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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its Ridgervoo...
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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its
Ridgewood site - NorthJersey.com
NorthJersey.com
As The Valley Hospital has struggled for years to expand its campus in Ridgewood, it has
been quietly buying real estate in Bergen County, assembling a portfolio that includes a
string of properties on North Maple Avenue in Ridgewood and the building that houses the
New Jersey Children's Museum in Paramus.
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The Valley Hospital acquired the building that
houses the New Jersey Children's Museum, near
other property it owns in Paramus.
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The Valley Hospital acquired the building that houses
the New Jersey Children's Museum, near other propefty
it owns in Paramus.
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nas spent at
least $54 million to acquire roughly a half-dozen sites in the village and neighboring
Paramus as potential future locations for doctors' offices, along with outpatient and other
services that would be moved from its main campus. Some of these newly acquired
properties are already operating as off-site hospital facilities.
But the hospital's plans for some of its other new properties remain unclear, and Valley's
real estate shopping doesn't appear to be over. Recently, it has been in talks to purchase
buildings that the global parcel deliverer UPS will be vacating on Winters Avenue in
Paramus, as reported by The Record. lf that deal closes, it would add another property to a
medical-services cluster that the hospital has been creating in Paramus, near the Fashion
Center mall.
Valley's push to expand comes on the heels of a bitter, losing battle in which it joined with
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center to keep Hackensack University Medical Center
from opening the former Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood. Now, Valley, Englewood and
Hackensack are fiercely competing for the aging and affluent Bergen County population,
offering hotel-like amenities combined with top-notch expertise and technology in a rapidly
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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its Ridgewoo.,.
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changing health care terrain influenced by Obamacare.
The Valley Hospital, which has not commented on the UPS negotiations beyond saying it
has not purchased the property, describes its recent real estate buys as "strategic property
acquisitions to ensure its ability to develop outpatient and ambulatory programs and
services needed by the community."
Megan Fraser, the hospital's vice president for communications and marketing, said in an
emailthat the hospitalwill share its plans for properties it has acquired "as they are
finalized." She said plans may include a health and wellness center and new facilities for
Valley Medical Group, a group of family and urgent-care centers with seven sites in North
Jersey.
Among properties already being used by the hospital is Parkview Plaza, a three-story office
building a|1200 E. Ridgewood Ave.
near the hospital's main campus
where it is
purchased
expanding its cardiac center. The building was
last November for $28 million
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-
ln 2012, the hospital paid $4.8 million for a building at 970 Linwood Ave. in Paramus that in
one section currently houses a regional blood center that will be moving out in March. Valley
has established a research program there, in what is now the Bolger Medical Arts Building.
Moving outpatient services off campus to reduce traffic to and from the hospital was among
the promises Valley made to village residents during contentious expansion hearings that
date back to 2002. Valley has been trying nearly to double the square footage on its main
campus, nestled on North Van Dien Avenue in the middle of a residential neighborhood. lts
first proposalwas rejected by the Ridgewood Village Council and a slightly scaled-back
project totaling 995,000 square feet has been before the Village Planning Board almost a
year.
Stiff opposition
But hundreds of residents have fought vehemently against the project, spending more than
$100,000 for experts to testify on the damage the larger buildings will cause the
neighborhood.
Among its other purchases, Valley, through a holding company, 599 Paramus Acquisition
LLC, bought 599 Valley Health Plaza, a 56,993-square-foot, one-story building in Paramus,
for $13.5 million in September 2012. The New Jersey Children's Museum is its tenant,
offering interactive exhibitions for toddlers and preschool-age children. The building is next
to Valley's Robert and Audrey Luckow Pavilion, a three-story, 128,OOO-square-foot structure
that houses a cancer center, same-day surgery center and a pharmacy, and is less than
three tenths of a mile from the UPS buildings.
While Valley appears to have paid around market value for its other recently purchased
properties, the Children's Museum building, on 3.6 acres, is assessed at $3.5 million, which
based on the ratio of assessment to market value in Paramus would suggest a market value
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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its Ridgewoo...
of $3 million to $4 million
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http //www.northj ersey.com/news/val ley-paramus-ford-rid ge...
:
much lower than the $13.5 million paid.
Paramus Tax Assessor James Anzevino said that based on true market value, Valley
overpaid.
"l don't know why they would have paid that much, but sometimes people do when they
already own another property next door or close by," he said. Valley declined to comment on
the purchase or its plans for the building, but one real estate broker suggested the hospital
might have been willing to overpay because of the location near other Valley facilities.
"There's no question they've had a commitment to that whole little corridor over there for
quite a while," said the broker, who does business in the area and insisted on not being
identified.
The museum was founded in 1992 by two local married physicians, Dr. Anne Sumers and
Dr. Elliott Sumers. Neither Anne Sumers, an ophthalmologist who practices at Valley, nor
her husband could be reached for comment. Calls to the museum weren't returned, and the
property's seller, Moshe Mousserie, declined to comment.
through the holding
Over the past two years, the Ridgewood hospital also has purchased
parcels
up to about2/z
adding
several adjacent
company 555 Maple Acquisition LLC
acres on North Maple Avenue, not far from the village's border with Ho-Ho-Kus and just
below 1Tz miles from the hospital. The properties, purchased for $8 million, include the
former Village Ford dealership, a former corset shop as well as a small storefront that once
housed a beauty salon and dry cleaner.
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-
A Ridgewood lawyer, Jay Friedrich, is part of the partnership that sold the former
dealership's property to Valley for $5.7 million. At one point, Friedrich said he and his
partners were looking to open a medical arts building on the site but dropped those plans
when Valley made an offer.
The North Maple Avenue site's zoning would permit physicians' offices, Friedrich said.
lmpact on tax base
There are potential repercussions of Valley's purchases that at least one local official,
Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn, is questioning.As a non-profit, the hospital could
eventually seek to have its new off-site holdings declared tax-exempt, which would be a hit
for the municipal budget.
"Clearly, I would have concerns with any property being taken off of our tax rolls by any
organization," Aronsohn said. He has asked village Tax Assessor Michael Barker about the
circumstances in which Valley could seek property tax exemptions for its new real estate
holdings in town.
Properties rolling off the tax rolls when a hospital like Valley buys real estate is "a legitimate
concern that you just don't hear enough about," said Andrew Somple, a senior vice
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president at NAI James E. Hanson, a Hackensack real estate firm.
The annual property taxes just for the office building on East Ridgewood Avenue that Valley
bought were $541,880 last year, according to village tax records. As a non-profit, Valley
doesn't pay taxes on its main campus, but it does pay them on the off-site properties in the
village, Barker said.
But Barker said, and pointed out to the mayor, that there are no guarantees Valley will
continue paying taxes on off-site locations in the future.
State law allows a series of local tax exemptions, including those for churches and
hospitals, if certain criteria are met, he said. lf Valley sought a similar exemption for its new
real properties, it would have to apply to him, Barker said.
On the other hand, Valley could make improvements to the properties that could result in
more taxes being paid to the communities.
Valley did not respond to questions about whether it would seek tax exemptions on any of
the properties.
Staff Witer Dave Sheingold contributed to this article.
North Jersey Media Group lnc.
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