The revitalization fund made Cooper's expansion possible, Norcross said. Otherwise, "Cooper Hospital would have undoubtedly expanded much faster in the suburbs."
For the first time, Cooper pays a $247,000 "service charge" to the city. Such charges were mandated for some tax-free recipients of recovery funds, and although the money doesn't go to schools, it funds city services. Cooper is spending $600 million on expansion. The only city redevelopment plan currently being pursued is connected to Cooper, and most of the recovery money devoted to buying vacant city buildings for redevelopment is for the neighborhoods next to the hospital. There are 265 properties to be bought and held for developers.
Cooper is luring its staff to live near the hospital in new housing, including 94 mostly market-rate units funded with $3.6 million in recovery dollars. And thanks to Corzine's executive order last summer, Cooper is opening a four-year medical school in conjunction with Rowan University. That project is eligible for a $9 million recovery check.
Norcross said he considered taking a new Cooper Cancer Institute to the suburbs, but saw "the success that was taking place, and the momentum."
Such momentum, proponents say, paves the way for unrelated projects on the horizon - the demolition of Riverfront State Prison, and the possible extension of Camden's rail line to Gloucester County.
Still no new jobs
Meanwhile, almost nothing is happening on the recovery's top goal, job growth, and not much was happening before the recession, either.
The only Camden sector growing jobs is health care, according to state labor statistics.
