By John Jordan
Real Estate In-Depth
MIDDLETOWN, NY—Although the plan to house a medical college at the former Horton Hospital campus is still not fully fleshed out as yet, the city of Middletown Planning Board unanimously approved a special use permit and site plan approval for a medical college and student housing at the campus at its meeting on July 11.
The “Medical College at Horton Hospital” project being proposed by The Danza Lesser Group, LLC of Brooklyn, NY, also calls for a number of other health-care related uses at the 375,000-square-foot facility that is located on nearly 15.5 acres in the city of Middletown. Until its closure in 2011, the property served as a 200- bed full-service hospital. Horton, along with Arden Hill Hospital in Goshen were closed once the new 353-bed Orange Regional Medical Center was built on East Main Street in the Town of Wallkill. The new hospital totals more than 600,000 square feet and took approximately $350 million to build. Orange-Ulster BOCES signed a long-term lease for the entire Arden Hill Hospital campus and is scheduled to begin operations there in the fall.
The approval of the site plan and special use permit at Horton Hospital is for the medical college and student housing use only. Planning Board Chairman Laurence Risdal stressed at the July 11th session and that any other uses proposed for the Horton Hospital site that do not conform to current zoning would have to come back to the Planning Board for approval.
The Danza-led group purchased the Horton Hospital campus in late 2011 for an undisclosed price.
Alyse D. Terhune of Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP of Walden represented the developer at the session and stated that the medical school would likely center on the study of osteopathic medicine and would initially have an enrollment of less than 250 students. While Terhune nor A.J. Danza (president of The Danza Group) in a telephone interview with Real Estate In-Depth refused to identify the medical school proposed at the site, in a 2009 press conference at Middletown City Hall, Danza and representatives of Touro College made presentations on the plan at Horton to city of Middletown officials.
Danza told the newspaper, “I can tell you this, I am working with a fully-accredited medical school.”
Terhune told Planning Board members that the medical college and student housing would comprise approximately two-thirds or approximately 270,000 square feet of space. The remaining approximately 100,000 square feet would involve mostly grandfathered uses under the hospital’s current zoning or were formerly offered at the hospital.
Danza said that his firm is also looking at other possible uses include assisted living for seniors and assisted living services for veterans, which are both underserved and needed in the Orange County area, and possibly skilled nursing education as well.
Based on approvals that are required, Danza said that his firm projects that the medical school at Horton Hospital will be operational by August 2014. Construction could begin in about six months, Danza said.
“Before that we should have, hopefully, some assisted living in the facility and we should also have some possibly some doctors that are doing some residency in the area (housed in the student housing component of the project),” Danza said.
He said that he also has an agreement with an Assisted Living operator, but also said that it was too early to identify the name of the firm.
Danza added that the Orange and Sullivan County region has a shortage of physicians and is losing many doctors to the New York City area. By having a medical school at Horton, Danza said, “We will generate home-raised doctors that will stay in the area.”
Danza noted that while his firm does not plan extensive renovations to the exterior of the building, plans call for approximately $65 million in renovations to the property.
There – use of the Horton Hospital would enhance the burgeoning medical cluster that hasdevel – oped along East Main Street and Crystal Run Road in Middletown and the town of Wallkill that includes two large medical office buildings constructed in recent years by Crystal Run Health Care.