What You Need To Know
Hackensack Meridian Health has opened the first-in-the-nation comprehensive health and wellness center at a major transit hub. Hackensack Meridian’s Health & Wellness Center at Metropark, a $200 million project built alongside New Jersey Transit’s second busiest train station, with extended hours, offers patients the flexibility to pop in for a quick appointment before commuting to work, or after commuting home in the evening. The Health & Wellness Center also offers easy access to quality medical care for patients who rely on mass transit, in a highly suburban vehicular transit-reliant state.
With comprehensive health services at the transit hub and extended hours, Hackensack Meridian is making medical care much easier for the 60,000 commuters who go through Metropark Station each month. Services will include advanced imaging, urgent care plus, primary care, surgical specialties, medical specialties, retail pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, phlebotomy and more.
The Health & Wellness Center at Metropark expands on Hackensack Meridian Health’s broader effort to better serve patients by bringing together key network physicians and ambulatory services under one roof in easily accessible neighborhoods. In the last several years, Hackensack Meridian Health has opened outpatient care center locations across the state, including in Eatontown, Clark, Clifton and Paramus.
The Health & Wellness Center at Metropark is the first part in a broader plan by the state of New Jersey to redevelop Metropark Station and transform the area into a walkable destination for transportation, retail, living, working and receiving healthcare. When complete, the project will have housing, office space, retail space and the health and wellness center all within steps of the transit hub for both New Jersey Transit and Amtrak.
The development at Metropark is the first example of New Jersey Transit’s broader plan announced in October 2025 to generate additional non-fare revenue by utilizing its real estate portfolio for development.
Hackensack Meridian Health is also moving its network headquarters into the upper floors of the Iselin building, allowing the network to bring all its corporate employees previously spread across several buildings under one roof for greater convenience and collaboration.
Moving Hackensack Meridian Health headquarters directly to the Amtrak train station is also expected to allow HMH to further recruit top talent from across the entire Northeast Corridor, with employees easily able to commute from major cities, including New York and Philadelphia, along with its central location within New Jersey.
With wellness and sustainability top priorities at Hackensack Meridian Health, the Metropark building was constructed in a way that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also qualifies for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification.
Achieving this certification goes beyond air and water filters and energy efficiency. Hackensack Meridian Health focused on the environment our patients and team members would be seeking care and working in. Floor-to-ceiling windows and an open floor plan allow everyone to enjoy natural light. Small design details were focused on to improve mental health, happiness and calmness, including fractal patterns in light fixtures, carpets and other finishings throughout the space. Fractal patterns are geometric shapes that display self-similarity. Found extensively in nature, these patterns induce happiness and reduce stress by up to 60% by triggering "fractal fluency," a state where the brain effortlessly processes visual information. The Metropark building also includes an outdoor space for people to reflect and take a break to relax with a lot of greenery and plants around them.
The Hackensack Meridian Health & Wellness Centers across New Jersey are part of the network’s robust $3 billion investment in expanding access to quality care for patients across the state with new ambulatory care sites, Urgent Care Plus locations and extensive hospital expansion projects. A focus on continually raising the bar and innovating new ways to expand access and improve quality is how Hackensack University Medical Center became New Jersey’s only hospital ranked in the nation’s top 20 by U.S. News & World Report. The Health & Wellness Centers, along with the nearly $1 billion Helena Theurer at Hackensack University Medical Center and the more than $1 billion expansion of Jersey Shore University Medical Center, along with many other projects, are a direct investment in better outcomes, safer care, and the cures of tomorrow.
Photos of the Metropark Health & Wellness Center are available here, courtesy Hackensack Meridian Health.
Video and soundbites of the Metropark Health & Wellness Center are available here courtesy Hackensack Meridian Health.