The new Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center in the Iselin section of Woodbridge includes an ambulatory care center and the health care system’s new corporate headquarters. — All images courtesy: HMH
By Joshua Burd
A facility that’s meant to be a model of inclusive, convenient access to health care is also a playbook for the type of transit-oriented development that is critical to New Jersey’s future.
Just ask the many business leaders and public officials who were on hand Wednesday as Hackensack Meridian Health unveiled its new 240,000-square-foot medical and corporate office building in the Metropark section of Woodbridge. The $200 million project has not only centralized primary and specialty care for patients who rely on mass transit — in a location directly next to NJ Transit’s second-busiest train station — but it has transformed what was the longtime site of a one-dimensional surface parking lot.
“Today, we have evolved from a park-and-ride facility to a live, heal and connect-and-ride facility,” said Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit’s CEO. “That is the right framing for the 21st century. We can’t think of a better example at New Jersey Transit for what this agency and this state is capable of, by pointing to this very project.”
The facility’s mission and purpose are central to its appeal — and to the support it enjoys across all levels of government. Developed by DOR, a partnership of the Dinallo family, Onyx Equities and Russo Development, the Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center has everything from advanced imaging, urgent care, primary care and surgical specialties to retail pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation and phlebotomy, among many others that will be available at extended hours and under one roof near Route 27 and Wood Avenue South.
It also serves as the health care system’s new headquarters, allowing it to consolidate corporate employees previously spread across several office buildings.
“From a health care perspective, this is unprecedented,” said Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. “It’s historic because nowhere in the country has a health and wellness center like the one that’s behind me today … been established at a major transportation hub. It’s going to give patients and families and providers unprecedented access to care, and we’re really, really thrilled about that.”
Garrett noted that HMH is also saving roughly 100,000 square feet of corporate office space, and he credited Jose Lozano, HMH executive vice president and chief growth officer, as the visionary and driving force behind the project. So did Onyx Equities’ John Saraceno, who noted that some of the country’s best-known health care systems have broken ground on transit-oriented medical facilities. The fact that the Metropark building is open first — just 30 months after starting construction — is “the kind of thing I think we’ve expected from Hackensack over the last 30 years under Bob’s leadership, that we just do things differently and the hospital does things differently to get it done.”
The milestone also comes three and a half years after the DOR team was designated as the developer for the former parking lot, he said, calling it “quite a feat” by Terminal Construction Corp. when one considers the complexity of building at a train station. That required coordination across a host of public agencies and stakeholder groups, including NJ Transit, the state Economic Development Authority and the governor’s office, along with local officials led by Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac and Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ronald G. Rios. Not to mention those on the private side, including a JLL brokerage team led by Dan Loughlin and Ron Simoncini, as well as the Murphy Schiller & Wilkes LLP team of Chris Murphy and Brendan Pytka, who secured a 10-year, $114 million Aspire tax credit award for a project that will also include 235 apartments and retail space across the street.
Saraceno also praised NJ Transit for having “the capacity and the commitment to do something this big, even when I think there were a lot of people who thought it could not be done.” That provides a blueprint for its new push to monetize its vast real estate holdings.
“To those that say it can’t be done, it can be done,” said Saraceno, who co-founded and leads Onyx alongside Jonathan Schultz. “It is done unbelievably well, and this is a template for what’s to come for both Hackensack and the state of New Jersey.”
SLIDESHOW: Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center at Metropark
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who was on hand for the grand opening ceremony, was quick to echo those comments after highlighting the importance of providing “one-stop shopping that is so great for getting better results and better health care to people.”
“(We) have so much land that is already built upon but underutilized,” Sherrill said. “So repurposing it for the way we need to use it going forward is exactly how our state’s going to move forward in a way that’s going to provide a great quality of life to all of our residents, but also deliver on those key businesses, homes and jobs that I want to deliver.”
NJ Transit will play a leading role in that effort as it executes on its new LAND Plan, short for Leveraging our Assets for Non-farebox Dollars. Kolluri said as much Wednesday, noting that “here we are at the beginning stages of a journey” where the agency intends to monetize or build on 800 acres of property in the state. That’s projected to raise $60 million a year for NJ Transit, reducing the need for fare increases and generating billions in economic value for the state and for municipalities.
“It is symbolic that we are just a week removed from welcoming 300+ real estate executives and developers to an open house offering sites for development,” Kolluri said in separate written remarks. “Anchored by our Metropark Train Station, this project serves as a model for what’s possible under public-private partnerships that benefit everyone from the local through the state level.”
