$70M Medical School At Ex-Roche Site Earns 'Good Neighbor' Award

NUTLEY, NJ — The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in Nutley and Clifton recently earned an award for being a “good neighbor” in its community.

Last week, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) announced the 2020 winners of the New Good Neighbor Awards, which pay tribute to “noteworthy projects have benefited their communities and improved New Jersey’s overall economic landscape.”

This year’s 13 winters included the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, the NJBIA reported. Here's why the project was important, the group said.

"This former Roche Pharmaceuticals site is now a state-of-the-art campus, and the first new private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years. The 500,000-square-foot project involved the adaptive reuse of a multistory research laboratory building on the site to include offices, classrooms, a library and an auditorium. The centerpiece is a multimodal virtual healthcare training center featuring spaces to teach clinical and nursing skills and provide physiology, occupational therapy, activities of daily living, and health assessment bed laboratories. The $70 million project included $50 million in construction costs, and involved more than 600 tradespeople. The architect was FZ Collaborative with CO Architects, based in New York City and Los Angeles; the builder was Torcon, of Red Bank."

Other winning projects included:

• ACY1 Amazon Fulfillment Center, West Deptford
• Allied Beverage Group, Elizabeth
• Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute, Madison
• Bergen Community College STEM Student Research Center, Paramus
• CentraState Medical Center, Freehold
• PSE&G Highland Park Solar Storage
• RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, Piscataway
• Skyline Hall at William Paterson University, Wayne
• Stockton University Academic Building, Atlantic City
• Washington Street Redesign Project, Hoboken
• Audible Innovation Cathedral, Newark
• Serratelli Hat Company, Newark

Together, the 13 winning projects created $404 million in capital investment, nearly 2,800 construction jobs and more than 3,800 permanent jobs, according to NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka.

“These projects also improve our quality of life, revitalizing neighborhoods, bringing communities together and providing valuable services,” Siekerka said. “We’re proud to honor these projects and we thank all of them for making New Jersey a better place to live, work and play.”

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