Industry News

The University of Iowa will begin construction in late 2012 on the new $271 million Children’s Hospital in Iowa City. Consolidating pediatric medical care in a single location, the eight-story facility will include a 195-bed tower featuring larger patient rooms, play areas, and a children’s theater. Completion is expected in early 2015. The project is a part of a 10-year, $1.1 billion expansion plan.

Macquarie University will build the $108 million Australian Hearing Hub in Sydney. The medical research, teaching, and training facility will house the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, and the Shepherd Centre. The building will support research and treatment for hearing and speech-related disorders.

The Medical Center of the Americas is in the design stage in El Paso, Texas. Created by a consortium of academic and industry partners including the University of Texas and Texas Tech, the planned 140-acre biomedical research complex will support commercialization of pharmaceutical therapies. The first phase of the project will include construction of an 80,000-sf facility on 10 acres in central El Paso. A subsequent phase of construction will deliver two additional buildings at the site.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is planning to build a $22 million biomanufacturing facility in Fall River, Mass. The building will be the first facility in a proposed 300-acre biotechnology park.

Southeast Missouri State University opened the $100,000 Beef Research Facility in Gordonville in February of 2011. Part of the David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center, the center will act as a living laboratory for meat production science and DNA sequencing for selective breeding. The project was funded in part by a grant from the Department of Agriculture and represents a collaborative partnership with the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Missouri Extension. The facility houses animal holding pens adjacent to a research farm.