HOBOKEN – Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced that the sale of Hoboken University Medical Center to private owners is complete, relieving Hoboken taxpayers of a $52 million bond guarantee made in 2007.
The funds were wired on Friday morning, Zimmer said in a release, completing the transaction.
The new owners are HUMC Holdco, an ownership group from Bayonne Medical Center. For much more on the sale, make sure to pick up a copy of The Hoboken Reporter this weekend and keep reading HudsonReporter.com
The following are Zimmer’s remarks from a press release:
“Today is a great day for all of Hoboken and New Jersey. Our state’s oldest hospital will remain open as a full-service acute care facility. More than 1,200 jobs have been saved, and we have avoided a financial catastrophe by relieving Hoboken of its guarantee of the $52 million hospital bond. The City would have become immediately responsible to pay this bond if this sale had not been completed. The new owners have committed to making the investments needed to make our hospital one that all of our community and employees can be proud of.
“When I took office two years ago, saving our hospital was my highest priority. Virtually no one believed that achieving our twin goals of saving our hospital and relieving our City of its $52 million bond guarantee was possible. I wasn’t sure it could be done, but I knew it had to be done. Today, we have finally achieved these seemingly impossible objectives — an enormous win for all of our taxpayers and residents.
“On behalf of all our residents, I thank the volunteer board members of the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority and especially thank Chairwoman Toni Tomarazzo. This triumph could never have been achieved without their dedication and hard work. They are heroes of Hoboken who spent countless hours without compensation for no other reason than the desire to help their community.
“I thank Transportation and Parking Director Ian Sacs for his work negotiating a parking agreement which, by shifting parking to garages with excess capacity, will result in more parking available for residents and more revenue for the City. By freeing up hundreds of parking spaces at the Midtown garage, we expect to completely eliminate the two-year-long waiting list. The City will also receive new revenue from the leasing of office space and property taxes.
“Without Governor Christie’s support, the state’s oldest hospital would be closed today and 1,200 jobs would have been lost. I thank Governor Christie, Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd, and the entire Administration for their invaluable help and support throughout the sales process.
“I wish the new owners the best of luck and congratulate Phil Shaengold, their new President and CEO. Mr. Shaengold started his career with the Franciscan Sisters, the same group that founded the hospital nearly 150 years ago. I am confident that under his leadership, and with the wholehearted support of our community, the new Hoboken University Medical Center will expand its services to our community and thrive for the long term.”