Orange residents have waited 20 years for something good to happen at Orange Memorial Hospital, which closed in 2004 and has been slowly crumbling ever since.
Once the lifeblood of this Essex County township of 33,000 people, the landmark Orange Memorial is now a ghost hospital, a decaying mass of broken windows and graffiti, with trash piled high in its once elegant courtyard.
Now, in a new sign of life, the New York real estate firm Gateway Merchant Banking has been given the go-ahead for a $350 million plan to demolish seven of the nine buildings and construct 1,005 apartments, plus 70,000-square-feet of retail and commercial space, a restaurant and an outdoor skating rink.
Orange Memorial Hospital in Orange on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The hospital complex, closed since 2005, could be demolished under a $350 million redevelopment plan approved by the city. All but two of the buildings would be demolished. The Mary Austen Hall would remain and be renovated into the new Orange City Hall. The boiler building, with its huge smoke stack, would also be spared. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media
Orange Memorial, which hosted the country’s first four-year nursing school, is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Gateway plans to restore the former nursing school, Mary Austen Hall, for use as the new Orange City Hall.
Gateway unveiled the plan at a town meeting at First Shiloh Baptist Church on Wednesday. Although the Orange Planning Board approved the project in late 2024, many residents were caught by surprise and wanted to know more.
One resident, Deborah Smalls, questioned whether the planned 1,300 parking spaces could accommodate 1,000 apartments and City Hall. The project is billed as a transit village, close to the NJ Transit train station that ferries commuters to New York.
“This area is very congested,” Small said. “A lot of people already come down here and park. The people that are going to New York, they’re going to park there.”
Orange Memorial Hospital in Orange on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The hospital complex, closed since 2005, could be demolished under a $350 million redevelopment plan approved by the city. All but two of the buildings would be demolished. The Mary Austen Hall, pictured, would remain and be renovated into the new Orange City Hall. The boiler building, with its huge smoke stack, would also be spared. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media
Of the 1,005 apartment units, 20% would be set aside as affordable housing. Some people worried that 1,000 apartments would overcrowd Orange schools, but Terrence Murray, Gateway’s managing partner, said transit villages tend not to add much to enrollment.
“What we see over time is these type of projects don’t really attract large families,” Murray said.
Murray stressed that Gateway had the experience, having built over 2,000 apartments in seven states. He said the company hoped to create “the new town square” at the 10-acre Memorial site with new retail that encourage more sidewalk traffic and boosts the mom-and-pop businesses on Central Avenue.
“This is going to be a high quality project,” he said.
Murray said redeveloping the abandoned property could only raise property values, but some residents remained skeptical. City officials acknowledge that Gateway is currently negotiating a Payment in Lieu of Taxes, better known as a PILOT – an annual flat-rate payment that amounts to a tax break for the developer.
Orange Memorial Hospital in Orange on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The hospital complex, closed since 2005, could be demolished under a $350 million redevelopment plan approved by the city. All but two of the buildings would be demolished. The Mary Austen Hall would remain and be renovated into the new Orange City Hall. The boiler building, pictured, with its huge smoke stack, pictured, would also be spared. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media
West Ward Council member Quantavia Hilbert said the hospital was “at the heart of the community” and urged Gateway to allow a citizens committee to help guide the project.
“We’re not looking for people to just come and build buildings and increase our population. We are looking out for the residents who live here.”
Hilbert said residents would be better served by an Urgent Care facility, or a performing arts center, instead of a skating rink.
“We have to be really intentional in what we do,” she said. “We don’t have a cultural center. We don’t have a community center, either. We have no public spaces, other than this church.”
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