Robert Wood Johnson
University Hospital Hamilton (RWJ Hamilton) has signed a lease with Burris
Construction Company, D.B.A. Burris Post Acute Network (Burris) to allow Burris to develop a short stay private
rehabilitation facility on RWJ Hamilton’s campus. Once construction is
complete, the post acute rehabilitation center will be operated and managed by
Genesis HealthCare.
“Our relationship
with Burris will continue to grow and strengthen the future of healthcare in
our region and in New Jersey,” said Anthony “Skip” Cimino, president and CEO of
RWJ Hamilton. Cimino also stated, “We know from past experience that Burris can
get the job done.”
The development of this new rehabilitation center will create over 150 jobs,
stimulate the Hamilton economy, and provide exciting opportunities for
collaboration between Genesis HealthCare and RWJ Hamilton. The facility will be
designed and constructed by Burris Post Acute Network and contain 110 private
suites to be constructed in two phases, and offer the latest services in post
acute rehabilitation.
Burris Chairman and CEO, William G. Burris stated, “The focus is on patient
comfort and convenience coupled with the most energy-efficient building.” With
more than 30 years of experience, Burris maintains an outstanding history of
construction and development throughout the Northeast and is no stranger to the
Hamilton Area. Burris added, “We are grateful for the opportunity as provided
by RWJ Hamilton and are excited to get to work.”
Burris is a proud member of both The Health Care Association of New Jersey
(HCANJ) and New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA).
The
"concept drawing" presented by city planner Robert Melvin to the
Woodbury City Council and the public on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. (Staff photo by
Jason Laday/South Jersey Times)
WOODBURY— City council on Tuesday voted 6-0 to
give final approval to a redevelopment plan for the long-vacant, former Woodbury Country Club, with the planning board expected to consider the site
plan next week.
The vote followed
a public hearing, during which city planner Robert Melvin, of the Camden-based
Group Melvin Design, presented an overview of the 34-page development plan, which would see three
health care facilities and 20 residential homes built on the 50-acre plot.
“This plan should
stay in place — it has the 20 residential lots, the three buildings and other
aspects,” said Woodbury Council President Bill Fleming. “This will be the
zoning overlay. Traffic and other concerns will be addressed at the
planning-board level.”
The developer,
William G. Burris is CEO of the Moorestown-based Burris Construction Co. His
previous project was the PowerBack Rehabilitation Center, operated by Genesis
HealthCare in Voorhees.
According to
Melvin, the plan for the former country club includes 20 homes on
20,000-square-foot lots, as well as an assisted living center with up to 100
beds, a long-term convalescent facility with approximately 60 beds and a
physical rehabilitation center with between 100 and 150 beds.
There will also be
15 acres of “public access space,” according to Melvin.
“This is a concept
drawing,” he said. “This plan codifies things like setbacks for parking lots,
lot sizes, buffers and things like that.”
Most resident
concerns about the plan have so far related to drainage, and how the new
facility will affect traffic on Cooper Street and Evergreen Avenue.
Melvin and city
officials said Tuesday that the planning board is set to address those aspects
of the plan in the coming weeks.
The shuttered Woodbury Country Club.Times file photo
WOODBURY — Officials Tuesday night announced what they hope will be the beginning of the end to the continuing struggle to redevelop the long-vacant Woodbury Country Club.
According to Council President William Fleming Jr., a developer has stepped forward expressing interest in building three health care facilities, as well as 20 homes, on the 50-acre plot, which previously was home to a golf course and club house.
The developer, William G. Burris, Jr., CEO of the Moorestown-based Burris Construction Company, first connected with the city’s economic development committee in January after speaking with officials at Underwood-Memorial Hospital.
“The developer specializes in health care facilities, and he was referred to us by Underwood, but at this point everything is conceptual,” said Fleming.
“There is no agreement with the city or the bank at this point,” he later added. “Although Burris does have a deposit with the bank.”
Parke Bank is the primary creditor and current owner of the property, which according to Fleming has at certain points since its closure been the home of everything from squatters to grass some three feet tall.
