Major Expansion Plan at Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in Orange County Moves Forward

NEW HAMPTON—The New York State Dormitory Authority has released the first bid in connection with a planned major expansion at a psychiatric facility in Orange County that a decade ago was slated for closure. The project cost could approach more than $400 million.

CONSTRUCTION NEWS first reported that the Dormitory Authority recently issued a bid entitled “New Forensic Replacement Hospital and HAZMAT Abatement at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center in New Hampton (Orange County). 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.

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of New York, involves the design and construction of a new state-of-the-art facility and will replace the existing outdated buildings located at 2834 NYS Route 17M that will later be redeveloped.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.

On Dec. 12, the Dormitory Authority released a bid for Phase One of the project which will include building demolition, hazardous waste abatement, site preparation and site clearing utility work. A Pre-Bid meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan. 3) at the project site in New Hampton at 10 a.m. Proposals are due on Jan. 18, and it is anticipated that work on the first phase could begin in the spring of 2024.

The proposed project calls for an approximately 340,000-gross-square-foot replacement forensic residential inpatient facility that 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 Dormitory Authority has hired TDX Construction, which is headquartered in Purchase, NY, as the Construction Manager for the project. The development will be constructed by local labor.

Todd Diorio, president of the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council, confirmed that the project sponsors have finalized a Project Labor Agreement with the building trades on the project. He said that while no firm cost estimates for the entire project have been released, he believes the overall cost will range somewhere between $300 million to $450 million.