Get a look inside Garden State Veterinary Specialists' new high-tech Eatontown home

EATONTOWN - Now celebrating its 30th year, Garden State Veterinary Specialists, the 24-hour emergency and specialty care hospital for pets, has something it really didn't have before.

Space.

In January, the hospital moved from its 12,000-square-foot building on Pine Street in Tinton Falls to its new high-tech hospital at 246 Industrial Way West in Eatontown. The new one-story 51,000-square-foot hospital is 325% larger than its old home.

"It's going great," said Dr. Thomas D. Scavelli, the founder and director of Garden State Veterinary Specialists. "It's a big change from having not only a lot more space, but a lot more facilities and a lot more technology than we had before."

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Scavelli founded Garden State Veterinary Specialists in 1994 as a referral-only veterinary hospital with specialists to handle cases in areas such as surgery, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, oncology and internal medicine, as well as emergencies.

With specialty care limited outside of areas like New York City and Philadelphia or at universities, Scavelli saw a need to locate a specialty hospital in suburban New Jersey.

"I started literally by myself as a single surgeon practitioner with a few technicians and a receptionist and then organicaly grew it over the next 10 to 12 years, adding other specialists and all the other disciplines," he said.

Garden State Veterinary Specialists has grown into a company with 28 veterinarians in multiple disciplines, about 20 emergency veterinarians and 200 support staff. It also has hospitals on Route 9 in Woodbridge and Staten Island.

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'We were just crushed for space'

"As we grew over the years, we added more services," said Patricia Smillie-Scavelli, the hospital's administrator and Dr. Scavelli's wife. "We were just crushed for space."

In 2022, Garden State Veterinary Specialists chose to move to Eatontown and take over offices formerly used by a drug company, which left during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was all desks, miles and miles of desks," Smillie-Scavelli said. "It was all broken down to a complete shell."

Even the cement floor was removed to make way for the electricity, pipes and water needed for a veterinary hospital, she said.

With all services on one floor and plenty of parking, the new space was exactly what the hospital needed.

The Pine Street office had just seven exam rooms. The new facility has 24.

For instance, in the old hospital, four internists shared one ultrasound room and a room for endoscopy. Now each service, such as internal medicine, has its own suite, Smillie-Scavelli said.

'Faster recovery, less painful recovery'

Garden State Veterinary Specialists has added sports medicine, rehabilitation and a suite for dentistry, Thomas Scavelli said.

There's also a new suite where surgeons can perform operations without making big incisions. It is the "future to do less invasive surgery (with) faster recovery, less painful recovery," Scavelli said.

The hospital also has new MRI and CT scan equipment, and the latest technology for radiation oncology called a linear accelerator. The new machine allows veterinarians to use pinpoint radiation to target a tumor and spare healthy tissue, Scavelli said.

Over the years, pets have become an integral presence in the home.

"They have a special place in their family," Smillie-Scavelli said. Families "now are seeking specialized care. They want to go and do more. They wanted the opportunity to do more advanced medicine for their pets."

David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business, retail, real estate and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for 27 years. He writes APP.com's What's Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com. Please sign up for his weekly newsletter and join his What's Going There page on Facebook for updates.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Get a look inside Garden State Veterinary Specialists' new high-tech Eatontown home