A tied vote on the Bayonne Planning Board put off until April a decision on a new proposed health care facility for the former location of Irwin’s Department Store.
The location has become something of an eyesore to public officials since the building had to be demolished shortly after the department store closed in early December.
The site currently has a gaping hole – making it the third such hole in what some call the Light Rail gateway area.
The application submitted by Bayonne Med Realty, LLC called for putting up a five-story building on the northeast corner of East 22nd Street, using the footprint of the former department store, as well as the existing building currently housing the Carvel store next door.
The facility would have retail space in the basement and first floor, a medical facility on the second and third floors, with rental space – geared toward professional offices – on the top two floors.
Two issues split the board: parking and the competition that the facility would pose for the Bayonne Medical Center, which is near to completing an agreement with Horizon to offer a similar service.
Officials from the Bayonne Medical Center attended the March 3 meeting and spoke against the proposed facility, saying that it was unlikely that the proposed medical office, called Maya Health Care Center, would receive approval as a federal qualified health care facility as proposed in their application to the board.
“What they will probably have there is a medical office,” said Daniel Kane, chief executive officer of BMC. As with the board, city officials are sharply divided over the proposal since this would provide a new building in an area the city hopes to revive.
No parking a problem
Parking, however, became the most serious obstacle for the board since the project proposed no onsite parking, yet expected to have as many as 60 employees in the building and well over 100 people coming and going into the medical facility, without including possible customers to the retail and office spaces.
Attorney John S. Wisniewski told the board that the group hoped to come to an agreement with Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish to lease off-street parking. The school, which is to cease operations in June, is located directly behind the proposed site.
“I voted against it because they did not have an agreement for parking,” said Councilman Gary La Pelusa, who is also a member of the Planning Board. “But if they could come up with a plan for parking, I would vote for it.”
La Pelusa said his position, as a member of the Planning Board, was to determine if the proposal was suitable for the site, not to gauge if the facility would or would not take business away from BMC.
“Nobody fought harder to save Bayonne Medical Center or wishes more for it to succeed,” La Pelusa said. “But this building would do a lot to revitalize that area of Broadway. It is a good design and it would set the tone for other property in the area.”
Kane, however, said the facility would not receive the necessary federal approvals as listed in the application, as BMC will most likely receive sole approval.
While BMC has not yet signed an agreement with Horizon, an agreement is expected shortly that would set up a federally qualified health care facility at the site of the Women’s Center a few blocks away. He said Horizon would work closely with the hospital to help provide a clinic at the hospital site as well.
The two facilities would be competing for largely the same group of patients, the under insured or those covered by Medicaid.
Acute care hospitals such as BMC have been losing a significant portion of business to walk-in medical facilities, and the agreement with Horizon is seen as a way of recollecting some of those lost dollars.