Page 17 - RE-NJ

CBRE, senior citizens are expected
to make up about 20 percent of
U.S. residents by 2030, when they’ll
account for nearly $2 trillion in total
outpatient health care spending.
New Jersey hospital systems are no
exception, from Hackensack Meridian
Health’s new $200 million ambulatory
care center in Woodbridge to Cooper
University Health Care’s $3 billion
expansion of its campus in Camden.
The Morris Cancer Center, for its
part, follows a project spearheaded
by Paladino’s team at New Brunswick
Development Corp., anchoring a
sweeping real estate program that has
helped RWJBarnabas and the Rutgers
Cancer Institute attract more than 100
specialists and subspecialists in recent
years.
Mark Manigan, RWJBarnabas’
CEO and president, said as much
in mid-May at the cancer center’s
ribbon-cutting ceremony, adding
that it was part of a “fl ywheel of
activity” envisioned by the health care
system’s leaders. He also pointed to
the newly opened, 229,000-square-
foot ambulatory care facility nearby,
which provides Robert Wood Johnson
University Hospital with critical
expansion space,
plus upgrades
to the main
campus, echoing
comments he
made in late
2023 during a
panel discussion
hosted by Real
Mark Manigan
Estate NJ.
“This is the fl ywheel we’re trying to
create, where we’re bringing together
real estate development that is sexy
and appealing to the clinicians you
want to have working at your clinics,
training your doctors, innovating and
inventing,” Manigan said during the
2023 event. “When they come into
town and they see what we’re doing,
the investments we’re making and
the success we’ve had in growing and
attracting talent, that’s what we’re
doing here.”
The Morris Cancer Center will check
all those boxes with features such as
96 inpatient beds, 88 infusion bays,
80 exam rooms and a Jersey Shore-
themed clinical space for pediatric
patients, along with a dedicated fl oor
for surgical and procedure rooms,
advanced radiation oncology and
diagnostics, an on-site pharmacy and
modern laboratories to support 10
independent research teams. All of it
in a pavilion that is bright, open and
designed with an aesthetic that’s meant
to be calm and comforting, seemingly
blending health care and hospitality
while ensuring patients don’t have to
leave New Jersey for top-notch care.
“So many doctors have told me this —
your state of mind is so important to
how you handle this terrible disease
and the treatment,” Morris said. “Some
people decide they want to give up and
they say, I don’t want to go through
this any longer. And when their mind
decides, their body goes with them.
“We’ve seen it so many times. And
to have a facility like this … it’s just
a different feeling — and that’s what
people deserve. They deserve that
sense of ‘Wow, I’m going to be OK,’
rather than ‘I’m coming into this
place that I may never get out of,’ so I
believe that’s really important.”
RWJBarnabas’ construction
pipeline also includes the $225
million Melchiorre Cancer Center at
Site Excavation
Water Management
& Distribution
Utilities Asphalt Paving
Erosion Control &
Retaining Walls Concrete
™ 15
Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
in Livingston, which will open this
fall and serve as the northern hub
for the health system and Rutgers
Cancer Institute’s statewide oncology
services. Also under construction is
the Specialty and Cancer Care Center
at the $200 million Vogel Medical
Campus in Tinton Falls, which is
slated to open in 2026.
Libutti, the Rutgers Cancer Institute
director, noted that each facility is
meant to provide patients and their
families with
services and
support closer
to their homes.
“Our investment
in campuses that
are strategically
positioned
throughout the
Steven Libutti
RWJBH system
is unprecedented and unparalleled,”
Libutti said, according to a blog
post by the hospital system. “We’re
committed to addressing cancer
across the spectrum and easing the
burdens for patients.” RE