By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
TINTON FALLS – The new Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health/ Monmouth Medical Center building under construction in the Tinton Falls section of Fort Monmouth is expected to be completed by December 2026. Last Wednesday, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) unanimously approved the second phase of the complex.
The five-story Phase 1 building on Pearl Harbor Avenue at Corregidor Road sits across from the Tinton Falls municipal complex and Patriots Square, a residential development. The 138,000-square-foot cancer center and ambulatory care pavilion will house surgery and oncology services, diagnostic imaging, radiation and specialty physician offices.
Unanimously approved by FMERA Aug. 27, “Phase 2a” will add an acute care hospital, clinical support building, medical office building, utility plant and parking facility. Once the project obtains additional approvals from Tinton Falls and the New Jersey Department of Health, construction could begin in June 2026.
“The redeveloper has continued to make good faith efforts with its construction of Phase 1, but due to construction delays, requires additional time to complete Phase 1,” FMERA staff wrote to the authority’s voting members, recommending passage. “Additionally, RWJBH indicated additional time is needed to permit Monmouth Medical Center to secure all necessary approvals before commencing construction.”
The campus is being built on the site of the fort’s former Albert J. Myer Center, a large Cold War-era hexagonal research and development facility where night vision goggles were invented. The state demolished the obsolete structure in 2017 to make the 36-plus-acre property more attractive to potential developers. RWJBH closed on the tract in December 2022 at a purchase price of $7,256,660 with a minimum capital investment of $153.5 million projected.
The Phase 1 cancer center will be called the Vogel Medical Campus, named for philanthropists Sheldon and the late Anne Vogel of Colts Neck, both of whom were born at the hospital’s original Long Branch location. Sheldon Vogel was chief financial officer of Atlantic Records until his retirement in 1998. In 2020, the family gifted the Monmouth Medical Foundation $50 million toward the project.
When RWJBH initially proposed the project to FMERA, Phase 2 consisted of two options contingent on market demand and community needs. The Phase 2b option envisioned 20 acres of publicly accessible open space with walking trails, gazebos and sculpture space with landscaped areas and plantings.
“Monmouth Medical Center officially notified FMERA of its intent to move forward with further development (Phase 2a) on the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls and are seeking the necessary project approvals,” a hospital spokesperson told The Two River Times last Friday. “We look forward to enhancing the care we provide to our communities across Monmouth County.”
Regarding specifics of Phase 2a, the spokesperson said additional details would be available following successful completion of the approval process. The redevelopment is expected to create over 300 jobs in Phase 1 and potentially 1,000 jobs after completion of Phase 2a.
Monmouth Medical Center, Inc., is an affiliate of Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, created by the merger of Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Barnabas Health in 2016.
The article originally appeared in the September 4 – September 10, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
