The project will be built across from the New Brunswick train station with a price tag of $665 million. It will include the new Rutgers Translational Research facility, the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, an “Innovation Hub” and collaborative offices for core partners of the project.
“The Hub will be a place that lives up to New Brunswick, nicknamed as the ‘Hub City,’” Murphy said. “Arguably no other research center will have such firepower in a single space, a space for innovative startup leaders (who) will be able to literally walk down the hall and consult with researchers and clinicians in real-time.”
Hackensack Meridian Health and RWJBarnabas Health will also occupy space in the facility. Hackensack Meridian CEO Bob Garrett and RWJBarnabas chief executive Barry Ostrowsky attended the ceremony.
The project, expected to be completed by 2024, will contain “not just much-needed new lab space, but also much-needed incubator space,” Murphy said. “It will be a place where doctors and researchers will work shoulder to shoulder on innovative treatments and solutions from bench to bedside.”
He added, “Think about it this way: The Hub will be that rare standalone center where clinicians and researchers from across the pharma and life science sectors can have immediate and daily access to academic and industry experts as they fine-tune their events.”