On the heels of the announcement that the University Medical Center and the Merwick Care Center would relocate to Plainsboro, Princeton HealthCare System, the hospital's parent entity, announced Tuesday that it would sell the Merwick lands and the Franklin Avenue parking lot to Princeton University and the hospital's Witherspoon campus to a Philadelphia-based developer.
Hospital representatives declined to comment on the purchase price, but were clear that monies acquired from the transactions would make a sizeable contribution toward building a new $350 million state-of-the-art facility.
The developer, Lubert-Adler Management, is likely to pursue plans that have already been put forth by the hospital in its endeavour to make the zoning of its main campus more attractive to likely suitors. Those designs, put forth by the hospital while consulting with J. Robert Hillier of Hillier Architects, have envisioned converting the site, included preserving the hospital's main towers, and envisioned converting the site into 280 residential units, a commercial area, and a recommended 50,000 square-feet of open space.
The Regional Planning Board is slated to take steps this Thursday, December 1, to move forward with changing the Princeton Community Master Plan to accommodate uses other than medical-related ones. Mr. Hillier, a minority owner of Town Topics, will likely continue his involvement in the re-design of the hospital site, according to Gerald Ronon, principal of Lubert Adler.
Lubert-Adler is currently working with Mr. Hillier on a project involving the conversion of a hotel in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square into residential units.
Mr. Ronon suggested that conceptual designs that have been shown at Planning Board hearings over the past several months offer a hint as to what could end up on the site. "Overall, we just expect to follow the Master Plan," he said. Concerning Merwick and the Franklin lot, the University is set to acquire those lands for faculty, staff, or student housing. Robert Durkee, vice president and secretary of the University, indicated that a portion of the sites could also be used to build affordable housing. The University has yet to submit a final plan to the Borough and Township as to how it will carry out its fair share of affordable housing under new state mandates, but the acquisition of these lands could expedite that process.
Mr. Durkee said, however, that it is early in the process and that no plan has yet been finalized.
"Give us some time to think about the best ways to use those properties," he said, adding that the YM/YWCA has also expressed interest in using part of the Merwick land.