Proposed plans for Memorial Sloan- Kettering’s new cancer treatment center in Middletown include a redesign of the parking area and additions to the 285,000-squarefoot former office building on Red Hill Road. KEITH HEUMILLER MIDDLETOWN — Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is on its way to Middletown.
After receiving preliminary and final major site plan approval from the township Planning Board last month to set up a new 304,000-square-foot outpatient treatment facility and data center, the private cancer treatment center is a couple of formalities away from breaking ground in Monmouth County.
According to Township Attorney Brian Nelson, MSKCC now only has to ratify a tax agreement with the township before it can move ahead with plans to build on the 40-acre property near the Garden State Parkway at 480 Red Hill Road.
“We are working out a couple of final issues with the county assessor’s office, and we expect to have it completed in the next week,” he said during the Township Committee’s Feb. 4 meeting.
“Probably by the next meeting we should have that agreement ready to go.”
The committee will meet next on Feb. 18.
Under the tax agreement, MSKCC, a nonprofit organization, will pay the township a fixed yearly percentage of the property’s existing valuation in lieu of regular property taxes.
Throughout its 10-year term, the agreement also allows for yearly adjustments tied to the municipal tax levy, he said, meaning that if the township’s tax rate rises by 1 per cent,
MSKCC’s agreement with the town would increase by the same amount, capping at 3 percent in any year.
“They are fully exempt; they don’t have to pay anything if they don’t want. So it’s nice that they are willing to pay something,” Nelson said, following the Feb. 4 meeting.
“But the municipal costs for the property aren’t excessive compared to other kinds of development, and there will be clearly some other economic benefits to the town that come along with this facility.”
During the Jan. 16 Planning Board hearing for MSKCC’s development application, Victor Ribaudo, executive director of the company’s Regional Care Network, explained some of the benefits the new facility will bring to Middletown and surrounding areas.
“The services would include radiation therapy, chemotherapy and ambulatory surgery, which is provided during the daytime, not overnight,” Ribaudo said, adding that the facility would only operate Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“There would be diagnostic services, radiology services like PET scan, CAT scan, MRI, ultrasound, and supportive services such as social work, nutrition counseling and also outpatient surgery consults. Patients going into Manhattan for inpatient care, for example, can have their presurgery visit here and schedule follow-up visits as well.”
The Red Hill Road property, which currently is the site of a vacant three-story, 285,000-square-foot office building last used by Lucent nearly a decade ago, actually provides more space than MSKCC would need for a treatment center, Ribaudo said. The company plans to use the extra room to create a 50,000-square-foot data center on-site, which would house all of its research, records and other digital information under one roof.
That data center, Ribaudo said, will bring approximately 100 high-paying jobs to the township, with 180 more coming from the treatment center.
In addition to creating employment, Nelson said, the facility will also bring significant commercial traffic into Middletown.
Local vendors, suppliers, contractors, retail establishments, eateries and other businesses will all benefit from having such a care center in their backyard, he said.
“Aside from the actual employees — who will be going out to lunch and utilizing other services here in the area — you’re going to have thousands of people coming from all over the region to receive outpatient care there,” he said.
“Frankly, for anybody who has had to go through chemotherapy or anything like that, not having to drive to Basking Ridge or Manhattan will save them a major trip and major headache.”
According to Christopher Hager, the engineer for MSKCC’s Planning Board application, the medical center plans to add an additional 19,000 square feet to the property’s existing 285,000-square-foot building, and completely redesign the interior space and some portions of the façade and parking lot to accommodate the new usage.
The additions will include an 8,000- square-foot linear accelerator, used for radiation and oncology services, mechanical space, and a new atrium and covered walkway for patient drop-off.
An additional 100,000 square feet will be left for other purposes, Ribaudo said.
“What we have in mind is to bank that for future office-type functions, most of that would likely be for Sloan-Kettering purposes,” he said. “We may find an opportunity to rent space to physicians that would be compatible with what we are doing, but that’s part of the future.”
The site would not provide overnight or pediatrics services, Ribaudo said, but would provide a significant benefit to area patients.
The Planning Board granted MSKCC a number of design waivers for the property without objection, including requirements for sidewalks and lighting. In the end, the board and the governing body were unhappy with how long it may take the facility to open.
“Could we do this maybe next week?” joked board member Carl Rathjen, after the board unanimously approved the application.
Ribaudo estimated that the facility would be fully operational by 2016.