By John Jordan
NEW HAMPTON, NY—The Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in New Hampton, which at one time was slated for closure, will in fact remain open and have its operations significantly expanded. The New York State Dormitory Authority on April 26 issued a bid to construct a new Forensic Hospital on the campus located off Route 17M.
The project has been valued at between $300 million to $310 million, according to the solicitation. The scope of the new replacement hospital (Base Building BP2) “includes all the sitework and building construction for a new 340,000-square-foot Inpatient Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, Central Utility Plant and Administrative Support spaces.”
The new hospital is to be built adjacent to the current occupied hospital property. Site clearing work has already commenced at the hospital campus. The facility was slated for closure by the State Department of Health under a consolidation plan released in 2013, but the DOH later reversed itself and announced it would remain open.
Back in December 2023 the Dormitory Authority put out to bid site clearing and HAZMAT abatement work in connection with the planned expansion project.
OCS Industries, Inc., of Poughkeepsie, was the lowest of six bidders at $5,869,950 for site work including HAZMAT Abatement at the project site at 2 River Road.
The Dormitory Authority has hired TDX Construction, which is headquartered in Purchase, NY, as the Construction Manager for the project.
The expansion project, a partnership between the Office of Mental Health and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, involves the design and construction of a new state of the art facility and will replace the existing outdated buildings located at 2834 NYS Route 17M that will later be redeveloped. The new building will feature 300 state-of-the-art forensic in-patient beds.
The proposed replacement forensic residential inpatient facility would be constructed on a mostly undeveloped, approximately 39-acre portion of MHFPC's existing, approximately 69-acre main campus. The proposed replacement facility would accommodate approximately 272 active patient beds with an additional 28 "swing" beds available when needed for a total of 300 beds, a 15-bed net increase over the existing facility.
The project would also include the construction of new municipal water and sewer connections to the City of Middletown's existing infrastructure, along Route 17M.
The second phase of the project will be built under a Project Labor Agreement reached between the state and the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council of Newburgh.
Todd Diorio, president of the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council, said that site-clearing work, which is part of the first phase has already commenced under the Project Labor Agreement. Diorio said of the $300-million replacement hospital project, “We have a good Project Labor Agreement that is good for both the State of New York and the Hudson Valley building trades.”
The New York State Dormitory Authority has scheduled a pre-bid meeting on May 15 at 10 a.m. at the 2834 Route 17M EA building in New Hampton. Proposals are due on June 20 at 2 p.m. The term of the contract ends in June 2028, according to the solicitation.
