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Newburyport: Medical center's plans change; New approvals from city boards needed
February 11, 2008 | The Daily News
NEWBURYPORT — A firm that specializes in developing medical facilities in and around Boston is joining the effort to build the Newburyport Medical Center, which would include a cancer-treatment facility near Anna Jaques Hospital.
Needham-based Murphy and McManus, which developed institutions such as Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical centers in Chelsea and Brockton, is joining with Tom Jones on the center.
As part of the collaboration, Murphy and McManus modified the plans for the medical center, decreasing the total building size from 50,000 to about 43,000 square feet and also increasing the number of parking spots at the site, near Anna Jaques off Low Street.
"In my opinion, they are the premier medical developer in the state," said Jones, who also is a city councilor. "On their client list are the top medical providers in the commonwealth."
Jones said after going over the building plans, Murphy and McManus developed a plan to make the site work better and provide more parking for clients. Jones also said concerns raised by some abutters are addressed in the new proposal.
"I think they made a better working plan for the building itself than what I originally proposed," Jones said.
But the changes also mean Jones and the development company will once again have to seek approval for the reconfiguration from the City Council, Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals — all of which had signed off on the plans last year.
That process begins tonight at 7 in the council chambers at City Hall when the City Council will open a public hearing for a special permit for the development.
At 7 p.m. tomorrow, the Zoning Board of Appeals will discuss the new changes and the Planning Board will meet on Feb. 20 regarding the plan, which Jones said will be the most "thorough" examination of the changes.
"We have an approval for more," Jones said. "So asking for a revision that is less should be a fairly straightforward process."
In a letter to the City Council last week, Mayor John Moak urged the councilors to approve a new special permit. He said one of the positive things, besides creating another access road to Anna Jaques and the medical benefits to Newburyport, is the $100,000 in tax revenue the building will bring the city's each year.
"I believe these changes will benefit both the proposed development and the larger community," Moak wrote in the letter.
Murphy and McManus started in 1997, formed by Robert Murphy and Peter McManus. Their goal was to provide development services to non-profit groups, according to the company's Web site.
As a former vice president of real estate for the Children's Hospital in Boston and a CPA, Murphy "could see the growing need within the medical community for expert real estate advisors to manage the development of the increasingly complex and expensive facilities required by modern medicine," the Web site states.
Murphy and McManus also enjoys another connection with Newburyport — albeit rather small.
The firm developed the Karp Family Research Laboratories at Boston's Children's Hospital, named after Stephen Karp, the developer who is Newburyport's largest landowner, and his family. The Karps have given and raised millions of dollars for the hospital. Karp also serves as the Children's Hospital Board of Trustees chairman.
Newburyport's center will provide cancer patients the convenience of a one-stop facility for cancer treatment, which will be the first of its kind in the North of Boston region, officials say.
It also means 30 to 40 more jobs coming to Newburyport.
A 22,000-square-foot cancer-treatment facility is to be the first piece of the medical center.
Dr. Walt Kagan, the president of Commonwealth Hematology-Oncology, which is the largest private practice cancer treatment program in New England, is the anchor tenant of the new building, taking up 13,000 of the 22,000-square-foot space.
The center is being built on land owned by Jones. The building will connect to Low Street by an access road and also connect to Anna Jaques Hospital.