"We are designing the new facility so that we will be well-equipped and ready to implement continuing, important changes as soon as they become available to patients," says Jack Chamberlin chairman of the group's board of trustees. "The improvements are part of our continuing effort to redefine care."

The project will also trigger a series of property sales, beginning with the 160-acre site targeted for the new facility. PHCS is under contract to buy that site, which fronts Route 1, from FMC Corp. The two companies declined to disclose the sale price pending conclusion of the deal, but a source with knowledge of the negotiations puts that price in the $60-million range.

"After considering 18 locations, we chose the site for a number of reasons," says PHCS president/CEO Barry Rabner. "Those reasons included proximity to our current location - about three miles, as well as ease of access, buildability and strategic and market considerations."

FMC, a Philadelphia-based chemical products maker, operates a research center on the property, and is expected to maintain a presence there even after the sale is completed. According to Rabner, PHCS is working on a deal that would have FMC lease space on the property and continue its current research.

PHCS, meanwhile, has signed a letter of agreement to sell its existing medical center to Lubert-Adler Management Inc., a Philadelphia-based developer. The latter, which has a track record of major redevelopment projects, apparently plans to do the same with the property.

"The location is likely to be a multi-use site, with residential development as our primary focus," says Lubert-Adler principal Gerald Ronon. "It may include some community-focused retail, office space and affordable housing. We are committed to understanding the community's interests and to following its master plan concepts."

The third possible sale involves two other properties the hospital owns in the region. PHCS officials say they are talking to Princeton University about the latter buying a rehab and nursing-care facility on nine acres on Route 206, as well as a two-acre site currently in use as a parking lot next to the existing medical center. University officials say they are looking at the two properties for new university-related housing.

The new medical center of 800,000 sf will be expandable to 1.2 million sf, under plans drawn up by hospital officials. The integrated campus will house a new 269-bed hospital and medical offices, and will provide on-site inpatient and outpatient medical and surgical services. According to Rabner it will take about three years to complete the new facility once all approvals are in place and ground is broken, with a tentative outside date of 2010.