NEW BRUNSWICK -- The Ronald McDonald House of New Brunswick received $600,000 from McDonald's NY Tri-State Owner/Operators on Tuesday, the largest donation to the facility to date. Middlesex County's first Ronald McDonald House, which provides low-cost lodging to families of hospitalized children, is under construction on Somerset Street. The three-story, six-bedroom house is expected to be complete by spring.

The $1.8 million house, one of only three in the state, will be operated by the Ronald McDonald House of Long Branch. Another house is in Camden near Cooper University Medical Center. Houses are located near pediatric medical centers worldwide.

Architectural plans call for a Colonial-style building with a wrap-around porch. The house will feature six private rooms and offer guests a dining room, kitchen, playroom, library and outdoor playground.

It will be across the street from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and down the block from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Bruce Newman, senior vice president of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Foundation, attended the check presentation Tuesday. The foundation donated the land and $250,000 for the 9,000-square-foot building. The Long Branch house also has given $250,000. The balance will be financed through bank loans and fund-raisers, he said.

The loans will be repaid within five years, said Barry Shapiro, treasurer of the Ronald McDonald House board of trustees.

"That's been our history in other houses," he said.

There is space on the property to add six additional bedrooms, if needed.

The hospital tried unsuccessfully to gain approval for a Ronald McDonald House 10 years ago. But the opening of the Children's Hospital last March and the increasing number of pediatric cancer patients at the Cancer Institute convinced McDonald's officials to give approval.