Page 16 - Vol.5 No. 7 July 2021
P. 16
14 JULY 2021
Amenities at The Randolph include a fitness center with a yoga studio, an exterior courtyard, multiple lounge areas, co-working spaces and multipurpose event rooms.
itself to creating apartments, Colgan said, despite some difficulties.
“The space was defined, and typically the way they would build out medical space is they’d have a center area and long hallways,” he said. “And they had shallow patient rooms, so it’s not an ideal depth
that we’re working with, (and) it presented a challenge to build units: Where you’d build them front to back, we actually built the units
left to right. So obviously we had to work within the confines of the footprint of the building.”
Fortunately, that also allowed
for open, airy common spaces throughout the property, including a fitness center with a yoga studio, an exterior courtyard, lounge areas and multipurpose event rooms. The property also boasts a community co-working space and other areas geared toward working from
home, which Colgan said could be expanded if there is a continued need.
In the meantime, he said The Randolph has “exceeded our expectations at how fast it leased up.” Rents at the collection of one- and two-bedroom homes begin at $1,700, providing a sweet spot in a market that is still being established.
CHA has now turned its attention to the adjacent medical arts complex, which it had hoped to market
and build concurrently with The Randolph, but proved to be “a
little bit more challenging from the vision of what the campus would look like.” It has already secured
a commitment for an ambulatory surgical center that will occupy some 16,000 square feet. The firm also hopes to bring an assisted living component to the property, while it stays focused on recruiting primary care and specialty care providers.
It’s doing so after more than a decade at the intersection of health care and real estate, having revitalized several former hospitals in New Jersey. But Colgan notes that the Muhlenberg project, its largest to date, is different in
some respects. For one thing, it
is CHA’s first project that involves
a residential component that will co-exist with repurposed medical space. That requires a deft hand with respect to designing the apartments and health care in a way that works for both user types and area residents.
He also pointed to the fact that Solaris Health had closed the acute care center nearly a decade before CHA took title to the site, meaning other health care users had already stepped in to fill the void in the neighborhood.
“By then, health care had already re-established itself,” Colgan said. “With most of our other projects, we get involved earlier in the process, maybe when a hospital is closing, so that what we can do is keep health care and keep jobs in the building.”
Looking ahead, he said the medical arts complex will feature a more extensive tribute to Muhlenberg’s history. That will include plaques and other items honoring key hospital officials, contributors
and others who helped sustain the facility during its time in operation, all of which will be prominently displayed as the space is built out.
“It was important to the community that a piece of this history be preserved and it was important to us as well,” Colgan said. “So we’ve taken a high level of care in trying to make sure that we preserve some of those artifacts and preserve the history behind Muhlenberg.” RE
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