Princeton Healthcare System’s plans for the new hospital on the 160-acre former FMC site received unanimous preliminary and final subdivision approval from the Plainsboro Planning Board on July 7.##M:[more]##
In addition, the board also granted preliminary and final site plan approval just for the hospital building itself.
Hospital officials will now have to work to meet all of the conditions of the approval. Township planning officials will then review those plans and sign off on them. Hospital officials will also have to get the necessary approvals from other state and county agencies. Then hospital officials can submit applications for building permits.
Les Varga, the township’s planning and zoning director, said hospital officials, in the meantime, will do some earth work to prepare for the hospital, and have been coming in for demolition permits for some of the existing FMC buildings.
In May, the Plainsboro Township Committee approved an agreement that designates the hospital as the redeveloper of the site and sets the completion date for the hospital component at December 31, 2013, although hospital officials are saying the hospital will be completed by 2011. The project consists of a medical center component, which includes a hospital/medical office portion, a continuing care retirement facility, a general officer research center, a skilled nursing facility, and a public park to be built by the hospital.
The hospital site itself lies on 48 acres, and the other portions of the site, including the continuing care retirement community and the research area, are expected to be built by other developers.
Upon opening, the $441.7 million hospital will consist of approximately 636,”000 square feet, 243 private patient rooms, state-of-the-art emergency services, operating suites and a variety of ambulatory services and laboratories. Subsequent development would provide an additional 324,”000 square feet to be used for more than 100 additional private patient rooms and expanded hospital services and physician offices.
— Cara Latham
