Page 18 - Vol.5 No. 7 July 2021

16 JULY 2021
HEART OF THE CITY
New Brunswick’s new $750 million cancer center will build on city’s foundation of health care projects
Efforts to grow New Brunswick’s health care industry go back nearly 30 years and, as Mayor
Jim Cahill notes, have “run a parallel course” with the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
He points to the opening in 1993 of the institute’s first location, in a small office on George Street. Three years later, the facility moved to a new 75,000-square-foot space on Little Albany Street, only to expand further in 2004 by more than 140,000 square feet.
“During this time, New Brunswick also became home to some of our state and nation’s leading health care facilities and medical research and
development organizations,” Cahill said, from the Child Health Institute of New Jersey to renowned academic facilities. That came alongside
the growth of two highly ranked hospitals, fueling the city’s emergence as a hub for health care.
That journey has taken another major step forward in the form of a new 12-story, 510,000-square-foot cancer hospital that will become part of the New Brunswick skyline as soon as 2024. Construction is now underway on the $750 million facility, which RWJBarnabas Health and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey are building in partnership the New Brunswick Development Corp., or
Devco, after a recent groundbreaking in the heart of the city’s health care district.
“To be distinguished as a center of medicine, you need the winning combination of the best in patient care, research, human talent and academic excellence,” Cahill told
a large crowd during the ceremony
in late June. “Home to nationally recognized hospitals, global biotechnology and pharmaceutical corporations, internationally recognized medical research facilities and New Jersey’s premier academic medical center, New Brunswick checks all the boxes and has earned its reputation as the region’s health
care city.
“The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey is already one of the examples of New Brunswick’s prominence
in health care, and now this new cancer pavilion will be our largest redevelopment project undertaken to date.”
Named the Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, a nod to the philanthropy of one of the state’s prominent real estate families,
the new building on Somerset
Street will rise across from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the existing cancer institute. Stakeholders say it will be a first-of- its-kind facility in New Jersey, serving as a freestanding hub for treatment, patient services and research under one roof — in a state in which there are 53,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed and 16,000 cancer deaths each year.
“It is important that research and patient care happen in the same building,” Christopher Paladino, Devco’s president, said in an interview last year. “It’s important that physicians
By Joshua Burd
and researchers
see patients
coming and
going to know
what their work
is about, but it’s
also important
for patients and
their families to
see that there’s research going on in their building, giving people hope that they’ll be part of the next clinical trial or they’ll benefit from the next level of discovery.”
Paladino also noted during the recent groundbreaking that the project will be “one of the important building blocks as we envision New Jersey’s first fully integrated academic medical center.” That is taking shape after last year’s announcement that
Construction is underway on the 12-story, 510,000-square-foot Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center in New Brunswick, with completion slated for 2024. RWJBarnabas Health and the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey are building the $750 million facility in partnership with the New Brunswick Development Corp.
Christopher Paladino
Courtesy: RWJBarnabas/Rutgers Cancer Institute