The Plainsboro Township Committee will introduce an $8 million bond ordinance to fund the development of the park on the site of the new University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, off Route 1.
However, the burden of funding the improvements to the park will not affect taxpayers because the bond ordinance is simply a requirement under the state’s redevelopment law. It will be paid back by the hospital after the project is completed, say officials.
According to Township Administrator Robert Sheehan, the redevelopment law requires the township to assist in financing the public improvement part of the redevelopment project, which is the park the hospital is providing to the community.
The bond ordinance covers the costs associated with demolition of buildings on the site that were used by the FMC Corporation as well as the grading and other landscaping work.
“The township taxpayers will not be burdened by this,” said Sheehan. “All of the principle costs and all of the interest will be paid back to the township by the hospital. We had to facilitate it to satisfy the requirements of the redevelopment law.”
Located on 50 acres of a 160-acre site off Route 1, the new hospital will consist of 636,000 square feet of interior space, including 237 single patient rooms, operating rooms, treatment areas, and an emergency department, double the size of the current one.
The new medical center will be located on a campus that will also 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.
According to officials, the tentative opening of the new Merwick Care & Rehabilitation Center on site of the hospital site is scheduled for mid to late-November.