The land and country club on it have been vacant since club members filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Parke Bank purchased the property at sheriff’s sale in 2010. Burris’ previous project was the Powerback Rehabilitation Center, operated by Genesis Healthcare, on Route 73 in Voorhees. The 87,000-square-foot, 124-room rehabilitation center serves patients recently discharged from the hospital, and was designed to get them out of rehab in 15 to 30 days. Fleming along with Mayor Bill Volk said they toured the facility recently and gave the center positive reviews. “From the site plan, to the interior as well as the landscaping outside, I was really impressed,” said Fleming. “There are many convalescencent homes in New Jersey, but this one is different, more modern.” Volk added that he appreciated the center’s reliance on solar and hydroelectric power. As for Burris’ plans for the country club, Fleming said the developer is proposing three buildings — a rehabilitation center, a long-term convalescencent facility and a center for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Burris has also introduced the idea of constructing 20 homes with an approximate value of $500,000 to $600,000, Fleming said. However, the council president added it’s likely Burris’ company would farm out the home construction. “We know it’s not a golf course,” said Fleming, addressing residents at Tuesday night’s council meeting. “We’ve pursued bringing in another golf course, but none have come up successful. “We think this could be a good answer for the property and the city.” --- Contact Jason Laday at 856-686-3628 or jladay@southjerseymedia.com.
Burris Construction Company’s 3rd Annual Open House celebration will benefit the
construction of Percheron Park on Main Street in Moorestown. Come enjoy the Phillies vs. Indians game, feast on a ballpark banquet of
wine, beer, pig roast, a chance to win a 2013 Fiat, and more.
Enter to win a 2013 Fiat — Raffle tickets are $100 each, and only 350 tickets are being sold!
When: 5—10 PM | Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Where: 8 E. Main Street, Moorestown, NJ 08057
Cost: $50.00 tax-deductible
donation per person
For more information, to RSVP and make donation, or buy a raffle ticket, contact Kim Jordan at 856-439-6666.
Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Monday, November 19, 2012, 3:01 AM
As a designer and builder, William G. Burris Jr. clearly relishes details.
Demonstrating a recliner at a $30 million rehabilitation center under construction by his company in Voorhees, Burris explained the importance of the chair's control.
"Two positions. Back-up. Down-up. It doesn't take too much to figure out what to do here," he said.
By contrast, a popular recliner brand has eight buttons on the control and is "very confusing" for patients, said Burris, whose small Burris Construction Co. Inc. in Moorestown specializes in nursing homes and related health-care facilities.
The Voorhees project, nearing completion, is for Kennett Square nursing-home giant Genesis HealthCare Corp. The facility, with 124 private rooms, will house a new rehabilitation model, called PowerBack, for patients who have had joint replacements or heart problems and who are not ready to go straight home from the hospital.
Genesis was responsible for the clinical area's design, but the rest is Burris, said Paul Bach, a Genesis executive vice president and central-area president for the company in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
"Over our history, we've worked with a lot of different contractors, but Bill is the most knowledgeable person I've ever come across when it comes to thinking about patient-driven design elements," Bach said. "He incorporates them without a lot of added cost."
Burris, 57, did not start out with that touch.
His father, William G. Burris, who died this year, founded the company in 1975, he said.
Now with about 140 employees and a five-year backlog of work worth $260 million to $290 million, the firm initially concentrated on government work, mainly schools, Burris said.
"My father was insistent that we do that type of work because with municipal, state, county governments, school boards, you knew you were getting paid."
In the early 1980s, after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development started financing nursing homes 100 percent, Burris Construction shifted much of its business there.
But a contract to build a YMCA in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, in the late 1980s played a pivotal role for Burris Construction, which had worked on numerous projects with architectural plans that could not be executed within budget.
The Hamilton YMCA had a $3.2 million budget, but construction plans called for $5.2 million. Burris persuaded the YMCA board to let the company use its own architect.
"We were able to build it for $3.2 million," he said.
"It taught us that it should be an integrated process. This concept where construction is done and the parts are all removed from each other doesn't work."
Burris took what he learned and - with most of his employees in tow - went on to direct construction and development activities at two large senior-living companies.
First was Multicare Cos., which Genesis bought in 1997. From 1999 to 2009, Burris was executive vice president for construction and development at CareOne L.L.C. in Fort Lee, N.J., and a partner in a development entity with CareOne's owner, Daniel Strauss.
"My partner and I got a business divorce in 2009," said Burris, who then revived Burris Construction.
The goal was to start from scratch, "forget what we knew, and study what we didn't know. That's the real needs of the residents," Burris said.
He saw that all new hospitals had private rooms.
"If people are going to those hospitals with private rooms, what are they going to expect when they come to this level [of care]?" Burris asked.
Surveys of patients told him that the top complaints were the absence of a doctor for too much of the day and bad food. Genesis took care of the doctor, and Burris took care of the food by designing a kitchen capable of preparing meals to order.
"This is a room-service program like you would have in a hotel," Burris said. "Gone are the days where at 7:30 in the morning, we send tray lines out to 130 residents with whatever we think we can get away with feeding them."
Residents also complained about uncomfortable chairs in their rooms.
Patients get tired from working on rehabilitation, Burris said: "We wanted to make them as comfortable as we could."
