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Bioscience
Move Over, Scripps
Over five years the University of Miami will spend nearly $700 million growing its downtown medical campus into what officials hope will become the state's premier health science research center, a nexus for both attracting and spawning biotech firms.
Opening this year is a 336,000-sq.- ft. clinical research institute; in 2007, a 182,000-sq.-ft. biomedical research institute. In 2010, the school will open its first hospital. Those projects will bring 1,000 jobs at an average salary of $60,000.
University and city officials also are touting a second phase, including a 1.4 million-sq.-ft., $722-million bioscience center and three labs in the city's newly christened "Health District," that would create more research space there than Palm Beach County will have with Scripps. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz pegs it as a cornerstone of economic vitality. The bioscience center is projected to bring 5,000 jobs with an annual salary impact of $263 million.
The Health District, long known as the Civic Center, is one of the city's drearier neighborhoods. City and university leaders hope to add green space, revamp public transportation and encourage more residential and retail development -- carrots to lure medical and biotech professionals to live near their workplaces.
UM Vice President for Real Estate and Facilities Sergio Rodriguez says the Health District's location, minutes from a major transportation center and with access to existing research infrastructure and expertise, will make it a major player for health science research. "We have a unique opportunity here in Miami," says Rodriguez. "The pieces are all in place."
