Work Begins on $400M, 636,000-SF Hospital

PLAINSBORO, NJ-Work on the $442 million hospital planned for the site at Plainsboro Road and Route 1 here has begun as workers started demolishing the former FMC buildings on the property. The demolition of five buildings at the site is expected to last until September, with grading and clearing of the site starting in October.

The 636,000-sf Princeton HealthCare hospital will feature 243 private patient rooms as well as operating suites, laboratories and ambulatory services. The hospital will be the centerpiece of a 159-acre health campus, which will include a 32-acre public park along the Millstone River, senior residential community, skilled nursing facility, medical office building and health and fitness center. The hospital, designed jointly by New York City-based HOK and the Princeton office of RMJM Hillier, will replace the University Medical Center at Princeton hospital located three miles away.

“We welcome the hospital as a first-rate healthcare provider to our community,” says Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu in a Princeton HealthCare System release. “The hospital and the accompanying health campus development will have very significant economic and community-building advantages for Plainsboro and the entire region.”

Site plan approval was given by the Plainsboro Township Planning Board in July, following the township’s rezoning of the site, which took place in January 2008. Construction is expected to begin in May 2009, with an anticipated completion date of 2011.

Calls to Princeton HealthCare seeking further information and comment were not returned as of press time.