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A groundbreaking ceremony for a new Veterans Administration community health care clinic took place on May 16, 2022, and it will mark the end of years of effort to bring a new VA facility to Ocean County.
According to VA officials, the new 68,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building will be built and open in the spring of 2024.
Thousands of veterans in Ocean and Monmouth counties, as well as South Jersey, will benefit from the facility, which is located at 1051 Hooper Ave. near the intersection with Caudina Ave.
U.S. Reps. Chris Smith and Andy Kim and Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill were in attendance.
The James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic on Route 70 in Brick is one of the busiest in New Jersey, with between 10,000 and 12,000 visits per year. Brick's clinic is currently one of the busiest in the state, serving three to four times the number of patients as the bulk of other New Jersey VA facilities.
The Brick clinic provides general health care, dental treatment, women's health care, mental health counseling, and physical therapy to veterans. A 5,000-square-foot addition was built approximately a mile away on Route 88 in 2014.
Veterans have complained about the facility's lack of parking.
The new clinic in Toms River will be more than twice the size of the current one in Brick, with extra parking.
According to U.S. Census data, Ocean County has more veterans than any other county in New Jersey, with around 40,000.
Toms River and Brick have been competing for the new, larger clinic, and Toms River has designated the location off Hooper and Caudina as a redevelopment area to speed up the process.
Hill, a U.S. Navy veteran, has long contended that the Toms River location was the best choice for the new VA facility, claiming that it is close to restaurants and businesses and will provide veterans with quick access to county services.
