In a moment that represents a boost for both health care and economic development for a North Jersey town that borders New York, leaders of Montvale Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center broke ground Wednesday on a 185,878-square-foot facility that will serve as a short-term post-acute rehabilitation center and a housing solution for residents with memory care and long-term care needs.
The facility, which aims to open in 18 months, will bring 180 private suites to Bergen County — beds the region badly needs.
Michael Smith, division president of Marquis Health Consulting Services, the Brick-based firm supporting the project, said the firm is eager to create a state-of-the-art facility.
“This center is poised to become a premier rehabilitation destination in a region where private rooms are scarce and specialized clinical care is in high demand,” he said.
Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali framed the project in even broader terms, not just as a local facility, but as a regional draw that will bring people — and dollars — into town.
Ghassali talked not only of the jobs the facility will bring, but the economic boost those workers — and those coming to see those being cared for — will bring to the town. And how it will bring life to a property at 100 Summit Ave. that formerly served as the headquarters for Western Union.
“This facility will be great for Montvale in so many ways,” he said.
The biggest boost will be for the people it serves.
The Montvale Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center will operate across three distinct levels of care: short-term rehabilitation, secure memory care and long-term residential care.
Smith said the design was built around a simple idea — recovery depends on more than medicine.
“When we recover from an injury — whether it’s a stroke, a fall with injury or an acute illness — it’s important that you heal all the way, not just from medicine, not just from physical therapy and occupational therapy, but the environment plays a huge role,” he said.
The need, state and local officials said, is not abstract. New Jersey’s population is aging quickly, and its housing and care options haven’t necessarily kept pace.
“By 2030, for the first time in our state’s history, New Jersey will have more older adults than children,” Health Care Association of New Jersey CEO Andy Aronson said in a statement. “Campuses like Montvale and other high-quality providers will be essential to meeting that growing need.”
State Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-Montvale) said the demand shows up directly in her Senate office.
“Based upon the number of calls that come into my Senate office every week from loved ones who have people in the hospital who need to go to a facility — where should we send our loved one? What’s a safe place for them to go to? Who do you trust in the area?” Schepisi said. “You guys are going to have a long history in Montvale.”
Beyond the beds themselves, the facility is designed to draw people in — and keep them coming back. Amenities such as a swimming pool, a rehabilitation gym that will be among the largest of its kind in the state and shared spaces for visiting families are meant to make the center a destination, not just a stopover.
“We actually have people that will discharge and come back just for the coffee,” Smith said.
That kind of foot traffic — residents’ families, visiting staff, discharged patients returning for a familiar space — is itself part of the economic case for the project, developers say, alongside the hundreds of jobs the build and eventual operation are expected to create.
“This is a great day for Montvale,” Ghassali said.
