February 25, 2000

To address the need for more space at the hospital, the MGH has begun a planning process for building a new ambulatory care building and parking facility using part of the Charles Street Jail site.

Preliminary plans call for the jail site to be divided into two sections. One half of the jail site will be used for the new ambulatory care building and an underground parking facility that will accommodate approximately 600 vehicles. The other half, which includes the jail structure, will be developed for commercial use, such as a hotel, retail or residential space.

The first phase of the ambulatory care building project will involve erecting a structure over the recently built Northeast Proton Therapy Center, which will offer approximately 180,000 square feet of additional space. The second phase of the project will include demolishing the Vincent Burnham Kennedy and Clinics buildings and constructing in their place a 200,000-square-foot building with an expanded basement for operational support. Although not part of the current construction project, the area above the underground parking garage represents a future development site for the hospital, so the garage will be designed to provide structural support for an additional building.

The estimated cost of the project is $180 million, which includes $125 million for the two-phase building, $21 million for the underground garage and $34 million to renovate space that will be vacated when people and programs move into the new building. At least one-third of the project cost is dependent on new fundraising efforts. The entire project is expected to be completed in 2006.

"Currently, our patients are experiencing unacceptable delays and inconveniences in receiving their outpatient care," says Michael Jellinek, MD, MGH senior vice president for Administration. "We need to replace our outmoded buildings and add some new facilities. Ambulatory facilities on the main campus are filled to capacity, and the MGH's outpatient programs continue to experience significant growth. Given the ongoing migration of inpatient care to the outpatient setting, this trend is likely to continue."

The MGH acquired the Charles Street Jail site in 1991 as part of a transaction that involved selling land on Nashua Street to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the construction of the new Suffolk County Jail facility. The five-story, granite Charles Street Jail structure, which was completed in 1851, is listed on both the national and state Register of Historic Places.

During the past two years, as on-campus space became tighter and the need for complementary functions such as hotel rooms and conference space grew, planning for the reuse and redevelopment of the jail site moved ahead.

The hospital soon will begin the permitting process with city and state regulatory agencies. In addition, the hospital will issue a request for expressions of interest to developers for the commercial part of the site. The MGH also will continue to work closely with the Mass Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) to integrate plans for renovating the Charles/MGH Station with the development of the site. The hospital has committed $2.5 million toward the modernization of the station.

"Development of the Charles Street Jail site is a wonderful opportunity," Jellinek says. "The MGH will work with the community, our staff and patients, the MBTA and the legislature to create what will be a very special gateway to the hospital, to Beacon Hill and to the city of Boston."