CAMDEN, NJ-In a complicated and creative public/private deal, a new community health center serving inner-city residents and homeless people is to rise here on the site of a much smaller leased facility –while keeping the existing facility open.
The new Project H.O.P.E. health center will replace a 3,000-square-foot older building the city of Camden currently leases to the nonprofit healthcare agency. The new 11,000-square-foot building will be city-owned, and is being constructed as a “renovation” under terms of the existing five-year lease. Construction is to be funded by a $4.4 million federal grant.
Project H.O.P.E. will continue to pay a discounted yearly rent, “in consideration of the service the health center provides to the city,” says Marisa Manley, president of the New York-based firm that devised and negotiated the deal. Her company, Health Care Real Estate Advisors, was hired by Project H.O.P.E., she tells GlobeSt.com, because it has experience in doing the same sort of project in several other cities.
The health center's 15-year lease of the new facility would be worth approximately $4.8 million if the rent reduction had not been agreed upon.
“Project H.O.P.E. will get a brand new facility more than triple the size of the existing facility, and the city gets a new building, while the community gets very much needed service without interruption,” Manley says.
HCREA engaged the architects Sapphire and Albarran of Philadelphia to design a structure than can be put up around the old facility, which will be demolished when the new Project H.O.P.E. opens.
The consulting firm will also supervise the general contractor's work with subcontractors including sheet metal, HVAC, electrical, security, and IT to complete the project.
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