Expands Therapies to Enhance Treatment of Patients in the Community

Bronx, NY, October 26, 2022 – Burke Rehabilitation announced the expansion of its therapy services with the opening of a new site at 1250 Waters Place at Simone Development Companies’ Hutchinson Metro Center in the Bronx. Burke held a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 18 to mark the relocation and expansion of services previously provided at 2826 Westchester Avenue, another Simone Development property, where Burke had been a tenant since 2007.

Attending the ribbon cutting were Dr. Philip Ozuah, Montefiore President and CEO, and elected officials representing the Bronx, including NYS Assembly member Michael Benedetto and NYC Council member Marjorie Velazquez. Scott Edelman, Burke’s Interim Executive Director, and Dr. Mooyeon Oh-Park, SVP and Chief Medical Officer of Burke, were joined by Montefiore physicians, Burke leadership, and therapists to celebrate the opening.

The new facility more than doubles the size of Burke’s former location and provides over 5,000 square feet of brightly lit and open space, outfitted with the latest technologies. Ample patient parking is available. The facility offers five private treatment rooms, including a designated occupational therapy area. In addition to physical and occupational therapy, the site provides speech and swallowing therapy. The new long-term lease brings Burke Rehabilitation to more than 13,000 square feet on the 6^th and 10^th floors of the Hutchinson Metro Center’s Tower 1.

“The new therapy space at Hutch Metro will allow us to continue to provide excellent multidisciplinary rehabilitative care in a more spacious and comfortable environment,” said Site Supervisor Jonathan Mroz. “We have added several new pieces of equipment which will be utilized in providing rehabilitation for our growing number of neurologically involved patients. This new location will allow Burke to better serve the rehabilitative needs of the Bronx community by providing access to the same exceptional level of care available at our flagship outpatient location in White Plains.”

Some additional features include:

• Two oversized hi-low treatment tables
• Body weight support track system to be used for ambulation, balance, and transfer activities
• Two sets of high-low parallel bars for balance and gait training activities
• BITS balance system
• RT Xcite – a device that utilizes mild electrical stimulation to engage atrophied muscles

“We are thankful to Burke Rehabilitation for their continued trust in the relationship with Simone Development at the Hutchinson Metro Center and beyond,” said Joseph Simone, president of Simone Development Companies. “The property’s convenient location and Class A amenities make the campus a highly sought-after destination for some of the region’s leading medical, office, educational and retail tenants.”

Tower One at 1250 Waters Place is part of Simone’s Hutchinson Metro Center and offers prime office and retail space, including amenities ranging from fitness and conference centers to abundant free and valet parking and 24/7 security. In addition to Burke Rehabilitation, the Hutchinson Metro Center is home to various medical offices including Montefiore Medical Center, Affinity Health Plan, and NY Presbyterian Medical Group, to name a few.

Burke Rehabilitation is a not-for-profit healthcare organization devoted solely to acute physical rehabilitation. Its main campus is located in White Plains, NY. Founded in 1915 through an endowment from philanthropist John Masterson Burke, it has been a member of the Montefiore Health System since 2016. Burke operates the only hospital in Westchester County dedicated solely to adult and adolescent rehabilitation medicine. Burke also offers therapeutic care in locations throughout Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and the Bronx for those who have experienced injuries, surgery, or chronic conditions, from the simple to the very complex. For additional information, visit www.burke.org  or to schedule an appointment at Burke Hutch Metro 6, call (718) 515-2400.

Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies said more outdated malls in U.S. suburbs will become targets of retail-to-medical conversion.

“As the suburbs mature, the proportion of senior citizens—the biggest medical services consumers—increases, so healthcare providers are scrambling to identify high-traffic locations with ample parking. In many cases, the ideal locations are shopping centers with low occupancy,” said Joseph Simone, President of Simone Development Companies.

Fortune magazine recently noted that 32 enclosed malls nationwide house healthcare services as part of their footprint. Nearly a third of the malls’ medical transformations have been announced since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the magazine noted.

Converting foundering shopping centers into medical destinations makes sense for many suburbs built in the 1970s where young families with children no longer predominate. Centereach, N.Y. is one community that saw its population explode in the 1970s.

Changing demographics in Centereach led Simone Development Companies to consider new uses for its retail building. After a market analysis, Simone Development Companies—a retail-to-medical conversion specialist—recently broke ground on Catholic Health Ambulatory & Urgent Care. The new complex will house a multi-specialty practice featuring primary care, women’s health, behavioral health, cardiology, neurosciences, orthopedics, and several other services.

The development will transform a 63,000-square-foot former Ocean State Job Lot retail store located at 2112 Middle Country Road into a new healthcare facility. Catholic Health will lease the new building from Simone and plans to open in the Spring of 2023.

“Throughout the New York metropolitan area, we are seeing health networks announce new conversions of former retail buildings. We will work closely with some of these expanding networks to identify the best locations and secure smooth conversions,” said Joanna Simone, Principal and President of Leasing and Property Management Operations at Simone Development Companies.

Joseph Simone of Simone Development Companies says that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) focus on behavioral health will drive the design of new healthcare facilities.

“There is a growing understanding about the relationship between mental health and physical health, which is causing these two disciplines to converge at primary care facilities,” said Joe Simone, President of Simone Development Companies. “This growing combination of mental and physical practitioners in one location challenges healthcare real estate builders to create spaces that foster relaxation and psychological wellness for patients and healthcare workers.”

Earlier this year, CMS outlined its behavioral health strategy that included access to prevention and treatment services for substance abuse, mental health services, crisis intervention and pain care. The agency’s goal is to enable care that is well-coordinated and effectively integrated.

Healthcare real estate developers must now consider medical offices with deinstitutionalized environments that are homelike with access to daylight, the outdoors, and positive distractions.

Simone Development Companies’ development of medical offices at the Boyce Thompson Center in Yonkers, N.Y. anticipated this deinstitutionalization. Waiting rooms are relaxing spaces in a historic building adaptively reused for restaurants, retail and medical. The Boyce Thompson Center’s design allowed one tenant—WESTMED, a Summit Health Company—to offer behavioral health services.

“Behavioral health challenges medical builders to consider psychology and mental wellness in their projects,” said Joanna Simone, Principal and President of Leasing and Property Management Operations at Simone Development Companies. “The successful delivery of behavioral health services at our Boyce Thompson Center demonstrates that thoughtful and compassionate builders can create safe spaces that calm and reassure vulnerable patients.”

Simone Development Companies is a full-service real estate investment company specializing in the acquisition and development of healthcare, mixed-use, office, industrial, retail, and residential properties. Headquartered at the Hutchinson Metro Center, it boasts a portfolio of over 7 million square feet throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Westchester County, Orange and Fairfield Counties and New Jersey. With services spanning acquisition, development, construction, finance, asset management, accounting, leasing and property management, Simone Development Companies is set apart by its vertically integrated management team, long-term asset ownership and its pursuit of visionary development.