UMCP to leave Witherspoon Street site

The University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP) will move from its current Witherspoon Street site within the next five years, following a unanimous vote by the trustees that oversee the hospital.

The trustees of the Princeton HealthCare System (PCHS), which owns and runs UMCP, made the decision Jan. 24 after two and a half years of deliberation.

UMCP currently sits half a mile from campus and is the primary site for emergency care for the University.

The new site will be located within two to six miles of the current location and will most likely be on Route 1, said PCHS president and CEO Barry Rabner.

The hospital is considering 14 new sites, all of which are adjacent to University-owned land and some of which are even closer than the UMCP's current location, Rabner said.

"It's a real plus for us to be so close to the University," he said.

University Chief Medical Officer Daniel Silverman said that the move would likely have little effect on the speed and quality of emergency treatment.

"Since most of our students are transported to the hospital now by either Public Safety or the Princeton Rescue Squad, we don't think it will have that much impact," he said.

Silverman added that University Health Services hopes to obtain a decommissioned Public Safety vehicle to shuttle students between the University and the new hospital campus.

The University has indicated it may buy the Witherspoon lot for use as faculty or graduate student housing, according to The Princeton Packet, and has also expressed interest in the hospital's property on Bayard Lane near Paul Robeson Place — currently home to Merwick Rehab Hospital and Nursing Care.

Hospital executives said in a statement that the space constraints of the current site have affected their ability to serve the rapidly growing population of central New Jersey.

The trustees recommended that the new site be at least 50 acres — more than four times the size of the current 12-acre lot — to allow for increased parking and additional space for medical services. A Route 1 location is expected to provide easier patient access.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

A task force formed to look into the implications of the hospital move recommended that the old site be converted into housing for senior citizens, University employees or low-income residents.

The move comes after extensive consultation with those who will be directly affected, including area residents and the University.

PCHS spoke with the University to decide "whether a move would make sense," Rabner said.

"We plan to get input from the University as we plan the new hospital's construction," he said. "We want to make sure our facilities are sufficient and appropriate for [the University]."

The economic implications of the hospital's move are still unclear. Roughly 500,000 patients come to Princeton each year for the hospital and doctors' office visits and spend an average of $12 each in downtown Princeton, Borough mayor Joseph O'Neill said.

In total, the Mercer County tourism office estimated, commercial revenue losses would total at least $6 million annually for the downtown area.

O'Neill is also concerned about the potential effects on office real estate prices. He noted that Princeton has about 400 doctors — three times the number a town of its size would have without a hospital.

But the commercial losses may be counterbalanced by the tax revenues generated by new development on the Witherspoon site, O'Neill said, adding that it is impossible to predict the net effect on the town because the fate of the site is uncertain.

PHCS estimated that construction costs for the hospital's new campus will add up to $250 million. That figure does not include the cost of land, however, which remains unknown.

"There are a few sites where there is commercial development on the land," Rabner said. "But most of the sites which we'd be building on are green fields."

Proceeds from the sale of the Witherspoon Street lot will be used for construction of the new hospital, Rabner said.

The trustees' vote was the culmination of meetings with community members, patients and hospital staff, as well as a survey of thousands of local residents.

Before approving the move, trustees considered the feasibility of expanding its Witherspoon Street campus. Ultimately, they decided "that building a new facility is more cost-effective and will better serve the community over the long term than expanding and renovating the hospital's landlocked location," according to the PCHS statement.