The skyline along Route 9 looks a little more complete.
RWJBarnabas Health, alongside its partners, officially raised the final steel beam for its new three-story, 67,000-square-foot Multi-Specialty Center in Howell. The ceremony, held late last month, marks the “topping out” of a facility designed to bring high-level outpatient care directly to the border of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
The new center, located at 783 Route 9, is a joint venture featuring a powerhouse lineup of regional providers, including New Jersey Imaging Network, Seaview Orthopaedics, and Family First Urgent Care.
Once completed in late 2026 or early 2027, the facility will house:
- An advanced ambulatory surgery center.
- Comprehensive imaging services.
- A dedicated urgent care center.
- Office space for RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group’s heart and vascular specialists.
“This represents more than a construction milestone—it reflects RWJBarnabas Health moving forward on our mission to deliver world-class care in the communities we serve,” Mark Manigan, president and CEO of RWJBarnabas Health, said during the beam-signing ceremony.
The Howell project is the latest piece in RWJBarnabas Health’s aggressive expansion across the region. It follows the recent opening of the Toms River West Ambulatory Surgery Center and a new School of Nursing in Oceanport.
Eric Carney, president and CEO of Monmouth Medical Center, emphasized that the design is “centered around the patient experience.” By co-locating surgery, imaging, and specialty care, the goal is to eliminate the “medical merry-go-round” where patients have to drive to multiple towns for different appointments.
The project is being developed in partnership with Rendina Healthcare Real Estate. According to Richard Rendina, Chairman and CEO of the firm, the facility is a key part of a long-term strategy to align real estate with clinical goals—essentially putting the doctors where the patients already live and shop.
Before the final beam was hoisted into place, leadership from RWJBarnabas Health, including Manigan, Carney, and Medical Group CEO Michael Prilutsky, joined clinicians and construction crews to add their signatures to the steel—a long-standing tradition in the building trades signifying the structural completion of a project.
