15-Story Building Added To New Brunswick Hospital Campus

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — RWJBarnabas says it is nearing completion of a new 15-story medical building it is adding to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital campus in New Brunswick.

This is a 229,000-square-foot building on the hospital campus on Somerset Street.

Construction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2023, and it will then open to the public.

This latest addition to the New Brunswick city skyline is the first piece of a much bigger plan heavily pushed by Gov. Phil Murphy to build a science, tech and research hub in the heart of New Brunswick.

The Democratic governor's plan is to house Princeton University, Rutgers, Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJ Barnabas together under one roof in the heart of New Brunswick. It will be nicknamed "The Hub."

What's also coming to that same area is the Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, the largest free-standing cancer treatment center in the state. Construction on the cancer center started last year.

Murphy's goal is to have the two universities (Princeton and Rutgers) and the state's two biggest rival healthcare systems (RWJ Barnabas and Hackensack) operate out of one massive, ten-story, 210,000-square-foot building at Albany and Somerset streets, directly across the street from the NJ Transit/Amtrak station.

The plan is to turn New Brunswick into a tech and scientific research hub of the East Coast. Think of it as New Jersey's answer to Google's Mountain View campus or Silicon Valley: Murphy wants to turn New Brunswick into a place where products like the next iPhone, or a new life-saving cancer treatment will be invented.

Should it be completed according to plan, "The Hub" will be one of the most enduring legacies of the Murphy administration. It is scheduled to open in 2024 and Israel's Tel Aviv University has already signed on as one of the first tenants.

The final piece of steel will be placed on the new hospital building next Tuesday, in a ceremonial beam signing and topping-off ceremony to be held with Rutgers and New Brunswick dignitaries.

Financing to build it was provided by AST, a New Jersey-based boutique real estate development and financing company.

At next Tuesday's topping-off ceremony, New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill will speak, as will Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital president and CEO Bill Arnold, joined by Jack Morris, chairman of the board at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. AST founder and president Robert D’Anton will also speak.

Keep reading: Princeton, Rutgers, RWJ Housed Under One Roof In New Brunswick