Trenton, NJ --- New Jersey hospital and healthcare professionals said today that, even during an economic downturn, their planned construction and expansion projects will inject billions of dollars and thousands of jobs into New Jersey’s economy.
At a conference today sponsored by the New Jersey Alliance for Action in Trenton, the hospital leaders reported on projects ranging from a proposed university/hospital campus in Newark to a new cancer center in Hackensack and a multi-component health care complex in the Princeton-Plainsboro area.
The conference moderator, Robert M. Gerard, Chief Marketing Officer, Birdsall Services Group, reported that New Jersey hospitals generate about $15.8 billion into the state’s economy with a “ripple effect” that fuels a total of $38.5 billion of economic activity.
Dr. Robert Altenkirch, President of New Jersey Institute of Technology, described a project being planned between NJIT and Saint Michael’s Hospital to create a mixed-use campus to include residential and retail facilities for the area around both institutions in Newark. He said the estimated overall cost of the conceptual plan is $500 million.
Barry Rabner, President & CEO of Princeton HealthCare System, reported on components planned for a 156 acre site that will include a replacement hospital, 200-bed skilled nursing facility, senior services and assisted living, a pediatric sub-services building, a wellness center, education center and diagnostic building. Rabner said the site is bounded by Route 1, Scudder’s Mill Road and the Millstone River. He estimated that the cost associated with all the components, including the new hospital, would approach $1.35 billion and create nearly 4,000 construction jobs.
Robert Koller, Vice President, Corporate and Facilities Development at Hackensack University Medical Center, told 200 people in the audience at the Alliance conference that Hackensack recently broke ground for a new cancer center on four levels with 160,000 square feet of space that will have a connection to a 1,000-car parking garage that also will be built. He said the cancer center is scheduled for completion by mid-2010 and the total project cost is about $117 million.
Greg D’Adamo, Vice President of Support Services at Capital Health System of Trenton, reported on plans for a new health care/hospital project to be constructed in Hopewell at Interstate Route 95 North and Scotch Road.
