Letter: Others Interested in Hospital Site

To the Editor:
At this Thursday's Planning Board where developer Avalon Bay's request to change zoning for the medical center properties was considered, Marvin Reed told fellow members of the Board that the community, neighborhood and hospital had been through a two-year process to come up with a maximum number of 280-units for the 5.6 acre hospital building site. The large number of units (50 units/per acre)  was much higher than the neighborhood and many other town residents wanted and represents a major compromise.

Reed called the 280-unit maximum "a big stretch." The number would have been much lower if the rezoning had limited the number of units to what was in keeping with the neighborhood character of single-family and duplex homes.  As part of this compromise, Marvin Reed said that a plaza/park was to be provided for the use of the public on the site of one of the medical buildings which was to be torn down.

When zoning was set at "up to 280 units," this higher maximum number of units set the price for the hospital building site. Before bidding on large-scale redevelopments, national real estate corporations calculate profitability based  on purchase price and zoning requirements. Avalon put in a bid for the 280-unit site with 20% affordable housing requirement, as did the other bidders on the property.  Raising the maximum number of units after a contract has been signed for no other reason than that the buyer requests it is bad business and is unfair to the community and to the numerous other potential buyers who are eager to redevelop the property. It is also unfair to the seller.

In December of 2010, a nationally prominent commercial brokerage firm located in New York city began to market the property as a 280-unit property with a 20% affordable housing requirement. (Bluegate Partner website, news release, Dec 13.)  Within less than nine months the Princeton Packet quoted the VP of Marketing and Public Affairs at the hospital as saying that "there were  125 companies that expressed an interest in the hospital property".  (Princeton Packet,  Aug 5 2011). Many potential buyers were identified quickly after a prominent national firm had been hired to market the property .

Avalon can build at 280-units if they wish.  Or they should move aside and let one of the other 125 interested parties redevelop the property.  Why didn't Borough Council say "no" to the increased number of units immediately and move this process along?  Why delay?   If Avalon does build, they need to follow the design standards in Borough code that call for open space accessible to the public (part of the compromise) and for varied architectural design. Given that Avalon Bay is a national builder of standardized housing complexes, one wonders if the corporation can construct the kind of customized design that Princeton is looking for. Customized real estate development is not in Avalon's area of expertise nor is it part of their business model.  

Other options do exist. An analysis presented to Borough Council shows that dividing the hospital building site into individual lots sized in keeping with the neighborhood would result in inexpensive land costs by Princeton standards  and would reap the hospital  the same or more profit.

Alexi Assmus

Princeton Borough