The basics:
- NJEDA board approves up to $400M in Aspire tax credits to MMC
- Project relocates Monmouth Medical Center from Long Branch to Tinton Falls
- New eight-story hospital will include 252 acute care beds
- Construction expected to begin in March, last about 84 months
RWJBarnabas Health‘s Monmouth Medical Center relocation project took another major step forward. On Jan. 15, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority board approved up to $400 million in Aspire tax credits for the work.
NJBIZ has reported extensively on the project, which will relocate the acute care hospital from Long Branch to Tinton Falls at the Vogel Medical Campus. On Jan. 8, the New Jersey Department of Health gave the final stamp of approval for the project, clearing the new hospital’s Certificate of Need application.
That clearance came along with several conditions aimed at supporting the Long Branch site and the surrounding community. The current MMC location will maintain an emergency department among other services.
The Tinton Falls project features an eight-story, 780,000-square-foot-hospital with 252 acute care beds. It will also introduce surface parking areas, internal roadways, pedestrian walkways, infrastructure improvements and more. RWJBarnabas Health, which operates Monmouth Medical Center, will serve as lead developer of the new facility.
$1.5B project
The total development cost of the project is about $1.49 billion. Construction is expected to begin in March and take nearly 84 months to complete.
Under a new provision of the Aspire program that took effect in August, the project meets criteria to be deemed a transformative project. As a result, it is eligible for tax credits up to $400 million or 50% of eligible costs. The health care center qualifies as a project of special economic importance due to its direct associations.
“The Applicant has submitted a certification that the Project is directly associated with both an academic medical and research institution and a National Cancer Institute–Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center,” the NJEDA wrote in its notes to the board about the project. “The certification confirms that Rutgers Cancer Institute is the entity responsible for the oncology service line at Monmouth Medical Center, including at the cancer center at the Vogel Medical Campus, and that the cancer programs operate within an integrated clinical, academic, and research framework between Rutgers University and RWJBarnabas Health.
“Rutgers Cancer Institute, the State’s only National Cancer Institute–designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, serves as the academic and research anchor for oncology across the RWJBarnabas Health system.”
‘Not the last’
The NJEDA also approved two six-month extensions – beyond the five years allowed by statute – giving developers the total 84 months to complete construction.
“This is the first use of a recent provision change in the Aspire legislation that happened last summer that designates this type of a health care facility as a facility of special economic importance,” said Mary Maples, acting CEO of the NJEDA, just before the vote. “So, it is the first, but not the last, certainly, of projects of this type.”
Please stay tuned for further reaction on this major news for this project.
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