St. Luke’s Readies for New Campus: Project in Bethlehem Township Will Feature Clinic, Cancer Center.
By Veronica Torrejon, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Sep. 28–With much fanfare Thursday, officials from St. Luke’s Hospital broke ground in Bethlehem Township on the first phase of a new health campus touted as one of the largest in the state once completed.
St. Luke’s Riverside Medical Center, the planned first phase, includes a 400,000-square-foot outpatient clinic and cancer center on about 40 of its 202 acres along Route 33 and Freemansburg Avenue. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.
St. Luke’s officials also announced the facility will be the region’s first “green” health care campus using environmentally friendly building materials, energy efficient lighting and temperature control, and grounds free from artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
The groundbreaking ceremony, held under a white tent on a grassy hill surrounded by rippling corn fields, attracted more than 500 people including St. Luke’s physicians, administrators, donors and state and local politicians.
Among the developers attending was Robert McGurk from Forest City Enterprises, whose proposed 900,000-square-foot mall on the other side of Route 33 has yet to break ground. Developers of the St. Luke’s campus have said they will work closely with developers of The Summit Lehigh Valley to improve traffic along Freemansburg Avenue.
In addition to traffic, a major concern for both developments has been sewer issues. In January, the city of Bethlehem, the township and St. Luke’s agreed that Bethlehem will lend the hospital 30,000 gallons a day of its own sewer capacity. The hospital will put $45,000 a year — the estimated cost of its sewer bill — in escrow until the dispute between municipalities is resolved.
But in April, the state Department of Environmental Protection temporarily stalled construction of The Summit, citing concerns that the sewer line serving the proposed mall couldn’t handle the extra burden.
After the sewer issue was resolved last month, developers of The Summit resubmitted plans with DEP and are continuing to work with the township to develop new plans, said McGurk.
In the meantime, he does not have a new estimate for a groundbreaking on The Summit. The event, McGurk said, will be as “splashy” as the St. Luke’s ceremony, a catered affair with a live jazz band under a giant white tent that prompted St. Luke’s President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson to joke about whether the hospital would have enough money to complete the project.
The second part of the St. Luke’s project will be a hospital and, in later phases, an education center. The total cost of the first phase, including construction of the cancer center, an ambulatory surgery center, an urgent care center, two medical office buildings, state-of-the-art imaging equipment and a diagnostic pavilion is estimated at more than $100 million. The total cost to develop all 202 acres is unknown, said hospital spokeswoman Susan Schantz.
At the ceremony, the Rev. Douglas Caldwell, pastor of Central Moravian Church, also announced a new capital campaign, of which he will serve as co-chairman with local philanthropist Priscilla Payne Hurd, to raise about $40 million for the Riverside campus and five other projects St. Luke’s is undertaking. They have already raised more than $20 million , said Caldwell.
More than $4 million in state money will also help fund the new hospital campus, expected to create 1,400 jobs and help lower unemployment, said Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky.
“This is a notch in the belt,” he said. “A big notch in the belt.”
veronica.torrejon@mcall.com
610-861-3634
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