In the next three years, a 5-million-square-foot biomedical campus in downtown Phoenix will be constructed. It will include research and clinical groups from all three state universities as well as governmental and private firms. So far, one quarter of the campus has been built.
Construction on the first phase of the campus started 10 years ago. The latest structure is an eight-story, 1,200-space parking garage that will soon be filled with workers from the biomedical campus.
Phoenix Community and Economic Development Project Manager Jeremy Legg said this campus is going to benefit all Arizonans.
“It is going to improve clinical care and patient care in the state of Arizona," Legg said. "It’s going to come up with biomedical breakthroughs that serve the public health. It is to really just create this really great collaborative environment in our downtown where the entire the biomedical sector can work together to solve some of the great healthcare issues that we are all facing. It is really going to be both an economic engine as well as hopefully a health care solution center for the entire state.”
He describes the vast campus as a three-legged stool.
"You have an academic component in the way of all three state universities there educating future health care providers," said Legg. "You have the research component which is entities like TGen and IGC as well as U of A, and then you have the clinical component opening along with the cancer center where people will actually go and get treated by their physicians and other health care professionals."
At its peak, the project will employ hundreds of construction workers. When finished Legg estimates it will bring a $2 billion boost to Arizona’s economy. The Phoenix planning and development committee will review plans Tuesday for the parking garage scheduled to get underway in the next several weeks.
The committee will be hosting a community meeting 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Health Science building.