Hackensack Meridian Health Center At MetroPark Will Open In April

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center at the MetroPark train station is close to being completed and will open this April, according to Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac and the healthcare giant.

When it opens, this will be a 240,000-square-foot medical complex. The top floors will house Hackensack Meridian's new corporate headquarters; they will relocate there this spring from their current headquarters in Edison.

The rest of the seven-story building will house basically every healthcare need you can think of: Primary care doctors, occupational health and specialists such as cardiology, endocrinology and weight management. You can get scanning and imaging done there. They will have a sports and spine center and urgent care. There will be a pharmacy on the ground floor.

It will be almost like a hospital, but you cannot stay overnight there. They will not have in-patient rooms.

It's a $200-million investment from Hackensack Meridian to reach commuters using the NJ Transit and Amtrak MetroPark train station. Hackensack Meridian has opened similar outpatient care centers in Eatontown, Clark and Paramus, as they try to reach suburban clients.

"The Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Center at MetroPark will offer more than 60,000 square feet of healthcare services just steps from one of the state’s busiest mass transit hubs," the healthcare giant said in this press release about the complex.

(The entire seven-story building, including their corporate offices, will be 240,000 square feet, and the Health & Wellness portion will be 60,000 square feet.)

Once the Health & Wellness Center opens, construction will then start on an apartment building next door. It will have 230 apartments on the top floors and shops and restaurants at street level. It will tentatively be called The Hyve and it's being built by DOR, a partnership of Russo Development, Onyx Equities and Terminal Construction.

The MetroPark train tracks will be behind both buildings and you will walk up stairs to get to the tracks.

The project received a $110-million tax credit from the state of New Jersey, under a push from Gov. Phil Murphy to turn train stations into multi-use places to live, work and play. And see a doctor.

Here's what else will be built at MetroPark:

A vacant office building on Wood Avenue in MetroPark will become 100 small individual office suites, plus residential apartments.

Somewhere in MetroPark, a developer is interested in building very small apartments (500 square feet) where one room will function as a kitchen, living room and bedroom with a pull-down bed and slide-out furniture. But McCormac did not reveal exactly where.

An 18-unit market rate senior housing complex will be built off Rt. 1 in Menlo Park Terrace. It's for seniors whose Social Security and pension income are too high to qualify for subsidized housing. Woodspring Suites, an extended stay hotel, is currently under construction nearby.