, will be new, and it will be extraordinary,” said Edward R. Matthews, chairman of Princeton HealthCare System board of trustees.
   Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu said the new facility will be an economic boon for the area, bringing $1.2 billion annually to the region through related economic activities. An economic report by an outside consultant estimated that the completed campus will generate a net of $4.2 million annually for the township.
   The facility, costing an estimated $441.7 million, will be built about three miles away from the current facility on Witherspoon Street, which has been home to the University Medical Center at Princeton since 1919.
   The decision to build a new facility was made after analysis of the feasibility of renovating and expanding the current Princeton campus. Transportation will be arranged for Princeton patients without other means of transport.
   Under current plans, the Princeton facility will become a residential and retail complex after the new hospital is opened.
   Of a total fundraising goal of $115 million, 66 percent, or $76 million, has been raised, Mr. Matthews said. The remainder of the project will be funded through savings, earnings, loans and additional donations.
   While the current site occupies nine acres, the new medical center will sit on 50 acres and be part of a 160-acre campus to include a medical office building, a fitness and wellness center, a health education center, a senior residential community, a skilled nursing facility, pediatric services and a 32-acre public park along the Millstone River.
   A community health care center at the facility will also provide community health care services to uninsured and underinsured residents.