Early next year, the New Brunswick (N.J.) Development Corporation, in collaboration with RWJBarnabas Health and the Rutgers Cancer Institute, is scheduled to open the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, which will be the Garden State’s first National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
This 12-story, 520,000-sf, $750 million project, which broke ground in June 2021 and topped off in November 2022, will be a freestanding building that combines in- and outpatient services with research. A skywalk will connect the Cancer Center to the existing Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
The new building will include 96 inpatient beds on three floors, with one entire floor for surgical services. There will also be 84 infusion bays, 74 exam rooms, and state-of-the-art imaging and diagnostic equipment that includes four linear accelerators. The Cancer Center will offer in- and outpatient radiation oncology services.
More than 100 scientists will have access to 10 research labs within the Cancer Center.
The Cancer Center will be integrated into RWJBarnabas’ “Navigator” program, which allows patients to take a more active part in managing their treatment and longer-term healthcare.
The Building Team for the Cancer Center includes HOK (architect and designer), a joint venture between Jingoli Construction and LF Driscoll (GC), and O’Donnell & Naccarato (SE). As part of this project, RWJBarnabas picked up the $55 million tab to build Blanquita B. Valenti Community School, a three-story elementary school for 800 students that opened last September. Jack Morris, the Cancer Center’s benefactor and namesake, is the founding chairman of RWJBarnabas Health, and with his wife leads Edgewood Properties, a property development and management firm.
An innovation hub in the city’s core
The Morris Cancer Center isn’t the only project that’s positioned to reshape New Brunswick’s reputation, urban landscape, and economy, at a time when this city of 56,400 is only growing marginally and has struggled to maintain its jobs base. After years of languishing as a massive excavation hole, The Health and Life Science Exchange (HELIX NJ), a four-acre innovation district which was co-developed by SJP Properties and the New Brunswick Development Corporation, finally began construction last July and is scheduled to start opening next year.
HELIX’s $650 million first phase, a 13-story 573,400-sf building, will house an Innovation HUB, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (on four floors), and a research facility, as well as retail space, a 10,000-sf market hall, and a 3,000-sf restaurant that opens onto a 70-ft-wide plaza.
Rutgers University, which will occupy three-quarters of HELIX’s first building, has committed $270 million to recruit and retain 80 translational research investigators to work in HELIX.
HELIX’s $731 million second phase, designed by HDR, will include 600,000 sf of built-to-suit office and lab space. (Last month, Nokia announced plans to move Nokia Bell Labs into HELIX.) Phase 3 will be a mixed-use 42-story building with 220 housing units. Jingoli Construction is HELIX’s general contractor.
HELIX was the first program approved under the New Jersey Economic Development Authority's Aspire tax credit program, which was created by legislation passed in 2020.
Related Stories
Healthcare Facilities | Jan 29, 2018
The new Virginia Tech Biomedical Research Addition will include research facilities in five thematic areas
The project is a collaboration between Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech.
Healthcare Facilities | Jan 10, 2018
Healthcare market year in review for 2017
While we have not fully turned the corner on healthcare reform and in particular healthcare payment reform, 2017 confirmed trends of consumerism and the need for more proximate low-cost options.
Retail Centers | Jan 9, 2018
The addition of a medical practice is part of the cure for reviving a shopping mall in Scranton, Pa.
Delta Medix is one of several tenants that are changing the image of the Marketplace at Steamtown.
Healthcare Facilities | Jan 6, 2018
A new precision dental center embodies Columbia University’s latest direction for oral medicine education
The facility, which nests at “the core” of the university’s Medical Center, relies heavily on technology and big data.
Healthcare Facilities | Dec 19, 2017
‘Healing Oasis’ will provide healthcare services to veterans in northern California
Hoefer Wysocki designed the $40 million facility.
Healthcare Facilities | Dec 11, 2017
2018 predictions for healthcare facility design
From emergency departments to microhospitals, to the amenities in and locations of hospitals, the year ahead will see continued changes in how healthcare providers are designing and equipping their facilities.
Market Data | Dec 5, 2017
Top health systems engaged in $21 billion of U.S. construction projects
Largest active projects are by Sutter Health, New York Presbyterian, and Scripps Health.
Healthcare Facilities | Nov 30, 2017
Scope it out
How to design and build what’s needed to meet organizational goals and strategies.
University Buildings | Nov 28, 2017
FXFOWLE and CO Architects collaborate on Columbia University School of Nursing building
The building has a ‘collaboration ribbon’ that runs throughout the building.
Sponsored | Windows and Doors | Nov 21, 2017
Daylighting promotes healing and wellness at the Florida Hospital for Women at Orlando Campus
Growing research demonstrates that patients recover faster and better from illness or surgery in settings that offer abundant daylight and views to the outdoors.