Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital has revived its long-delayed move to the Charlestown Navy Yard.
After Spaulding and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino first announced the move from Nashua Street to an unoccupied 3-acre plot in 2005, the project ground to a halt because of financing concerns. On Wednesday, the hospital re-started its permitting review, submitting an amended project plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Spaulding first filed paperwork to begin its regulatory reviews in 2006. But the project soon stalled as Spaulding’s finances tightened and the project’s estimated price tag ballooned from $160 million to a reported $220 million.
The new submission, filed with the BRA, details a slight reduction in size, to 132 inpatient beds from 150. Spaulding now plans an 8-story, 221,100 square-foot building, with 203 underground parking spaces, state of the art gymnasiums and therapy rooms, swimming pools, research space, radiology facilities, conference and meeting space, a pharmacy and ground-floor community space. Spaulding is also offering to extend the Harborwalk along the harbor frontage of its new home.
The hospital now anticipates an occupancy date of 2012.
Officials from Spaulding’s parent, Partners Healthcare, could not immediately be reached for comment.
"Spaulding’s relocation to the Charlestown Navy Yard, where there is already a life sciences presence, will allow them to create a state-of-the-art center so they can continue to provide top-rate services," said BRA Director John F. Palmieri. "It’s our hope that the redevelopment of this parcel will spur further redevelopment of the other Yard’s End parcels in the CNY."
