Get Me to Eatontown, Stat!

Next time your doctor recommends minor surgery or refers you to a specialist, you might find yourself at a doctor’s office right here in Eatontown.

If the latest application for a surgery center at Industrial Park in Eatontown is approved, it will join a growing group of doctors and medical facilities that have located in the borough recently.

Borough Administrator George Jackson attributes the growth in medical arts to Eatontown’s proximity to the three area hospitals: Monmouth Medical Center, Riverview Medical Center and Jersey Shore Medical Center. He also points to the lack of parking and office space available in Red Bank and Long Branch. This is good news for the borough during a dry spell for real estate and retail sales, especially, Jackson says, because medical facilities don't put much strain on municipal services. "They're good, clean uses," he said. 

Anna Mayer, a representative of the Donato Group, which operates many of the properties in Industrial Park, says she has seen it evolve over the last 27 years from manufacturing and warehouses, to software and hi-tech uses to defense contractors and now medical tenants.

After the announcement that Fort Monmouth would close in September, many of those defense contractors relocated, which opened up desirable office space, Mayer says, “and the medical (tenants) just started to pour in.”

One of those recent tenants is Garden State Spine and Pain Institute. The pain management center includes a medispa, accupuncture, chiropractic and physical therapy services, and occupies the entire 1,600-square-foot space at 7 Meridian Rd. in the park.

One of the other draws, says Mayer, who is also the administrator for the Eatontown Industrial Park Association and a member (along with Jackson) of Eatontown’s Economic Development Association, is the park's new buildings. The large spaces with open-floor plans and modern amenities are easier to tailor to the demands of medical uses.

Right now there is an application before the planning board to turn Donato Group’s headquarters building at 80 Corbett Way into a surgery center. If the application is approved, it will join Central Jersey Surgery Center, LLC at 97 Corbett Way.

“You know how car dealerships all like to be on the same road, well, medical practices like to associate with each other in the same area,” Mayer says. “They refer to each other; they feed each other.”  

Medical facilities are also popping up in unusual locations in the borough. Across from the new home of Ashley Furniture, Dr. John Clemente, a heart specialist, has located his practice in the former spot of Ethan Allen Furniture. 

The next meeting of the Eatontown Economic Development Association is June 7 at 3 p.m. at Eatontown Borough Hall and is open to the public. The Eatontown Planning Board meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of every month, excepting holidays, in Borough Hall, 47 Broad Street.