Touro College Adds More Dorms

MIDDLETOWN — More dormitories have been opened for the growing student body at the Middletown Campus of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The City of Middletown Planning Board gave Brooklyn-based Danza Leser Group LLC the green light last month to build 10 additional student dormitories at 27-31 Ridge St. The 4,355-square-foot former office space is right next to the college. Students began moving in in late July and the building is already at capacity, a student at the dorm said Tuesday.

The Danza Leser Group, which owns the former hospital on Prospect Avenue that hosts Touro College, also owns the Ridge Street property.

Kenneth Steier, executive dean of Touro College, said the roughly 160 existing dormitories inside the main campus have been filling up, and there’s currently a waiting list of 10 to 20 students. About half of the students live on campus, Steier said.

The Middletown Campus of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine opened in July of 2014, after a $25 million renovation of the former Horton Hospital, where the college currently takes up about 120,000 square feet.

Steier said the recent addition of a master’s program added about 80 students to the college. There’s also the potential to add programs for nursing and physical and occupational therapy that could lead to further expansion, though those plans aren’t certain yet.

“As we continue to grow, the need may grow. The more programs we have, the more dorms we’ll need,” Steier said. “We’re still in our growing phase.”

More activity is planned for the former hospital. Tony Danza, CEO of the Danza Leser Group, said plans announced in March for the nonprofit Middletown Community Health Center to move into about 40,000 square feet of the campus are still in the works. He said MCHC is working to line up financing.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” Danza said.

 

August 9, 2016 | Source

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