Officials from Wexford Science and Technology, Arizona State University, Ventas Inc. and the city of Phoenix celebrated the groundbreaking of a new Phoenix Biomedical campus expansion near the southwest corner of Garfield and Fifth streets on Thursday.
The $77 million and 200,000 square-foot facility is Wexford Science and Technology’s 13th project and the first public-private development on the Phoenix Biomedical campus. Wexford is a private research company that focuses on partnering with universities and other institutions to build mixed-use projects.
“This is a true effort between the city of Phoenix, Arizona State University and Wexford Science and Technology. This is a true public-private partnership to bring the next project on the Phoenix Biomedical campus out of the ground,” said Christine Mackay, Phoenix Community and Economic Development director.
ASU is the anchor tenant of the building, leasing out half of the building for a medical research lab.
“This Wexford facility is a fantastic partnership for us because it empowers our College of Health Solutions; College of Nursing and Health Innovation, which is on this campus; the University of Arizona College of Medicine; the NAU programs and Allied Health,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “All of this energy that’s here on the Phoenix Biomedical campus creates more creative critical mass. That’s what we’re after.”
Peter Bulgarelli, the executive vice president of Ventas Inc., said the development aims to help ASU reach its goals, including establishing the school as a leading global center for research by 2025. Ventas is a real estate investment trust company that is also partnered with Wexford in developing ASU’s research and innovation.
“We hope that this campus will be a key element in creating a global center for interdisciplinary research, discovery and development … by providing capital for ASU we hope that students, researchers and professionals will be free to devote themselves to creating public value,” Bulgarelli said.
The city of Phoenix has 4.2 million square feet of research and patient care buildings in development over the next 24 months, which will create more than 7,000 jobs, according to Mackay.
“This becomes a project in which private capital is put to work. Private capital generates jobs, income, wealth and positive outcome,” Crow said. “These are not projects that are driven by the government; these are projects that are enabled by the government and driven by the market.”
About 40 or 50 percent of the jobs created in the Wexford Science and Technology Phoenix Biomedical building will not require a four-year degree, according to James Berens, founder and CEO of Wexford Science and Technology.
“Beyond ASU graduates, which are outstanding, we’re working with the Phoenix Union Bioscience High School and Gateway Community College to create opportunity for the rest of the town,” said Berens.
Berens said the company has high expectations about the results of the partnership.
“Wexford is all in creating this knowledge community here in downtown Phoenix. What we mean by ‘all in’ is that obviously we’re excited, we’re committed, and we have a high level of confidence this is going to be successful,” Berens said. “So confident that yesterday we did start the design pre-development work for the second building.”
The Phoenix Biomedical campus started as an idea in the late 1980s and early 1990s and more than $600 million has been invested in it since its establishment in the early 2000s, according to the city of Phoenix.
“We look forward to expanding on our biomedical campus, connecting it further into the community and creating that innovation zone of the Phoenix core that surrounds this area,” said Mackay.
The Phoenix Biomedical campus currently houses 1.5 million square-feet of academic research and clinical space and is expected to support up to 6 million square feet when fully developed, according to a Ventas Inc. press release.
The building is expected to open in late 2020.
Contact the reporter at jpbeltra@asu.edu.
