Phoenix Biomedical Campus drives Growth in Education and Jobs
Scanning the downtown Phoenix skyline, it is hard to miss its newest addition reminiscent of a shiny new penny along Seventh Street, just north of Van Buren Steet.
That large, copper-clad structure is the Health Sciences Education Building and it is now open and occupied by staff from the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus (PBC). These dedicated professionals are gearing up to prepare a new generation of medical doctors, physical therapists and physicians assistants to tackle tomorrow’s healthcare issues.
Arizona has a shortage of these professionals and this new state-of-the-art facility will allow the community to recruit, train and graduate more healthcare specialists to fill this void.
Now, all three state universities have a presence on the PBC. With other PBC tenants like Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), the International Genomics Consortium, the National Institutes of Health, Barrow Neurological Institute, BioAccel and VisionGate, the PBC is an economic and bioindustry engine for the city and state.
How did this all come about? Joyce Grossman, formerly with Phoenix CEDD and now the Executive Director of the Arizona Association for Economic Developers, visited with the University of Arizona in 2001 while conducting a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) visit. These visits are an opportunity for CEDD staff to engage with local businesses and schools in an informal setting to discuss their upcoming plans, find ways the city can assist and also learn more about their particular industry and any trends they are seeing. “The U of A indicated that the population base in Tucson was not sufficient to support the type of research to be conducted by the project. Our team suggested that Phoenix had the population mass and they should consider using our city as the site” remembers Grossman.
To ensure the continued growth and success of the PBC, the Phoenix City Council recently adopted an updated Master Plan. The Master Plan will guide future development that is complimentary to existing campus uses and the surrounding community, and at the same time will ultimately deliver approximately six million square feet of clinical, research and academic development at build out with a $2 billion annual economic impact.
Now that the Health Sciences Education Building is complete, development on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus won’t slow down. Additional university research facilities are currently under construction, and design is underway for the Phoenix Biomedical Research Center, the University of Arizona Cancer Center and a parking structure to serve the PBC.
Contact The City of Phoenix Staff to learn more about the PBC and leasing or development opportunities