Hartford HealthCare proposes $20 million facility in Mystic
Mystic — Hartford HealthCare announced Friday that it is seeking approval to construct a $20 million health center as part of phase three of the planned Perkins Farm development off Jerry Browne Road.
Since the 70-acre Perkins Farm project was first proposed, developer David Lattizori of Groton has said that a major part of the project would be a medical, research and office complex that would create hundreds of permanent jobs. While construction has begun on phase one, a $16.3 million project that includes 121-upscale apartments and infrastructure improvements, there had been no concrete details about phase three until Friday’s announcement.
The project’s approved master plan also calls for townhouse condominiums as part of phase two but those plans have not been submitted for site plan approval.
Hartford HealthCare is proposing to build a three-story, 47,000-square-foot facility that would include primary care, cardiology, imaging, rehabilitation, infusion services, a headache center, a movement disorders center, other neuroscience and specialty services, community education facilities and space for additional future offerings.
“This is very, very exciting news for the Town of Stonington," said First Selectman Rob Simmons, who has supported the project since its inception.
In a news release announcing the project, Jeffrey Flaks, Hartford HealthCare’s president and chief operating officer, said his organization is “very excited about the opportunity to provide shoreline residents more convenient access to world-class, high-quality health services."
“Our strategic investment in this important region will allow us to better coordinate care and aligns perfectly with Hartford HealthCare’s wide range of healthcare offerings along the shoreline — from Rhode Island to Old Lyme,” he said in the statement.
It also poses a challenge to Yale New Haven Health, with which Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London is affiliated, as well as numerous other health care facilities in the region, including ones in Mystic and Pawcatuck.
Hartford HealthCare also is building a 25,000-square-foot facility that will offer primary care, specialty care and physical rehabilitation services on the former Maple Breeze Park site on Route 2 in Pawcatuck. Hartford HealthCare also is affiliated with four hospitals in the state, including the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich.
“The Hartford HealthCare Health Center at Mystic will be the most state-of-the-art medical facility in southeastern Connecticut,” Lattizori said in the announcement. “The center is designed to take advantage of 21st century building materials, which will communicate to patients and the community that this is a world-class medical facility.”
On Friday, Lattizori submitted a site plan application to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which could hold a public hearing as early as January.
Earlier this year, residents approved $1.3 million in tax breaks over seven years for phase one, which Lattizori said would help offset some of the large infrastructure and other upfront costs he has expended over the past several years and pave the way for the second and third phases.
The project, located across the street from the StoneRidge retirement community, which has its own health care component, calls for preserving more than half the site for open space.
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