Emergency Hospital For Pets Proposed At Vacant Newtown Office Building

NEWTOWN, PA — A group of local veterinarians is planning to turn a long vacant office building in Newtown into an emergency and specialty care hospital for pets.

The local veterinarians will be seeking zoning relief to renovate the 25,000-square-foot office building at 10 Friends Lane into an E.R. for cats and dogs.

The building has largely been vacant for years, land development attorney Joe Blackburn told members of the planning commission in outlining plans for the envisioned hospital.

The facility, he said, would operate around the clock seven days a week and would eventually grow to 85 employees spread out over several shifts.

“There will be no boarding, no grooming, no kennel, no outdoor dog run, no outdoor storage or keeping of animals,” said Blackburn. “It will be an entirely enclosed, no boarding operation.”

There are plans for a small outside fenced-in area that would be used by staff to walk animals on a leash, but there would be no dog runs on the grounds of the building.

"The hospital will focus strictly on emergency procedures - something that a local vet typically would not handle," said Blackburn.

“What is being planned is a true hospital, much like the one in Langhorne," said project partner Sigmund Kulessa, M.D. "It’s not at all in competition with Newtown Veterinary Hospital, but complementary. In fact, Newtown Vet would be a referral service for us.”

Kulessa said while there is no boarding, a handful of animals in recovery following surgeries or too sick to go home would be staying overnight.

The hospital would handle mostly sick dogs and cats, but the veterinarians said they wouldn’t rule out a more exotic pet like a rabbit that’s suffering and couldn’t make the drive to NorthStar Vets in Robbinsville, N.J., said partner Suzanne Dempsey, DVM, DACVECC.

The hospital will service a large area stretching from Pipersville south to Lower Bucks and adjacent areas of New Jersey and Montgomery County.

The partners said they plan on renovating the first floor into hospital space with plans to eventually expand to the second floor. An interior courtyard would be used as an employee break area.

They plan to open with 35 employees and grow to 85 over a three- to five-year time period.

The veterinarians will be seeking three variances from the township’s zoning board for use, parking, and the required number of bays.

The veterinarians said a preliminary parking study showed that at 4 p.m. - the peak hour of operation for the hospital - 65 employees would be on site with 16 client cars, which is well within the existing 130 parking spaces and far under the 300 required under the ordinance.

After listening to the proposal, the planning commission voted unanimously to recommend that the supervisors remain neutral on the application.

“That building has been vacant since 2009,” said Planning Chair Peggy Driscoll. “I’m happy to see something like this going in there.”

If the veterinarians are successful in securing zoning relief, they are hoping to close on the property in March or April and then begin an eight or nine-month renovation project with a planned opening date of early 2027.